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Probably the main block between Ziegler and an All-Star spot is, unfortunately, his lack of saves, since All-Star bullpens tend to be dominated by closers He didn't take over that job for Arizona from Addison Reed until mid-May, Z picking up his first save in our 40th game of the season. Not that Reed exactly had all that many to start with, but it still left Brad with a hefty deficit. There are 13 pitchers in the National League who currently have more saves than Reed, though you'd be hard pushed to say all of them have pitched better. For example, Craig Kimbrel may have 21 saves, but his ERA+ is 112, trailing far behind Ziegler's 320.
Indeed, if you look at the 15 closers in the league, Ziegler's stats stack up very well: the only one whose ERA (or ERA+) is undeniably better, is Trevor Rosenthal of the Cardinals, who has 24 saves and an 0.70 ERA. But beyond that, it gets a lot murkier. Here are the full stats for all those with more than five saves in the National League so far - which, from what I can see, appears to work out nicely at one player from each team. They're sorted by ERA+
Rk | Player | SV | Tm | W | L | IP | H | R | ER | BB | SO | ERA | ERA+ | BA | OBP | SLG | OPS |
1 | Trevor Rosenthal | 24 | STL | 1 | 1 | 38.1 | 27 | 3 | 3 | 13 | 42 | 0.70 | 546 | .197 | .267 | .241 | .508 |
2 | A.J. Ramos | 13 | MIA | 0 | 1 | 37.2 | 18 | 5 | 5 | 10 | 46 | 1.19 | 322 | .142 | .209 | .205 | .413 |
3 | Jeurys Familia | 22 | NYM | 2 | 0 | 38.2 | 23 | 5 | 5 | 12 | 40 | 1.16 | 321 | .172 | .238 | .261 | .499 |
4 | Brad Ziegler | 12 | ARI | 0 | 1 | 36.0 | 21 | 6 | 5 | 10 | 19 | 1.25 | 320 | .171 | .233 | .268 | .501 |
5 | Francisco Rodriguez | 18 | MIL | 0 | 2 | 31.0 | 18 | 5 | 5 | 9 | 36 | 1.45 | 271 | .168 | .231 | .262 | .492 |
6 | Mark Melancon | 26 | PIT | 1 | 1 | 39.0 | 31 | 8 | 7 | 8 | 27 | 1.62 | 233 | .217 | .258 | .280 | .538 |
7 | Jonathan Papelbon | 14 | PHI | 1 | 1 | 31.2 | 26 | 8 | 6 | 7 | 34 | 1.71 | 228 | .218 | .279 | .336 | .615 |
8 | Aroldis Chapman | 16 | CIN | 3 | 3 | 34.1 | 23 | 7 | 7 | 19 | 60 | 1.83 | 212 | .184 | .297 | .232 | .529 |
9 | Kenley Jansen | 13 | LAD | 2 | 1 | 18.2 | 10 | 4 | 4 | 1 | 32 | 1.93 | 196 | .156 | .164 | .313 | .477 |
10 | John Axford | 13 | COL | 1 | 1 | 22.2 | 17 | 7 | 6 | 10 | 21 | 2.38 | 190 | .205 | .284 | .265 | .549 |
11 | Drew Storen | 24 | WSN | 1 | 0 | 31.0 | 24 | 7 | 7 | 6 | 36 | 2.03 | 188 | .214 | .264 | .259 | .523 |
12 | Hector Rondon | 12 | CHC | 3 | 1 | 34.1 | 27 | 9 | 8 | 8 | 29 | 2.10 | 182 | .216 | .263 | .328 | .591 |
13 | Jason Grilli | 22 | ATL | 3 | 3 | 30.2 | 27 | 12 | 10 | 10 | 39 | 2.93 | 130 | .227 | .285 | .370 | .654 |
14 | Santiago Casilla | 20 | SFG | 4 | 2 | 29.2 | 28 | 11 | 10 | 12 | 30 | 3.03 | 118 | .250 | .331 | .411 | .741 |
15 | Craig Kimbrel | 21 | SDP | 1 | 2 | 31.0 | 26 | 12 | 11 | 14 | 44 | 3.19 | 112 | .228 | .313 | .368 | .681 |
If you are going to pick half a dozen from that list, you could certainly make a case that excluding Ziegler would be unjustly overlooking him. He's ranked fourth by ERA and ERA+, and fifth by OPS against. But I'm not sure if that is going to be enough: fingers crossed for Ziggy. We'll find out tomorrow: the starting position players will be announced later today, kicking off at 4:30pm Arizona time, and then the pitchers and reserves tomorrow, that show beginning at 4pm Monday.
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