Did John Maine Get Snubbed?

I usually never delve into the debate of All-Star snubs but because I love John Maine and think he's been pitching great this year I wanted to examine the issue.

Jake Peavy and Brad Penny are locks, so let's compare Maine to the three other starters who made the team:

John Smoltz: 9-5 3.07 ERA 96 K 1.23 WHIP
Cole Hamels: 9-4 3.87 ERA 116 K 1.22 WHIP
Ben Sheets: 10-3 3.19 ERA 81 K 1.15 WHIP
John Maine: 9-4 2.74 ERA 84 K 1.15 WHIP

Looking at it this way, it seems pretty clear that Maine deserved a spot ahead of one of these guys, probably Hamels. But this is actually a problem with the system. Because the new player polling is done a couple weeks early, Maine's last three starts (3-0. 1.61 ERA) and Hamels's last three starts (0-2, 6.92 ERA) probably weren't factored into the voting.

But there were also three pitchers added by the manager, all relievers, Billy Wagner, Takahashi Saito and Jose Valverde. It's hard to argue with those choices, even Valverde who has 2 blown saves, has 26 saves and a pretty decent ERA and WHIP.

In summary, Maine is having a better season than a couple of the pitchers who made the team, but for that I blame the system of selection, not to selectors.



But the biggest snub is San Diego pitcher Chris Young who is 8-3 with a 2.14 ERA and a 1.09 WHIP. He is more deserving than any of the people I just discussed. But Young is likely going to be added to the team thanks to the "Final Vote," in which fans select one more player from a list of 5. That's where Maine got snubbed. He's not on that list. Roy Oswalt, Carlos Zambrano, Brandon Webb and Tom Gorzelanny are, but Maine is definitely more deserving than Oswalt, and probably the other three as well.



Note: none of the players mentioned had to be added to meet the minimum requirement of one player per team. All these pitchers have a teammate already on the squad.