Cleveland Indians: Corey Kluber Has Been Snubbed From Yet Another All-Star Game

The Cleveland Indians’ Corey Kluber has been an All-Star snub for the third straight year

In the movie Groundhog’s Day, actor Bill Murray finds himself in a bizarre loop in which he is forced to relive Groundhog’s Day over and over again until he “gets it right”. Much like the movie, the Corey Kluber, and the Cleveland Indians have found themselves caught in a similar situation with the All-Star Game. 

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Back in 2014, the year that Kluber won the American League Cy Young Award, he was one of the best pitchers through the first half. Despite elite advanced statistics and great standard ones, he failed to make the All-Star squad, something that caused some criticism of the selection process after the season. His earned run average may have only been the tenth best in the AL, but ERA estimators viewed him as one of the five best pitchers in the league.

The same thing happened last year when Kluber missed another All-Star Game despite being the reigning Cy Young Award winner. Like the prior season, his earned run average was a bit higher than most All-Star selections, but fielder independent pitching and its adjusted version had him as the second and fourth best pitcher in the AL, respectively. Simply put, his high strikeout rates combined with his ability to stave off base runners made him one of the best American League pitchers.

Now, Corey Kluber is in the same situation as the past two years. Underlying metrics suggest that he is one of the best pitchers in the league, but some unfortunate sequencing has created a large disparity between his perceived and expected value. This said the right-hander is still rated as one of the best pitchers in baseball when looking at strikeout rate, strikeout differential, opponent average, and WHIP. These metric certainly would help justify picking him for the team, right?

Well, apparently not. Instead, it appears that the five starting pitchers selected as All-Stars are those with the five best earned run averages. This may be a complete coincidence, and it hopefully is. While there are certainly worse ways to select the best pitchers, a more holistic approach would appear to be more beneficial for maximizing the All-Star team’s performance.

Next: Danny Salazar, Francisco Lindor named All-Stars

At the very least, Danny Salazar and Francisco Lindor made the team, and that is a win for the Cleveland Indians. It may not be a win for Corey Kluber; but hopefully, he knows that he deserves to be in the game. Nevertheless, it seems like a good bet that we will find ourselves in a similar situation next year.