These Four Players Were Snubbed From The All-Star Game In Recent Years
Today, we discuss four accomplished MLB players and one season in which they each were snubbed from the All-Star game.
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Pregame Pepper
Did you know…
. . . Over his illustrious 18-year MLB career, most of which he spent with the Chicago White Sox, Paul Konerko accumulated many impressive statistics and accomplishments. Not known for his speed (he stole only nine bases in his entire career, two fewer than Hall of Fame pitcher Greg Maddux), he did smack an inside-the-park home run at Tropicana Field for his first homer of the 2000 season. In their entire careers with the White Sox, which spanned 4,800 games, Ozzie Guillen, Lance Johnson, Tim Raines, Ray Durham, and Juan Pierre never hit a single inside-the-parker. In retrospect, today’s replay review likely would have ruled Konerko’s inside-the-parker a normal home run, since it appeared to hit above the yellow line at the Trop that dictated whether a ball had left the park or not.
. . . When Johnny Cueto made his Major League debut for the Cincinnati Reds on April 3, 2008, he twirled one of the most dominant first starts in MLB history. Cueto matched up against the Arizona Diamondbacks and was perfect for the first five innings of the game. He eventually settled for seven innings of one-hit, one-run ball, striking out 10 and not walking a batter or even getting to a three-ball count. With that performance, Cueto became the first Reds pitcher since 1900 to strike out 10 in their MLB debut, and the first pitcher in MLB history to strike out 10 and not walk a batter in their MLB debut.
On June 27, 2021, Pittsburgh Pirates rookie Max Kranick nearly one-upped Cueto by pitching five perfect innings in his MLB debut. Unfortunately, due to an extended rain delay, Kranick was removed from the game before he could continue his quest for perfection. Both Kranick and Cueto secured their first MLB wins with their sparkling, close-to-perfect debut performances.
Leading Off
Notable Recent All-Star Snubs
By John Supowitz
As we're just a couple of weeks away from the All Star Game and just a day away from the voting deadline, our favorite thing isn't to talk about who gets to play in the Midsummer Classic, but to discuss who was left out. In recent years, we have seen some noticeable players put up impressive numbers and still miss out on an All-Star bid. Let's check out some of the recent notable All-Star snubs.
Paul Konerko — 2004
To this day, I still feel like Paul Konerko is one of the most underrated players over the last 20 years. As Frank Thomas' time in the south side of Chicago began to dwindle, it was the Konerko who became the face of the franchise that eventually won its first World Series title in 88 years in 2005.
Konerko was on a tear halfway into the 2004 season, hitting .296 with 22 HR and 59 RBI. However, Jason Giambi got the All-Star votes among American League first basemen, even though his numbers weren't as stellar as Konerko’s and he missed time with an injury.
Konerko did make the All-Star team in both of the next two years, and attended five more in total throughout his career.
Pablo Sandoval — 2009
This snub came at a time before he famously became the Kung-Fu Panda that helped the Giants win three World Series titles in 2010, 2012 (in which he was the World Series MVP), and 2014.
In his second season in ‘09, he went into the All-Star break with a higher batting average, slugging percentage, OPS, RBI, and triple the home runs than his third-base counterpart, David Wright, who was voted in as the starter at third base that year.
Sandoval did get back-to-back All-Star appearances in 2011 and 2012, and along with those three World Series rings, I'm sure he's happy in hindsight.
Johnny Cueto — 2012
This one is not at the fault of the fans or baseball, but rather just one man, Tony La Russa. La Russa was the manager of the National League in that year's All-Star game and famously left out Cueto, even though he was 4-0 with a 1.31 ERA going into the break.
Cueto and Cincinnati Reds manager Dusty Baker both went on record to say that La Russa intentionally left out the Reds' ace, including Cueto saying, “I don’t know if the manager of the All-Star Game is pissed at me because I went out with one of his girlfriends.”
La Russa fired back and blamed it on Baker because he pitched Cueto that Sunday, but this actually violated a CBA rule stating a pitcher cannot be excluded from an All-Star game because they pitched that previous Sunday.
After all that, Cueto did make his first All-Star team two years later, in 2014.
Josh Donaldson — 2013
During the mid-2010s, Donaldson was one of the most electric power hitters in the game. However, in 2013, he was still virtually unknown, and for a star player in a smaller market like Oakland, the fanfare wasn't there to get the votes.
With a .310 batting average and 61 RBIs halfway through the season, you would think that's worthy of a spot, right? According to Jim Leyland, yes, but not really.
Although the Tigers' manager did not put the third baseman on his roster, he said, “This kid is an All-Star this year.” Donaldson's response was a classic: "That’s nice to hear. But it doesn’t change anything.”
Donaldson finished fourth in MVP voting that year, made the All-Star team each of the next three years, and won the AL MVP in 2015.
John Supowitz is a graduate with a Masters' Degree in Sports Journalism from Quinnipiac University. Along with being a baseball contributor to Prime Time Sports Talk and the host of the IBWAA's Zoom discussion "The Press Box," he is a Game Day Producer for the Colorado Rockies’ Double-A affiliate Hartford Yard Goats. You can follow him on Twitter @ImThatSupi.
Extra Innings
Paul Konerko’s inside-the-park home run in 2000
Johnny Cueto’s outstanding Major League debut in 2008