Technically, itвЂ™s Braves manager Brian Snitker who gets to choose the NL starting pitcher as manager of the National League All-Stars. ThereвЂ™s been various columns of late calling for Kershaw to start the All-Star Game, something heвЂ™s never done. More importantly though, heвЂ™s Clayton Kershaw, which likely went a long way in the future Hall of Famer being chosen by the commissionerвЂ™s office to appear in a popular exhibition game for the sport in KershawвЂ™s home ballpark. Nevertheless, as our good friend Eric Stephen at True Blue LA noted, KershawвЂ™s selection in his home park of Dodgers Stadium makes a lot of sense from the perspective of baseball being, you know, fun. However, Kershaw missed about a month of the season on the injured list and doesnвЂ™t even qualify for NL leaderboards. In 11 starts (63.2 IP), he has a 2.40 ERA and 1.9 fWAR, striking out 9.75 per nine and walking just 1.70, with an opponentsвЂ™ average against him of just. Home Town SelectionД¬layton Kershaw is having a renaissance season at 34 years old, and itвЂ™s fun to watch. But the D-Backs needed at least one player in, and Mantiply fit the bill. Castillo also missed multiple starts this season due to injury, with 24 fewer innings pitched than Wheeler and 40 fewer than Nola.ДЄrizona reliever Joe Mantiply was the DiamondbacksвЂ™ lone rep, and although he joins the team as a reliever, All Star rosters are often composed of mostly starting pitchers who act as relievers during the game. No doubt Castillo is having an outstanding season, with a 2.92 ERA, ењЋRA of 3.37 and a 2.25 average WAR, but those numbers fall short of WheelerвЂ™s.

Major League Baseball stipulates every team must have at least one representative at the All Star Game and CincinnatiвЂ™s Luis Castillo appears to have benefited as a result. Nola has five starts in which heвЂ™s given up at least four earned runs, but also, six in which heвЂ™s given up one or zero and has pitched at least seven innings 10 times thus far, including seven of his last eight and eight of his last 10. Only Alcantara (3.1) has a higher fWAR than Wheeler (3.0) over that stretch, and WheelerвЂ™s 1.53 ERA is the lowest among qualified starters during that time. In all but two starts, he has lasted at least six innings and pitched at least seven five times. He has not given up more than three earned runs in any of those 13 starts and has held opponents to one or zero runs eight times. Following the first three outings that essentially served as his spring training, Wheeler has a 1.53 ERA in his last 13 starts, with 10.17 K/9, 1.86 BB/9, and a. WheelerвЂ™s snub was seen as the more surprising, given he was the NL Cy Young runner up just last year. Nola does have the highest ERA among the names listed above, although he does have the second-most innings pitched, too. His average between FangraphsвЂ™ WAR (fWAR) and Baseball Reference WAR (bWAR) is 3rd in the NL (3.20), a tick higher than WheelerвЂ™s (3.15). While WheelerвЂ™s snub is more obvious, Nola has perhaps an even better case to make the team, depending on your valuation of WAR as a metric for measuring pitchers.

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