There were three players on the Washington Nationals roster that you would have thought were sure fired All-Stars, two of the three made the roster in right fielder Bryce Harper and starting pitcher Max Scherzer. The third was probably the biggest snub and that was closer Drew Storen, who has enjoyed his best season yet.
Storen has 25 saves in 27 opportunities with a 1.97 ERA and 37 strike outs. The 27-year-old is far from the pitcher he was in the two games he blew saves in during the postseason (Game 5 of the 2012 NLDS and Game 2 of the 2014 NLDS). He is much more confident and pitching like it too. One reason and maybe the biggest reason that I believe Storen was snubbed is because he doesn’t provide the star power and the velocity on his fastball like Aroldis Chapman of the Reds or Trevor Rosenthal of the Cardinals have. Storen is second in WHIP (0.97) behind Milwaukee Brewers and All-Star Francisco Rodriguez and second in saves behind Pittsburgh Pirates All-Star closer Mark Melancon, who has 27 saves in 28 chances this season.
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Again to touch on the past, people remember Storen blowing saves for the Nationals in the 2012 and 2014 playoffs and that has been a knock on the relief pitcher. Other than Rosenthal, who has been absolutely fantastic I would take Storen on this National League All-Star roster over any of the other relief pitchers that were selected. Something to keep in mind about Storen’s season. His only two blown saves (April 21 and June 24) occurred in 1-0 ballgames. Plus, he gave up three runs on June 16 vs. the Rays when the Nationals already had a 16-1 win. If Storen had not given up those runs, his ERA would be much lower:
Storen gave up 3run HR with #Nats up 16-1 couple weeks ago at #Rays. Without that, ERA would be 1.15. Would be unfortunate if that cost him.
— Mark Zuckerman (@MarkZuckerman) July 6, 2015
Last night, Storen commented on not making the All-Star roster to the Washington Post here is what he had to say.
"“It’s disappointing. I’ll be honest, who doesn’t want to be on the all-star team?” Storen said. “But I’m extremely happy with my performance this first half, and I think on a bigger scale that’s more important than anything else. I’d rather be disappointed in that than disappointed in my performance.” (h/t Chelsea Janes, The Washington Post)"
There is still hope for Storen to get on the roster if an injury happens or there are a few unavailable starting pitchers, but that decision would be NL manager Bruce Bochy‘s. At the moment, Storen is the biggest snub from this year’s crop, but lets hope that Bochy brings the closer into the fold before next week’s All-Star Game in Cincinnati.