Francisco Lindor
Lindor has been the Indians best offensive and defensive player since his call-up last June and after being snubbed for the Gold Glove, Silver Slugger and Rookie of the Year last year (all three most likely because the team waited too long to bring him up), he is finally being recognized on the national stage. As for his credits, he’s currently 7th in the AL among position players in fWAR largely due to the fact that he’s second in defensive rating, behind only Toronto’s Kevin Pillar. In all of baseball, he is the second best short stop to Brandon Crawford of the Giants and since neither Pillar or Crawford will be in the All-Star game, Lindor will be the top defensive player on the field. That will likely be true for many years to come about any game Lindor plays in.
Offensively, Lindor is third in the AL among shortstop and both others are on the team in Eduardo Nunez and Xander Bogaerts. In addition, he’s second in runs scored doubles and steals and fourth in RBI. With the combination of power, average and speed, only Bogaerts could claim a better offensive first half and he will be starting in the game. Once you combine in the defense, even Bogaerts has a significantly decreased argument.
This is Lindor’s first All-Star game and the first for an Indians short stop since Asdrubal Cabrera went in both 2011 and 2012. They are among four Indians short stops ever elected to the game along with Omar Vizquel and Lou Boudreau.
Danny Salazar
Salazar has been the Indians top starter this year, seemingly putting up an invisible barrier between home and first. His 10.26 K/9 is third in the AL and both those ahead have terrible numbers otherwise. He’s allowed just 0.73 HR/9 and is leading the AL with a 2.36 ERA, slightly surpassing the knuckle baller and former Indian Steven Wright. Hopefully, that small advantage will give Salazar the advantage when selecting the AL’s starting pitcher.
There is a big difference between number two and three in ERA as Salazar and Wright are the only two pitchers even below 2.90 and both are under 2.50. While FIP (3.30) would suggest that Salazar has benefited from luck and defense at least slightly, he still ranks fifth in the AL in fWAR. In any evaluation, Salazar is among the top five pitchers in the AL and is arguably number one and so he is a very deserving selection from Cleveland.
Salazar is the Indians first All-Star starting pitcher since Justin Masterson in 2013 and the pair makes the first time the Indians have had two All-Stars since that year as well with Jason Kipnis joining the Tribe ace. The Indians haven’t had three All-Stars since 2007.
Snubs
As a primer, I wrote a lengthy article on All-Star game snubs for The Outside Corner yesterday and didn’t include a single member of the Cleveland Indians, so to say now that the Indians had any real snubs would be a least a little biased. That being said, I believe that a first place team should usually have about three All-Stars (especially compared to a third place team like Kansas City who has four players including two starters) and a team one win from being the best in baseball should be better represented. Of course, the Rangers, who also had one position bench player (Ian Desmond) and one starting pitcher (Cole Hamels) selected, could make the same claim.
The problem here is two fold. First, the Royals, Red Sox and Cubs dominated voting this year and, while it wasn’t as bad as last year, there were still a couple players who made the team that shouldn’t have, namely Addison Russell in the NL and Eric Hosmer in the AL. While Hosmer doesn’t really affect an Indians fan directly, it could have indirectly as Joe Mauer would have been a fair choice as the Twins only selection, instead it was middle infielder Eduardo Nunez. This potentially could have effected Jose Ramirez, who many have been calling to make the team.
Ramirez has hit .299/.355/.425 so far this year, tricking some to think he’s been worth as much as Lindor this year because the first two numbers are nearly the same. The problem here, is that is discounting Lindor’s defense, which is possibly worth more than any other single player in baseball. It, and a little extra power, are why Lindor has been a 3.3 fWAR player so far so far this year, the best on the team. Ramirez, on the other hand, is 5th on the team in fWAR at 1.8 and so is ranked 30th in the AL compared to Lindor being 7th among all position players.
If you want to make an argument for an Indians position player, it actually should belong to Rajai Davis, who has had a better season offensively than any other player on the team outside of Carlos Santana. It’s not worth fighting for Santana, who is second to last among the Indians qualifiers in average, but only .005 from first in OBP and by far first in Slugging Percent thanks to his 19 home runs. The world isn’t ready for a Santana All-Star selection, although hopefully they will be soon. The numbers game of making sure each team had a player and the fact that neither really stood out cost these two players a shot.
On the mound is another story. The top three pitchers in fWAR, Jose Quintana, Corey Kluber and Masahiro Tanaka were all kept off the roster as were numbers six through ten. One reason this could be is that fWAR is based mostly on FIP, taking fielding and offensive performance out of a pitcher’s results. Baseball on a national level continues to believe in ERA, which is greatly effected by defensive performance and win/loss record, which has almost no correlation to a pitchers ability outside of the ability to pitch at least five innings.
It would seem if the All-Star game is supposed to feature the games greatest stars that it should be based more on individual stats, like BB/9, K/9 and HR/9 that a pitcher can control and are included in FIP and fWAR than uncontrollable more team based stats. Kluber is particularly hurt by this as more than three earned runs that he has allowed can be directly tied to mistakes in the field that weren’t called errors. It’s no surprise that his FIP is 2.96 while his ERA is 3.79. Poor run support explains the lack of All-Star support for both Kluber and on a much larger scale Quintana, who has just a 6-8 record despite a 3.06 ERA.
Another reason the Indians starters beyond Salazar were excluded is that almost all starters were excluded. We all know how much Ned Yost loves his bullpen and the AL manager will have 9 relievers of 14 total pitchers. While this probably the best choice in trying to win an All-Star game, when relievers can be used as early as the second inning, it is a poor way of recognizing the best talent in the league. If these pitchers were the best on their team, their teams would have them throwing 200 innings a year instead of 60. Yankees Dellin Betances and Andrew Miller are well deserving, but beyond that the bullpen is generally filler and make up picks to get team’s their lone representative.
If they had decided to go more starter heavy, then Kluber and more traditionally successful, Trevor Bauer, would have had a chance. Bauer currently has a 2.96 ERA and a 1.8 fWAR and while there are many more deserving pitchers, that would depend on which aspect of the game you are looking.
In all, the Indians two picks were the right two if there could only be two and it will be very exciting to see both Danny Salazar and Francisco Lindor play in their first career All-Star Games.
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