All-Star Game Selections: Who was Snubbed?
Greetings, sports lovers. This episode is about baseball and more importantly, the recent All-Star Game selections that were shown today. I have no complaints with the majority of this list, but there are still some players that I feel like should have made the All-Star Game. This article is for me to put my displeasure into words about just how angry I am about Andrew Abbott, Juan Soto and Trea Turner did not make the All-Star Game
Let's start with Andrew Abbott. I have started to take notice of just how good he has been recently, and I expressed it in the article {Why hasn't anyone taken notice to Andrew Abbott yet?}. So, it was extremely surprising that Matthew Boyd and Clayton Kershaw both were ahead of him in the National League pitcher selections. I mean, Abbott has a 7-1 record with a 2.15 ERA and a 1.08 WHIP. If that's not All-Star worthy, then I don't know what is. Also, I have a bone to pick with whoever made the decision to put Clayton Kershaw into the All-Star Game. Yes I am aware that he just achieved the 3,000 strikeout milestone and also is a first-ballot Hall of Famer, but his glory days are past him. He also only has nine starts this season, which is six less than Abbott.
The second guy that I think was snubbed from the All-Star Game was Juan Soto. If it feels odd that I am defending the player that just got a $765 million dollar contract in the offseason and is one of the most well-known players in the sport, well that's because it is. Nevertheless, Soto is still putting up numbers on the Mets. Statistically speaking, he is the best offensive player in the National League as he is first in oWAR with 4.0. It would be absurd to snub the best offensive player in the league from the All-Star Game, and it is. But if you're looking at the All-Star outfielders in the National League and wondering "which player is playing worse than Juan Soto?" then we've got your back. The easy answer is Fernando Tatis Jr, who Soto is beating in AVG, OPS, SLG, OBP, RBI, R, and home runs.
The third and final player that we believe was snubbed from the All-Star Game this season was Trea Turner. Turner has always been extremely good at getting hits and stealing bases, and he has shown that so far this season. He leads the National League in hits with 108, and also has 22 stolen bases to go alongside that. Lindor and Elly de la Cruz have been excellent shortstops this season, but Turner has been playing just as good if not better than them, and he deserves it just as much.
There are all of these problems with the All-Star Game selection process, and our number one solution: Get rid of fan voting. It just turns into the big market teams getting their players in such as Clayton Kershaw over Andrew Abbott, or even with the All-Star starters. We all know that James Wood deserved to get the starting nod, but instead Ronald Acuna Jr. gets it over him. It really is a very simple solution to a huge problem in the game.