Is Blake Snell the biggest All-Star snub ever?

Blake Snell has had an impressive year with the Tampa Bay Rays but he was left off the All-Star roster for some inexplicable reason.

It’s been a banner season so far for Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Blake Snell. The 25-year-old lefty is 12-4 with a 2.08 ERA in 19 starts. His breakout season should yield him an All-Star game appearance right?

Nope.

For some reason, Blake Snell was left off the roster for the American League despite being one of the top pitchers in baseball. Let’s take a look at some of his numbers and how they compare to the rest of the league.

The most important stat for judging a pitcher is ERA. It gives you the best feel for how a pitcher has performed over the course of a season rather than the win-loss record. Snell’s 2.09 ERA leads the American League. We could just stop right there, but it gets worse.

He has the eighth best WHIP in the AL, eighth in strikeouts, second in wins and tied for third in batting average against. How is this man not on the All-Star roster?

Sure, I’ll give you Justin Verlander, Corey Kluber, Chris Sale, and Luis Severino as deserving guys in the American League but Garret Cole and Trevor Bauer shouldn’t be on the roster over Snell.

Cole is 9-2 with a 2.70 ERA on the defending world champions. His ERA is good, but it’s still .61 worse than Snell’s. Bauer is even more of a head-scratcher than Cole being on the roster. First off, Kluber, Lindor, and Brantley were already on the roster so it’s not like they needed somebody else.

Bauer is 8-6 with a 2.45 ERA. He has a worse win-loss record, a worse ERA, a worse WHIP, and a worse batting average against. What justification is there for Bauer being in the game over Snell.

Even Chris Archer spoke out about the snub:

A lot of people from around the league have called out MLB for their voting process, and selection of players for the All-Star game. It’s become a joke in recent years, and it doesn’t have the same value as it once did.

With TV packages that let you see every game, YouTube, blogs, the MLB website and so many more outlets to see guys from all over the league the All-Star game is rather pointless. Not just in the MLB, but the other sports too. Baseball has done a brutal job of marketing their stars and stunts like this is part of the reason why they’ve struggled.

Next: 5 snubs from the All-Star game

I can’t think of a bigger All-Star snub off the top of my head, maybe Paul Konerko in 2004 but I think I’d still give the edge to Snell though. The outrage is deserved here, Snell got hosed.