Why Ryan Vogelsong Deserved To Make The All-Star Team

Taking a stroll through Twitter, message boards or any other form of non-Giant related social media yesterday – you’d have found two common themes. Confusion. Anger. Anger that guys like Tommy Hanson or Craig Kimbrel weren’t named to the All-Star team in favor of Ryan Vogelsong. Now, I understand the beef that neither of them were named to the Mid-Summer Classic, both are deserving – however, this is a game of politics and in the end all will end well…but saying Vogelsong didn’t deserve it is nothing more than ignorance.

Looking at Ryan, statistically, you simply can’t argue with the selection. Had Voggy been able to scratch two more outs in yesterday’s outing, he’d have qualified for the league leader board and would’ve placed second in the National League for the ERA title. Yes, people will point to the fact that he’s pitched 25-40 innings less than the majority of other All-Stars, but how is that his fault? Given the time he’s played (and 84 innings is no small sample size) – he’s done plenty enough to deserve an All-Star selection.

As for the Tim Lincecum selection, even if Jack McKeon doesn’t think he deserves it, it’s hard to argue with a 3.04 ERA, 1.18 WHIP and 122 K’s. If you want to, feel free, but I sure can’t…

Brian Wilson was a player selection, so that’s that…

And now we come to Matt Cain. Does Matt Cain deserve to be an All-Star? Short answer? Yes. Are there players with better stats, like Hanson? Yes. But this is little more than a political move. Last year, Cain MORE than deserved an All-Star selection but he was left off the roster with a near sub 2.00 ERA (Your guess is as good as mine as to why he was snubbed). But with Cain scheduled to start the finale before the break he’ll automatically become inelgiable to pitch in the All-Star game (as will the Phillies Cole Hamels) so a replacement will need to be selected. And magically, that replacement will most likely be Tommy Hanson while Hamels will be replaced by Arizona’s Ian Kennedy (assuming he doesn’t win the fan vote) or Pittsburgh’s Kevin Correia.

Could Bochy have selected Hanson and Cain and then replaced Cain with Vogelsong? Sure. But, it’s his team and he’s given the right to assemble it as he sees fit, just like All-Star managers do every year. We all saw Bobby Cox do exactly that more than a few times. In the end, an All-Star is an All-Star.

So going into the game, the Giants will have four representatives (with one being replaced, so essentially three), the Phillies have four reps (with one replaced) and the Braves have four reps (possibly five if Hanson is named). Somehow, I’m not seeing the controversy that some are. I mean, it’s not like the Giants have eight representatives like the Yankees had last year….

Ryan Vogelsong deserved his selection as did the remaining Giants. And yes, Tommy Hanson deserves an All-Star selection too – one he’ll get.