My All-Star Team: American League Pitchers

We've tackled the hitters from the American League and the hitters from the National League, now we'll try to tackle the American League pitching. There's only one qualification: starters need to qualify for the ERA title. Let's go through process of elimination to fill out the rest of our team which will include 8 starters and 5 relievers.

Starters: 55 starting pitchers qualify for the ERA title. We need to whittle that 55 down to 8 so let's start by cutting all pitchers with an ERA that isn't under 4.50. It's not the best statistic to start out with since it eliminates hard-luck guys like Gavid Floyd (4.80 ERA but 3.47 FIP), Luke Hochevar (4.96 ERA but 3.86 FIP) and Brandon Morrow (4.50 ERA but 3.43 FIP). It also eliminates such big names as A.J. Burnett (5.25 ERA), Ben Sheets (5.01 ERA), Jake Peavy (4.71 ERA), John Lackey (4.69 ERA), and Mark Buehrle (4.58 ERA). Some of them may have some great peripheral statistics and just have gotten burned, but if you have an ERA of 4.50 or above, you're not an All Star in my book.

Now we're down to 30 pitchers. Next we'll eliminate anyone whose winning percentage is less that .450 and haven't won more than 5 games. That gets rid of Zack Greinke (3-8), Dallas Braden (4-7), Jeremy Guthrie (3-9) and Jeremy Bondermon (4-5). Greinke is a tough loss here, but at 3-8, it's tough to convince me he's an All Star. I know that Win-Loss record is not a good metric to go on, but the truth is that despite Greinke or Braden's great pitching, their teams haven't won enough games to get them to the All-Star game. 26 left.

Next we want to eliminate anyone who has been really, really lucky. If you're ERA-FIP is less than -1.30, you've been extremely lucky in my book. So Jeff Niemann (2.72 ERA, 4.39 FIP) is out. And if you're xFIP is greater than 4.40, you're out as well. So say good-bye to Mitch Talbot (4.94 xFIP),  Fausto Carmona (4.48 xFIP), C.J. Wilson (4.60 xFIP) and Jason Vargas (4.81 xFIP). 21 left.

We'll move on here to FanGraphs' Pitching WAR. If you can't have more than 1.8 WAR at this point, you're not going to make our final list. So so long to Brett Cecil (1.6 WAR), Carl Pavano (1.7 WAR), Joel Piniero (1.7 WAR), Matt Garza (1.0 WAR), Gio Gonzalez (1.5 WAR), and Ervin Santana (1.4 WAR). This also means I will have to make my first really tough cut of the day and say so long to CC Sabathia, who, despite pitching wonderfully in June, still isn't an All Star (and may not be able to pitch anyways). 14 to go.

Now it's time to really roll up the sleeves and roll out our Honorable Mentions. Justin Verlander (9-5, 4.02 ERA, 93 K) is our first to go out of the final 14. He's seemed to be a victim of some bad luck (3.37 FIP), but I'm not sure how he makes our All-Star cut. I'm going to get roasted for dropping a 10-game winner with the third best ERA in the American League but Clay Buchholz has been extremely lucky (3.47 FIP, 4.28 xFIP) and his 1.68 SO/BB ratio is 45th best in the American League. To show I'm not eliminating Buchholz just because he's a Red Sox player, I'm going to eliminate Andy Pettitte next. Andy has been dandy and I wouldn't be surprised if Joe Girardi rewarded him with an All-Star Game start--but I'm not sure it's correct to do so. Pettitte (3.76 FIP, 4.03 xFIP) has been just as lucky as Buchholz and despite being 9-2 with a 2.72 ERA, he's getting cut from the list in a VERY tough American League. The last three to go are Shaun Marcum, John Danks (pictured right) and Colby Lewis. In any other year, these three would probably be All Stars, but 2010 has provided some spectacular pitching seasons and eliminates those three. Danks (2.2 WAR) was probably the toughest to cut, but guys like Ricky Romero and Felix Hernandez with similar stats look better. Marcum and Lewis have both been surprisingly fabulous with 2.1 WAR, but they don't have any eye-popping peripherals to get them over the hump (though Marcum's fabulous 2.09 BB/9 almost got him over the hump). Those are our tough-luck honorable mentions.

