Pittsburgh Pirates: Notable Players to Never Make an All-Star Appearance

While the Pittsburgh Pirates have had tons of all-star deserving players in their history, not all of them appeared in an All-Star Game in a Pirate uniform.

All Star game voting is sometimes just a popularity contest. When it’s left up to the fans to decide who makes it, you can sometimes get players who don’t deserve to go to the Mid-Summer Classic, and that leaves out players who might deserve it a lot more. This includes plenty of deserving players from the Pittsburgh Pirates.

The Pittsburgh Pirates haven’t always been the most popular of teams, so that has meant that sometimes, really good Pirates have been left out of the All-Star Game. Today, let’s look at three Pirates who never represented the Pirates at the All-Star Game, despite having some really good seasons.

Russell Martin

I named Russell Martin’s 2014 season as one of the best seasons in Pittsburgh Pirates history to not be awarded with an All-Star Game bid. However, before his 2014 season, he was having a pretty productive year in 2013.

In 506 plate appearances, Martin was batting for a solid .226/.327/.377 line, hit 15 long balls, a 100 OPS+ and 101 wRC+. While those aren’t outstanding batting numbers, they’re pretty good for a catcher, especially for how good Martin was defensively. Behind the plate, Martin was worth +21 DRS, caught 40% of the runners trying to steal on him and was worth +12.3 framing runs. With his defense combined, Martin had a 5.4 fWAR. That ranked 16th of any position player in baseball.

Martin followed that season up with an even better 2014. Although he did miss a bit of time at the beginning of the season, the talented catcher hit .290/.402/.430 with 11 long balls, and 20 doubles. All told, his offense was worth a 135 OPS+ and 140 wRC+. Defensively, Martin posted an identical DRS mark at +21, while catching 39% of the runners trying to steal on him, and being worth +15.3 framing runs.

Among catchers with at least 800 plate appearances and 1500 innings played behind the dish between 2013 and 2014, Martin ranked 4th in wRC+ (120), 5th in wOBA (.341) and 3rd in fWAR (11.7). Martin’s +42 DRS led all catchers as well. Despite all of that, Martin never appeared in an All-Star Game for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Before going to the Pittsburgh Pirates, Martin had appeared in a few All-Star Games. He made two All-Star Games with the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2007 and 2008, and again in 2011 with the New York Yankees. Martin made a fourth and final All-Star Game appearance the year after he left the Pirates in 2015 with the Toronto Blue Jays.

Francisco Liriano

Another hero of the Pirates’ 2013-2015 playoff run, Francisco Liriano had some pretty good seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates, but never made an All-Star Game. In 2013 Liriano was outstanding, and cemented himself as the Pirates’ ace for the season.

Though he was limited to just 161 innings, Liriano put up a strong 3.02 ERA, 2.92 FIP and 1.22 WHIP. Although Liriano wasn’t the most control-centric guy, walking 9.5% of the batters he faced, he put up a strong 24.5% strikeout rate, and gave up home runs at a 0.5 HR/9 rate. With a 50.5% ground ball rate and 19.8% soft contact rate, Liriano was great at limiting long balls. Plus, he had a 3.12 xFIP, 3.30 DRA and 3.43 SIERA. All three being very good marks.

Liriano may not have really deserved to go to an All-Star Game in 2014, as he got off to a slow start to the season, partly due to an injury. Liriano missed a chunk of June and half of July and had an ERA and FIP above 4 in the first half of the year.

But Liriano would bounce back and have a fantastic second half of 2014 as both his ERA and FIP fell below 3. All told through the 162.1 innings the lefty pitched in 2014, Liriano had a solid 3.38 ERA, 3.59 FIP and 1.30 WHIP. Though walks became a bit of an issue, seeing as he walked 11.7% of the batters he faced, Liriano increased his strikeout rate to 25.3%, his ground ball rate to 54.4%, and soft contact rate to 24.7%. Liriano still had solid ERA estimators with a 3.61 SIERA, 3.40 xFIP and 3.30 DRA.

In his final productive outing as a Pittsburgh Pirates’ starter, Francisco Liriano got off to yet another hot start to 2015. His first 114.2 innings saw the lefty have a 2.98 ERA and 3.16 FIP to go along with a 27.5% strikeout rate and 1.03 WHIP. While he did have a bit of a slump in the second half, with an ERA at exactly 4.00, he still put up a strong 3.23 FIP, 25.1% strikeout rate and 0.6 HR/9. All told in his 2015 season, Liriano still had a great 2015, totaling 186.2 innings of 3.38 ERA, 3.19 FIP, and 1.205 WHIP ball while striking out 26.5% of the batters he faced. Not only was this his highest strikeout rate as a Pirates’ pitcher, he also registered his lowest walk rate in the three seasons at 9.1%. Home runs still weren’t a big issue with a 0.72 HR/9 and 51.2% groundball rate.

Liriano made one All-Star Game in his career. That being his 2006 rookie season with the Minnesota Twins.