All Star/Not An All Star?

If there ever were a need for a game show on MLB Network, the idea of just showing stats and letting people determine if they're an All Star or not would be a fun way to help enrage some fans.

Everyone has their favorite players, I get it.  And the most popular teams usually have the most amount of all stars.  I get that also.  

But every year there are players left off the All Star team that are such obvious snubs, it's ridiculous.

The most obvious this year is Max Scherzer.

Max has been battled by little to no run support on the season leading to a 7-4 record, but it's not for a lack of Max's efforts.  He has a 2.10ERA and has allowed only 59 hits over 94.1 innings.  In those 94.1 innings, Max has struck out 127 batters and has limited opponents to less than 1 base runner per inning (0.85WHIP).  He is easily still a top 5 pitcher in the National League as proven by these stats.

On a controversial note is a player who hasn't put up All Star level numbers, but is going to make the National League All Star Team for the first time in his Dodgers career.

Let's look at his triple slash line .246/.356/.453 good for an OPS of .809.  He has 11 HR, 7SB, 32RBI, and 50R while being one of the league's leaders with 43 BB.  

The player above is Mookie Betts, playing in his age 28 season and having made his 5th All Star Team.

Now let's look at the 34 year old Andrew McCutchen who also plays a corner outfield spot.

.233/.351/.448 good for a .799 OPS

He has 15HR, 6SB, 48RBI and 46R and is in third place with 46BB.  

Now I'm not saying that Betts is a bad player, but Cutch's numbers are right there nearly identical to a player that many casual fans feel is a top 5 player in the game.  

In case you missed it both Andrew McCutchen and Mookie Betts lent their voices to a Disney Channel cartoon called Puppy Dog Pals.  You can read the article here.

Mookie voiced the character Markus Bestie, the best player in the league.

Cutch voiced the cool card playing dog Wakaford P Cutchamuch (or Cutch for short)

I haven't had the chance to watch the episode, but I would love to get a custom card made featuring signatures of Betts and Cutch in the future. 

I really wish Cutch would make another All Star Team.  

I want some more Triple Threads patches limited to 9 copies in the collection.

Who do you think are the biggest All Star snubs this year? 

Cutch and the Dodgers

There have been some reports surfacing that the Pirates and Dodgers might make a trade involving Josh Harrison and Cutch to the Dodgers. I highly doubt something like this would happen as the Pirates appear to want to remain competitive after the Ivan Nova signing and still appearing in on the Jose Quintana trade talks.

Thanks to this report and Greg's blog post about the package I sent him a few months back I decided to scan all the Cutch combo cards I have with Dodgers alumni Kershaw, Kemp, Gonzalez, Robinson, and Puig.

Here's the results

 That card above is just an absolute monster. It features some of the best players at each position. The Abreu and Stanton patches highlight my favorites of the card.

I wish there would be more inserts like this that highlight pitcher vs. hitter and how they match up verse each other.

Just another relic combo of some of the game's best players.

2 different versions of Team Pinnacle featuring Cutch and the Bison.

"Superstar" Centerfielders Cutch, Kemp, and Shane Victorino (?)
Really Victorino?

Triple Threads was really kind to Cutch and Kemp pairings in 2010 and 2011.

A pair of All star relics with Puig

My only A Gone relic in my collection.

And to finish it off, I have one of the greatest Dodgers of all time and the man who paved the way for non white athletes in  the US.