Three Rockies will be playing for the National League in the All-Star Game on July 17th in Washington, DC, but two deserving players will stay home.
Nolan Arenado will make his fourth consecutive All-Star appearance. Arenado is in the midst of the best season of his already excellent career, and the fans really got it right by voting him in. The Rockies other two starters made it by way of the player vote. Trevor Story, Arenado’s partner on the left side of the infield, made his first All-Star team. Story’s having an excellent year at the plate, and he’s looked as good at short this year as he did in 2017 (although DRS doesn’t rate him very high). Charlie Blackmon also made the team by player vote. It’ll be his third appearance. Blackmon’s having a good but not great year, and nobody would have thought much of it if he was left off the roster.
The two snubs came on the pitching side, and they were Dave Roberts’ decisions. Kyle Freeland is having a fantastic season by both traditional (3.18 ERA) and adjusted stats (150 ERA+). It’s even more surprising that Adam Ottavino didn’t make the team. Ottavino sports a 1.79 ERA in relief and has struck out 14.57 batters per nine innings. As Ottavino told Nick Groke, he thinks he didn’t make it because “I’m on the Rockies. Pitchers don’t get any credit for playing for the Rockies.”
The proof is in the snubbing.