0 of 8 Julie Jacobson/Associated Press The rosters for the 2018 Major League Baseball All-Star team are hot off the presses. Naturally, the only thing to do now is to calmly take it all in. Just kidding. Now is the time for raising eyebrows and shaking fists. We're going to run through the biggest surprises and snubs (four of each) for the squads that the American League and National League have lined up for July 17 at Nationals Park. The surprises range from upsets in the starting lineup to unexpected reserves. The snubs are just that: snubs. Let's count 'em down, starting with the biggest surprises.<doc-sep>2018 MLB All-Star Game rosters were announced Sunday afternoon, and largely featured the players we expected. While a handful more will make the team via the Final Vote, there a few players who were outright snubbed from the team, and will have to rely on scheduling quirks or injuries to other players to have any chance of making the team. Below, we’ve highlighted the biggest snubs from Sunday’s announced rosters. We’re not talking about your favorite player who happens to be a borderline All-Star; these are guys whose quality of play and lack of named to the team make them true outliers. With the catch-all way voting works, there aren’t a ton of deserving players who will actually get left off the roster. If you’re unfamiliar with the process here’s a refresher: Fan voting accounts for the nine AL and eight NL position players that will start the game. Players vote to add eight pitchers (five starters and three relievers) and one back-up player for each position. All-Star managers then work with the other manager in his league to pick nine NL and eight AL players, will filling his league’s roster up to 33 players. One additional player per league is voted on by fans through the Final Vote ballot of five players, which is compiled by the manager of each league’s team and the Commissioner’s Office, rounding the rosters out at 34. However, after the initial 34 are selected, the Commissioner’s Office picks replacements for players who are injured, pitchers who started on the Sunday before the game, or others don’t intend to play for whatever reason. Notably, many of the snubs are pitchers, which points to an issue within player voting rather than fan voting. Tampa Bay Rays starter Blake Snell is the biggest snub of All-Star voting. (AP Photo). Blake Snell, SP, Tampa Bay Rays Leading the league in ERA (2.09) with the second-most wins, Snell had a legitimate case to start the game, but wasn’t voted in. He’s striking out nearly 30 percent of batters and holding opponents to a .182 batting average. Lucky for him, his fellow top AL pitchers Justin Verlander and Trevor Bauer are scheduled to pitch the Sunday before the game, so Snell is as close to a lock as you can get for the Commissioner’s office to put him on the team. However, Yankees ace Luis Severino is more likely to start the game. Story continues Rays teammate Chris Archer voiced his concern that players didn’t do Snell justice: Jed Lowrie, 2B, Oakland Athletics Lowrie is indisputably the second-best second baseman in the AL by a number of metrics, but by fWAR it’s not even close. He trails only starter Jose Altuve in the fWAR column, and is worth a full win above the next-best guy. He leads AL second basemen in RBIs and extra base hits, and is tied for the home run lead, and is second in OPS and second in WAR. He’s hitting .347 with RISP, and .394 with nine homers and 27 RBI from the 7th inning or later. Overall, the 34-year-old is has tied his career-high of 16 homers – an above-average amount of power coming from the position. Adam Ottavino, P, Colorado Rockies Not only is Ottavino having a standout in relation to the rest of the field, but personally, he’s having a breakout year of impressive proportions. After racking up a 5+ ERA in 63 appearances in 2017, he’s sporting a 1.79 ERA in 37 appearances in 2018. He’s striking out over 41 percent of batters, has .92 WHIP, and is holding his opponents to a .157 batting average. The Rockies have three hitters on the roster, and Ottavino thinks they’re monopolizing the team’s space. "I'm not surprised," Adam Ottavino said of not making the NL all-star roster. "It's because I'm on the Rockies. Pitchers don't get any credit playing for the Rockies." — Nick Groke (@nickgroke) July 8, 2018 