Now for the players who made it: David Price made it based on his counting stats. He's had more luck than most people on his list and his SO/BB ratio of 2.21 is only good for 33rd in the AL, but his 11 wins is first in the AL and his 2.44 ERA is second. He was the last one in, but he deserves a spot. Felix Hernandez and Francisco Liriano make it despite only .500 records because of the strength of their other statistics. Liriano actually leads the AL in WAR (3.8) due to the second best FIP (2.19) and best xFIP (3.00) in the American League. King Felix (who, amazingly, is only 24!) looks like he's having a down year but his league-leading 112.2 innings have including 3 SO/BB and a WAR of 2.5 that is 6th in the American League. As good as Felix Hernandez has been, Ricky Romero has been even better, despite only producing a 6-4 record. Romero has a 2.83 ERA and 2.9 WAR. Phil Hughes and Jon Lester will represent two of the best teams in baseball--and deservingly so. Hughes is 10-1 with a 3.17 ERA, 3.12 SO/BB, and 7.43 H/9 and a FIP of 3.25 that both rank 6th in the AL. Lester has been even better at times with a FIP of 3.01, 9.34 K/9, 3.2 WAR, and a league-leading 6.56 H/9. Jered Weaver is one of the more underrated pitchers in the American League and is putting together his best season. His 4.92 SO/BB ratio and 3.0 WAR is buoyed by a league-leading 10.45 SO/9. He might not be able to pitch, either.But the best pitcher in the American League so far and the guy who should be the American League starter is Cliff Lee who despite only making 11 starts is 6-3 with a league-leading 2.39 ERA. Much more impressively, he has an insane 19.00 SO/BB ratio having walked 4 batters all season! The modern-day record is held by Bret Saberhagen who had an 11.00 SO/BB ratio in 1994. No other player has ever had over 9.60. Simply amazing.

Counting Stats: Lee 6-3, 2.39 ERA, 76 K, 0.912 WHIP; Price 11-3, 2.44 ERA, 84 K, 1.214 WHIP; Romero 6-4, 2.83 ERA, 103 K, 1.231 WHIP; Lester 9-3, 2.86 ERA, 111 K, 1.112 WHIP; Weaver 7-3, 3.01 ERA, 118 K, 1.092 WHIP; Hughes 10-1, 3.17 ERA, 78 K, 1.13 WHIP; Hernandez 5-5, 3.28 ERA, 105 K, 1.189 WHIP; Liriano 6-6, 3.47 ERA, 106 K, 1.257 WHIP.

Relievers: Relievers are going to best just as tough as starters in my opinion. We'll whittle down the list by picking only people who have 25 innings pitched so far this season. It's not a perfect number, but it will eliminate quite a few names (leaves us with 62). Then we need to sort by ERA. Although starters get a 4.50 threshold, it will be lowered a full run down to 3.50 for relievers. Not perfect, I know, but it's what we need to do. That 3.50 threshold eliminates 30 candidates including the hard-luck likes of Kevin Gregg (18 saves but 4.20 ERA), Bobby Jenks (17 saves, 10.86 K/9, but 4.03 ERA), Jonathan Papelbon (17 saves but 3.86 ERA), Frank Francisco (3.31 K/BB and 11.73 K/9, but 4.36 ERA) and Andy Sonnanstine (3.86 K/BB but 3.57 ERA). We're down to 32.

We'll try to carefully pick out those who have been extra-lucky so far this season and start with anyone with an ERA-FIP of greater than 1.5. That includes Andrew Bailey (1.74 ERA, 3.33 FIP), Matt Guerrier (1.75 ERA, 3.41 FIP), Dustin Hughes (3.16 ERA, 4.85 FIP), Manny Delcarmen (3.24 ERA, 5.02 FIP), Chris Perez (3.00 ERA, 4.80 FIP), Chris Ray (3.41 ERA, 5.28 FIP), Shawn Camp (2.23 ERA, 4.30 FIP), Brian Duensing (1.95 ERA, 4.09 FIP), and, most difficult of all, Jose Valverde (0.53 ERA, 2.78 FIP, but would have got eliminated anyways due to his ridiculous mound antics among other things). Down to 23. We'll move our xFIP limit down to 4.05 so say so-long to Fernando Rodney (5.00), Eddie Bonine (4.66), Alex Burnett (4.41), Phil Coke (4.75), Craig Breslow (4.42), Brad Ziegler (4.51), Sergio Mitre (4.61), and Darren O'Day (4.13 xFIP). That leaves us with 15.

