The most boring and pointless thing to talk about this week and into early next week are All-Star snubs. For one thing, when you have a fan voting system and an “every team must have a representative” system, merit is only tangentially related to All-Star rosters, rendering the concept of “snubs” rather pointless. More to the point, however: a HUGE number of the guys who were putatively snubbed will end up making the All-Star team anyway due to injuries, “injuries” and guys simply backing out for various reasons, even if MLB doesn’t want them to.
The first replacement just came down: Indians starter Corey Kluber has been named to the AL All-Star roster as a replacement for Toronto Blue Jays pitcher Marco Estrada, who has been placed on the 15-day disabled list.
Kluber is 8-8 with a 3.79 ERA, striking out 114 batters in 114 innings. He’s been better than his record too, holding a 1.04 WHIP and limiting batters to a .219 batting average. Kluber joins fellow Indians Danny Salazar and Francisco Lindor on the roster.
There will be a lot more of these. Some for legit DL injuries like Estrada’s, some for ailments which, miraculously, heal late next week.