Andrelton Simmons, SS, Los Angeles Angels Despite missing time with an ankle injury in June, Simmons has been his usual All-Star-worthy self – but wasn’t voted onto the team. The 28-year-old is slashing .312/.373/.442 and joins Francisco Lindor as the only MLB shortstop worth over 3.2 wins. He doesn’t really hit for power, but has arguably the best glove in baseball. Simmons is on the Final Vote ballot, which means there’s still time to get him on the team. Click here to participate in the Final Vote. Los Angeles Angels’ Andrelton Simmons could still make the game. (AP Photo) Ross Stripling, P, Los Angeles Dodgers Stripling alone is much of the reason the Dodgers’ rotation was able to stay afloat while Clayton Kershaw missed so many weeks on the DL earlier this season. Through 13 starts (and 24 appearances total), he’s sporting a 2.22 ERA, is keeping the hone run rate down around one per nine innings, and is striking out over 28 percent of batters while inducing almost 50 percent ground balls. His ERA is good for second in the NL, behind only Jacob DeGrom, and he’s been worth 2.4 wins (6th in the NL). As with Blake Snell, Stripling is highly likely to replace a starter on the team who is pitching Sunday. Conveniently, his manager Dave Roberts is also the All-Star Game manager, and made it all-but-final that this will happen: Roberts on Stripling: "Obviously every year … starters on their start days are not available to pitch in the All-Star Game, and certain other guys get opportunities. Ross is one of those guys. In our opinion, he’s an All-Star." — J.P. Hoornstra (@jphoornstra) July 8, 2018 Juan Soto, OF, Washington Nationals Given that the struggling host Washington Nationals are sending Bryce Harper (batting .219) as their lone position player to the game, it would have been nice to see some recognition for the rookie Soto. The 19-year-old is batting .308 with eight homers and 26 RBI in 43 games. He’s also walking a whopping 16.1 percent of the time, leading to an OPS of .987. Jesus Aguilar, 1B, Milwaukee Brewers Another Final Vote candidate, Aguilar is batting .303 with 20 home runs and 59 RBI. He’s been worth 2.4 wins to his team, and is second among NL first basemen with a wRC+ of 153, which adjust a player’s Runs Created value to take into account external factors like ballpark or time period. He certainly appears the most qualified among Final Vote candidates, only to be rivaled by the Dodgers’ Max Muncy, who has hit for a significantly lower average. Click here to participate in the Final Vote. Jeremy Jeffress, P, Milwaukee Brewers Jeffress is yet another NL pitcher to be left off the roster. He currently holds a 1.05 ERA (best in the NL) through 42 appearances, and is holding opponents to a .156 batting average. His WHIP is also down at .84. He likely was slighted by the fact that his bullpen-mate Josh Hader has been even better, and has 1.3 wins more to show for it. More from Yahoo Sports: • Kyrie Irving never wanted LeBron to return to Cleveland in 2014 • Here’s what the 2018 MLB All-Star teams should look like • Brazil’s hopes were dashed by World Cup’s dumbest rule • OSU sex abuse charge makes it clear that silence is a thing of the past<doc-sep>Three Rockies will be playing for the National League in the All-Star Game on July 17th in Washington, DC, but two deserving players will stay home. Nolan Arenado will make his fourth consecutive All-Star appearance. Arenado is in the midst of the best season of his already excellent career, and the fans really got it right by voting him in. The Rockies other two starters made it by way of the player vote. Trevor Story, Arenado’s partner on the left side of the infield, made his first All-Star team. Story’s having an excellent year at the plate, and he’s looked as good at short this year as he did in 2017 (although DRS doesn’t rate him very high). Charlie Blackmon also made the team by player vote. It’ll be his third appearance. Blackmon’s having a good but not great year, and nobody would have thought much of it if he was left off the roster. The two snubs came on the pitching side, and they were Dave Roberts’ decisions. Kyle Freeland is having a fantastic season by both traditional (3.18 ERA) and adjusted stats (150 ERA+). It’s even more surprising that Adam Ottavino didn’t make the team. Ottavino sports a 1.79 ERA in relief and has struck out 14.57 batters per nine innings. As Ottavino told Nick Groke, he thinks he didn’t make it because “I’m on the Rockies. Pitchers don’t get any credit for playing for the Rockies.” The proof is in the snubbing.<doc-sep>
