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St. Louis Cardinals’ Carlos Martinez Deserved All-Star Selection to Begin With

By Chris Olszewski

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Carlos Martinez is an All-Star. Thanks to the NL Final Vote, Martinez will be headed to Cincinnati and is the 6th Cardinal on the National League roster. However, I think that he should have been on the roster in the first place. Statistically speaking, Martinez was the best option among the “final five” candidates, and he has been having a better season than Madison Bumgarner, who was already on the roster.

Carlos Martinez has had an All-Star worthy season. Martinez was certainly the best starting pitcher on the final ballot this year, compared to both Clayton Kershaw and Johnny Cueto. While Martinez has not pitched as many innings as the other two, he leads Kershaw and Cueto in the following: ERA, winning percentage, home runs, walks, runs, and wins.

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Martinez is by no means the best pitcher on the National League All-Star staff, but he has had a far better season than Bumgarner, who was almost certainly a homer pick by National League manager Bruce Bochy. Despite throwing 11.2 fewer innings, Martinez’s ERA is 0.81 runs lower than Bumgarner’s. He has given up 21 fewer hits, 13 fewer runs, and four fewer home runs, and despite throwing nine fewer strikeouts, the SO/9 (that is, the number of strikeouts thrown per every nine innings) of the two are nearly identical. The only thing Bumgarner has on Carlos Martinez is that Martinez is more walk-prone; Martinez has thrown 43 walks, compared to Bumgarner’s 23.

The stats show that Carlos Martinez has been just as, if not more effective than Madison Bumgarner. Bumgarner has a history of being really, really good at his job. So far this year, he’s been a little off the mark. When the All-Star Game matters as much as it does, the managers need to pick the team that going to win the game for them. Bochy picking Martinez over Bumgarner would’ve done the National League that sort of favor. Who knows, maybe Bochy gets Bumgarner in the Final Vote anyway.

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