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The 2015 Pittsburgh Pirates All Stars

By Jason Rollison

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Following up on the fanfare regarding the 2015 MLB All-Star starters, the rest of the 2015 squad was announced today.

Although there were a few snubs, the Pittsburgh Pirates All Stars who were selected will represent the team well.

Let’s start with the obvious choice. Likely the result of a poor – by his standards – start, Andrew McCutchen narrowly missed out on a ‘true’ starting spot in the National League outfield. Ending up about 350,000 votes shy of being named a starter by fans, McCutchen also seemed to recognize the effect his bad April may have had on his chances, as Bill Brink of the Post-Gazette tweets:

McCutchen has since overcome that bad start in a big way, bringing his slashline up to .297/.391/.884 while leading the Pirates to the second-best record in the National League. He also ranks fifth among outfielders in WAR (wins above replacement) with a 3.1 rating. Even that should come with an asterisk. McCutchen is only 0.6 behind second place Giancarlo Stanton in this metric, and all are looking way up at Bryce Harper‘s 5.6 clip. ONe could easily make the case that with a typical Cutch April, that number would be considerably higher.

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Our next spotlight of the 2015 Pitttsburgh Pirates All Stars would be one Mark Melancon. Melancon earned his second nomination on the merits of co-leading all of MLB in saves with 27. Melancon also boasts an ERA of 1.27 and a sparkling WHIP of 0.88. Mark The Shark shook off early season concerns about his velocity to become a rock solid end-of-game option for Clint Hurdle. While that drop in velocity is still being debated, the results face no such debate. The guys is a closer, through and through. He just gets people out.

Perhaps none of the 2015 Pittsburgh Pirates all stars was as much of a lock as Gerrit Cole was. Despite a noticeable dropoff from his blistering early-season pace, Cole nonetheless earned his first career All Star nomination. Who can argue with a National-league leading 12 wins against only three losses. Look a little closer at Cole’s progression and you will see that he is using his off-speed and breaking pitches more and more, and the maturation is all the more visible as a result. The scariest thing for opposing hitters is this: whereas the previous-to-2015 version of Cole would let his emotions run wild all over him, the 2015 version uses that fire to get stronger the deeper he goes into games.

Ending up about 350,000 votes shy of being named a starter by fans, McCutchen also seemed to recognize the effect his bad April may have had on his chances.

The last of the Pittsburgh Pirates all stars carries with him a truly special story.

As we have mentioned before, despite a career that many pitchers would lvoe to have, the All-Star game has remained elusive for A.J. Burnett. After helping to re-legitimize the Pirates organization and spending a year in the wilderness that is the Philadelphia Phillies, a healthy and motivated Burnett came back to the Pirates for one last ride, and what a ride it is. Posting a 2.05 ERA along with 90 strikeouts in 105.1 innings, Burnett continues to be a workhorse. Lost in all of the ‘Batman’ and ‘#STFD’ hoopla is this – Burnett has made at least 30 starts in seven straight seasons. He is on pace to keep that streak alive, proving that he meant what he said when he let us know he would be giving the Pirates everything he had left.

What I’m most proud of – and I’m sure A.J. is too – is that he earned this honor. This was no token show of respect (Derek Jeter, anyone?) for a guy who gave 17 years to baseball. But perhaps this was a recognition that such an honor was far, far overdue.

I speak for all Pirates fans when I say this – A.J., it’s been an honor to share a few glorious years with you, and we will be watching you pitch with your peers in Cincinnati. We will watch you show the baseball world what we already knew.

That you were one of a kind.

That you are still a hell of a pitcher.

That when you came to Pittsburgh, you were home. Just like you said:

(author’s note: special thanks to Rob Biertempfel and Bill Brink for getting some excellent quotes from the Pirates all-stars. Please give them both a follow on twitter)

Next: Pirates lose Harrison for up to six weeks

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