If it were up to fans of the Boston Red Sox, the All-Star Game would feature 25 Red Sox players and nobody else. That is not how the rest of the voting public (including the players) see it. Even though they didn’t get 25 players on the roster, they did get five, which is still pretty great. Congratulations to Mookie Betts, J.D. Martinez, Mitch Moreland, Chris Sale and Craig Kimbrel. Even if it would be crazy to put 25 players from one team on an All Star, there were a few players from the Red Sox that had legitimate All-Star arguments. The two guys who got snubbed the most were Andrew Benintendi and Xander Bogaerts. Starting with Benintendi, his snub status could be erased if you all do the right thing and #VoteBenny every minute of every day. If it is not, then this will be a major snub. The AL has a ton of outfield talent, and Benintendi is among the top of that pool. He is tied for fourth in the league among outfielders in fWAR behind Mike Trout, Betts and Aaron Judge, sitting evenly with Martinez. The outfielders that made it above him (besides the four I just mentioned) are George Springer, Mitch Haniger, Michael Brantley and Shin-Soo Choo. All four are having fine, even great, seasons and its heartening to see Choo make the roster for the first time in his career, but Benintendi is having a better year than all of them. Choo is the only one of those four to have Benintendi beat in wOBA and wRC+, but Benintendi has been the superior base runner and defender, which is clearly shown in his fWAR total. As for the other five contenders on the Final Vote ballot with him, don’t make me laugh. Andrew Benintendi leads all American League final vote candidates in on-base percentage (.379), OPS (.894), runs scored per game (0.75), weighted on-base average (.388), runs (65), RBI (55), and stolen bases (16). #VoteBenny https://t.co/8FFfvtuFaT — Jared Carrabis (@Jared_Carrabis) July 9, 2018 Now let’s turn our attention to the X-Man. The AL has a lot of great shortstops. Manny Machado, Francisco Lindor, Jean Segura and Andrelton Simmons are just a few of the great options out there. Machado and Lindor both made the All Star team, while Simmons and Segura are on the Final Vote and Bogaerts is ... well he’s not. Bogaerts is having a sensational year, thanks to a big increase in his power numbers. He is third in the AL among shortstops in wRC+ and wOBA. There is a narrative that can be made that he should be in the Final Vote and not Simmons. But, as much as it pains me to say it, Bogaerts wasn’t snubbed. He is fifth in the AL among shortstops in fWAr, and even if he has superior power numbers to Simmons and Segura, those two bring some other fantastic things to the table. Simmons is one of the greatest defenders of his generation and Segura is batting .330 and has 14 stolen bases, which ranks second in the AL among shortstops. Bogaerts and Benintendi will both be on future All Star rosters. I’m sure of that. Also, as long as the Red Sox keep winning, does it really matter all that much that they didn’t this year? Still, as long as we are wrapped up in All Star fever, the level-headed response should be that Benintendi was snubbed a bit and Bogaerts just lost out to some other exceptional candidates. Now go #VoteBenny. Mookie Betts is the best right fielder in baseball right now. Is he the best... ever... for the Red Sox? (Matthew Kory; The Athletic) ($$) Christian Vazquez is going to miss nearly two months after surgery for a broken finger. (Jason Mastrodonato; Boston Herald) Stop complaining about David Price. (Chad Finn; Boston Globe) Hold on. The All Star snub we’re not talking about is Steve Pearce. I mean, he’s been pretty incredible with the Red Sox so far. That’s enough for me. I’m kidding, of course. I think. (Chris Cotillo; MassLive) The rest of the Red Sox’s schedule is going to be heavy on home games. (Nick Cafardo; Boston Globe) Let’s look at the push to get Andrew Benintendi into the All Star game. (Chad Jennings; The Athletic) ($$) Brian Johnson talks with the rest of the pitching staff about pitching and then follows some of his friends around the league.