The Best Pittsburgh Pirates Seasons That Didn’t Make All-Star Games

Not being an all-star doesn’t mean you weren’t a good player that year, this was certainly the case for these six Pittsburgh Pirates seasons

All-Star voting is extremely inconsistent. Most of the time, it comes down to popularity as it’s a fan vote. Players who don’t deserve to go sometimes are sent because they play for a big market team. That also means that players on less popular teams who do deserve to go aren’t always sent.

The Pittsburgh Pirates in their history has had plenty of those seasons in their history. Some have even been top 10 in MVP voting, but didn’t make it anyway. Out of those players, who are the most notable to not make an All-Star Game?

Dave Parker, 1978

In the history of a player winning an MVP award, but not going to the All-Star Game, it’s happened 18 times. Somehow, the Pirates’ players have managed to do it twice. Out of the two, Dave Parker’s 1978 seasons was the better of the two seasons, and is one of the best MVP seasons in Pirates history.

Parker’s 1978 season was outstanding. The slugger started out the season hitting .316/.377/.535 with 13 long balls through his first 310 plate appearances of the season. If that wasn’t good enough, Parker got even better. In the second half of ‘78, Parker slashed .353/.410/.632 with 17 home runs in his last 332 plate appearances.

Overall in 1978, Parker batted .334/.394/.585 in 642 plate appearances. He also hit 30 long balls, 32 doubles, and stole 20 bases, showing great power and speed. In total, the right fielder had a 166 OPS+, 167 wRC+ and .424 wOBA. Defensively, he might not have been the greatest with 0 total zone runs above average, but he threw out 12 runners with his outstanding arm.

It’s one of the best seasons ever where a player didn’t make an all-star game, as ne won the MVP award. He also led baseball in batting average, slugging percentage, OPS, OPS+, wRC+, was third in wOBA, and fWAR.

Willie Stargell, 1979

One year after Parker won the NL MVP but failed to be named a NL All-Star, the Pittsburgh Pirates had another MVP. Although, Willie Stargell was not as deserving as Parker was a year prior, he also did not go to the All-Star Game that year. Being an All-Star was an honor Stargell deserved in ’79.

Stargell started off the year batting .306/.359/.617 with 18 home runs in his first 234 plate appearances of the season. He wasn’t nearly as good in the second half, batting .254/.346/.488 with 14 long balls in his last 246 plate appearances, but he still was a good batter.

All told, Stargell had a .281/.352/.552 line with 32 home runs and 19 doubles in 480 plate appearances. He also had a 139 OPS+ and 137 wRC+. At first base, Stargell had -4 total zone runs above average.

Oddly enough, despite Stargell not being even top 10 in wRC+, OPS, and ranking 74th in fWAR, he tied with Keith Hernandez in voting. A guy with a much higher wRC+ (156), fWAR (7.4), and OPS (.930). That said, what Stargell meant to the Pirate clubhouse and how big of a role be played in the team winning the World Series that season can not be overstated.

Russell Martin, 2014

After an overall solid, but unimpressive season with the bat while being an outstanding defender in 2013, Russell Martin’s 2014 season was a very good year in all facets of the game. However, he missed about a month at the end of April to the end of May, which severely hurt his chances of making the All-Star Game that year. But the injury didn’t slow down his performance for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

The first half of 2014 saw the catcher hit .279/.400/.407. Martin was walking at an insane rate of 13.5% of the time. His 136 wRC+ at the time ranked 4th among National League catchers, but it was his defense that truly showed how valuable he was.

His 3.0 fWAR was the 3rd highest among all catchers, and tied with Cardinals’ Yadier Molina, who did make the All-Star Game despite having inferior batting numbers (.287/.341/.409, 110 wRC+). He also well outdid Diamondbacks’ catcher Miguel Montero too (.262/.344/.416, 106 wRC+, 2.8 fWAR) who also went to the ASG.

Martin got even better in the second half, batting .302/.396/.460 in his final 223 plate appearances of the season. All told, Martin had a .290/.402/.430 batting line, 11 home runs, 20 doubles, to go with a 135 OPS+/140 wRC+ through 460 plate appearances. Defensively, Martin had +21 DRS, caught 39% of the runners trying to steal on him, and being worth +15.3 framing runs. Martin ended up having the 3rd highest catcher fWAR at 6.2, and actually had the 8th highest fWAR of all position players as well.

Mark Melancon, 2014

The Pittsburgh Pirates also had another outstanding season that should have went to an All-Star Game in 2014, but didn’t. This time, it was relief pitcher Mark Melancon. The right hander wasn’t the Pirates’ closer to start with, but after Jason Grilli struggled and eventually traded in a trade that would eventually doom the Pirates’ 2014 season, Melancon took over the 9th inning role.

Melancon was still fantastic in the first half of 2014. His first 41.2 innings of 2014 saw him give up just 11 earned runs, two home runs, and six walks. He also had a sub-1 WHIP at 0.91. In total, he had a 2.38 ERA and 2.56 FIP with a 22.4% strikeout rate.

Melancon was even better in the second half, having a 1.23 ERA, 1.43 FIP and 0.82 WHIP. After his great second half, Melancon finished out the 2014 season with 71 innings under his belt, producing a 1.90 ERA, 2.09 FIP and 0.87 WHIP. He also struck out 71 batters, and his 25.6% strikeout rate is the highest of his career so far. Melancon only walked 4% of the batters he faced. His 57.4% ground ball rate helped Melancon post a strong 0.25 HR/9.

Doug Drabek, 1992

Doug Drabek may have won the National League Cy Young in 1990 and didn’t go to the All-Star Game, but his 1992 season was even better than his 1990 campaign.

In 1992, Drabek got off to a great start to the season. His first 140 innings of the season saw the right hander have a 2.76 ERA, 2.93 FIP and 1.04 WHIP. Drabek never was a big strikeout pitcher as he only struck out 18.2% of the batters he faced, but was outstanding at limiting free passes. He only surrendered 28, giving him a 5.1% walk rate. Home runs also weren’t an issue for Drabek with a 0.64 HR/9.

The main reason Drabek didn’t make the All-Star Game was because he had a 7-7 record. The Pittsburgh Pirates, despite being a great team in 1992, just weren’t able to give Drabek too much run support in his starts.

All told in 1992, Drabek had a 2.77 ERA, 2.91 FIP and 1.06 WHIP across 256.2 innings of work. Drabek struck out just 17.3% of the batters he faced but walked them at a strong 5.3% rate. He also gave up just 17 home runs, resulting in a 0.6 HR/9. Drabek’s 4.8 fWAR ended up being the highest mark of his career.

So why, despite this being his best professional season, was this 1992 season overlooked compared to his 1990 Cy Young season? Well Drabek went 15-11 in 1992, and 22-6 in 1990. Up until recently, award voters put a lot of weight into pitcher record, a factor that pitchers don’t have any control over, than they should have. 22 wins looks nicer than 15 wins, despite the fact he struck out more batters, walked less, gave up less home runs, and earned runs at an identical rate in 1992 compared to 1990.