Kyle Farnsworth gets eliminated off the bat. He's disqualified from ever participating in another All-Star Game in my book. Jason Berken and Brandon League both have sub-3 SO/BB ratios which is not All-Star worthy for a reliever. Scott Downs has pitched well but 5 losses so far isn't All Star worthy. Grant Balfour has pitched extremely well but there are middle relievers who have pitched better and he gets cut. The same goes for Joel Zumaya who despite already racking up a WAR of 1.0, isn't as good as some of his competition.

So we're down to 9 and it's time for the Honorable Mentions: Daniel Bard has had a great season for the Red Sox, but despite his 2.06 ERA, he doesn't match up with the other set-up men on our list. His 3.5 (only 10th best among AL relievers) SO/BB ratio is actually inflated by his 9.61 K/9 since his 2.75 BB/9 are a bit high for a reliever--but his 4 blown saves knocks him off the running. Although Neftali Feliz leads the league in saves for one of the best teams in baseball, his 3.37 SO/BB and 2.97 BB/9 are actually higher than Bard's and he has been shaky at times for Texas. I can--at most--take two non-closers and so Matt Thornton gets the next elimination. This despite striking out a ridiculous 12.79 per 9 and leading American League closers in WAR at 1.4. His 3.13 ERA, however, is what does him in for a group of sub 2.50 ERAs. Non-closers need to be extra special to make an All-Star team. The last out is between J.J. Putz, Jon Rauch and Darren Oliver. Despite his dazzling 1.27 ERA, 5.71 SO/BB and 10.19 K/9, I'm not sure Oliver can truly overthrow Putz or Rauch for the final spot. So Oliver is the last one out.

Now on to our All Stars. J.J. Putz is our one non-closer and he's been fantastic. A 1.95 ERA, and a 8.25 SO/BB ratio (only Cliff Lee is better), along with 10.73 SO/9 gets him the nod. Injured last year with the Mets, Putz has been one of the best comeback stories in the league this season that no one seems to know about. Jon Rauch has filled in amazingly for Joe Nathan, saving 17 games for the AL Central-leading Twins and walking less than one batter per nine innings and posting 7 Ks for every walk given up. The two marks against Rauch is his lack of Ks (only 6.52 K/9) and his high number of hits (a hit an inning), but his other numbers make him one of the best closers in the league. Joakim Soria has had a down year in many people's eyes but don't tell him that. 19 saves ranks him second in the AL and his 5.14 SO/BB and 11.3 K/9 ratios make him one of the more dangerous closers in the AL. And the last two spots go to one guy who is a huge surprise and one guy who is a constant in this spot: Rafael Soriano and Mariano Rivera. Both are having excellent seasons for top clubs and have SO/BB ratios around 5. Soriano was an afterthought in the closer musical chairs of last winter but has saved 18 games (only one blown save) with a 1.63 ERA for the Rays. Rivera has a 0.95 ERA, has given up only one home run (leading to his only blown save), and has an amazing 3.68 H/9.

Counting Stats: Soria 0-1, 19 saves, 36 K, 2.51 ERA; Soriano 2-0, 18 saves, 26 K, 1.63 ERA; Rauch 2-1, 17 saves, 21 K , 2.48 ERA; Rivera 2-1, 17 saves, 29 K, 0.92 ERA; Putz 4-2, 1 save, 33 K, 1.95 ERA.

And those are my 2010 AL All Stars. Agree? Disagree? Anyone I left out or anyone I put in that you think is a big mistake? Let us know in the comments below. Next up will be the NL All-Star pitchers which will certainly be some tough choices.

Photos from Seattle P-I, european pressphoto agency, Los Angeles Times, USA Today, Examiner.com, and The Star-Ledger, respectively.