Yesterday, I was sitting and watching some Around the Horn and they had a tab of conversation/debate on Strasburg being selected into the All-Star game. Should he be selected to pitch for the NL in the All-Star game? 3 of the remaining debaters said "yes" he should pitch an inning or two for the fans and because he will strengthen the NL pitching squad.
Now I'm an avid fan of Strasburg (aren't we all), and I even have him on my Fantasy team. But there were 15 pitchers in last year's NL All-Star team and I'd like to believe there there are 15 pitchers that deserve to pitch in that game before Strasburg. Not to take anything away from the young phenom but he simply has not pitched enough innings to qualify for such an honor, and overall pitching this year has stumped the past years of pitches. Rhett Bollinger of MLB.com wrote an article showing how the ERA of this year's pitching was as low as 1992--pitchers are dominating the field once again (there is a plausible correlation to the steroid era). http://colorado.rockies.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20100620&content_id=11417974&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb.
Before Strasburg is even mentioned as an All-Star nominee, I'd think you have to put the following in;
(1) Ubaldo Jiminez (obviously--the Cy Young candidate, the best pitcher in baseball right now)
(2) Josh Johnson (ERA is 1.80; no further explanation is needed)
(3) Adam Wainwright (Second most amount of innings pitched, more than 100 K's, and tied for second place with amount of wins, 10-4 record, oh and he has an ERA of 2.23)
(4) Roy Halladay (Most innings pitched, as always. And don't let his record of 8-6 fool you, he still has an ERA of 2.43 and is still the most dominant pitcher in the past half-dozen years)
(5) Matt Cain (Might not have as many strike outs as the other top-guns, but he certainly gets the job done with an ERA of 2.16 after more than a hundred innings of work)
(6) Tim Lincecum (Back to back Cy Young winner who maintains dominance with his "freak"-style of pitching. With him and Cain, I still wonder how the Giants are a game and a half behind the Padres for 1st in the NL West)
(7) Chris Carpenter (8-1 record with a 2.83 ERA and 88 K's in over 100 innings of pitching)
(8) Yovani Gallardo (6-3 record might not be as eye catching than 8-1, but he has a 2.59 ERA and has struck out more than a 100 batters, only Lincecum, Haren and Weaver have more strike-outs)
(9) Mike Pelfrey (9-2 record and a save for good luck. He has been mentioned in NY sports radio as the Ace of the team over Santana. He has a 2.69 ERA and has been one of the main factors as to why the Mets are one of the hottest teams the past month. Excluding his last start--he went 5 wins in 6 starts and brought his ERA from 3.14 to 2.39)
(10) Jaime Garcia (The unsung hero of the Cardinals, the 3rd pitcher in their rotation after Wainwright and Carpenter--has an ERA of 1.79! The only reason I dropped him down to number 10 is because he pitches five or six innings and goes seven once in a while. He doesn't go too deep into games and doesn't strike out many, but he never gets bombed. He gave up 3 earned runs in one game this season, that has been the most earned runs he's given up this year. He has a 7-3 record and a 2-1 strikeout to walk ratio.)
(11) Evan Meek (He is a relief pitcher for the Pirates and he has pitched 40 innings with an ERA of 0.68 and a WHIP of 0.83; when your ERA is lower than your WHIP, it means you are loading the bases every time you get up to pitch or that you know how to close out innings without handing runs--it's definitely the latter for this guy. For such an atrocious baseball team, Evan has maintained and excelled in his job of relief pitching and I think he deserves to be recognized for that!)
(12) Brian Wilson (The Closer for Giants has 20 saves with an ERA of 2.05, and 42 K's in 30 innings--he is definitely one of--if not the top closer in the NL)
(13) Billy Wagner (5-0 with 14 saves and an ERA of 1.23; he is dominant. Wagner is pitching better for the Braves than he ever pitched for the Mets, and this is definitely an All-Star year for him)
(14) Jonathan Broxton (3-0 with 16 saves and 0.92 ERA; Broxton is a beast and I'd say the the most intimidating closer in the NL today)
(15) Carlos Marmol (2-1 with 13 saves and a 1.71 ERA; but what really sticks out for me is that he has 58 strikeouts in 31.2 innings of work--he almost averages 2 K's an inning! I don't care what you think, that's a closers real job--I want my closer to come in and destroy the hope of the other team. I want my opponents--especially the Red Sox, to feel like they lost the game because my closer stepped on the mound. And of course as a Yankee fan, we have that affect already in Rivera. But Marmol has been the best strikeout closer this year. I'd take him in my 15 pitchers)
All of these pitchers should be selected before Strasburg and I would also probably pick another 3 or 4 pitchers before I even entertain the idea of having Strasburg on my All-Star game pitching roster. There are simply, way too many good pitchers this year. Pitching has been amazing this year and practically everyone on this pitching roster has an ERA less than 3! I couldn't even pick the closer with the most amount of saves for the team (Matt Capps) because he has an ERA above 3.
Sure, Strasburg has an ERA of 1.86 and a 2-0 record with 32 K's; but he has only pitched an out over 19 innings of Major League Baseball in his life. He has great control, giving only 5 walks and yes he has been fanning practically every batter he faced. But he is a rookie and has not had enough outings to show his dominance over a vast stretch. There have been countless pitchers that have started off a un-hittable and than batters have caught on to their styles--it happens all the time. And I'm not saying that he's not the real dea; I'm not saying that he will not continue being amazing. All I'm saying is that he is not an All-Star pitcher yet. At least not before the 15 named pitchers and probably another 3 before we can even think of him being on the roster.
Strasburg is 21 years old and people are already saying that he will be in the hall of fame--he probably will be if he lives up to even half the hype people have set on him; but let the kid grow. Let him pitch an entire year before you declare him one of the youngest players to pitch in the All-Star game (after Dwight Gooden who pitched in the big game when he was 19!). Let the kid grow--funny thing is I'm calling him a kid when I'm his age. He will be an All-Star pitcher and heck, he might even start the All-Star game in his life; but let's not prematurely put him on a pedestal that people have already built for him.
Let someone else pitch in this year's All-Star game; don't waste a spot on a kid who has 3 stars under his belt. Strasburg + All Star game = I hope you mean him watching from the bleachers.
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