It feels a little bit like hanging Christmas lights before Thanksgiving to write about this now, but Dan Haren needs to be the AL starter in the All-Star Game if he keeps pitching the way he has been.
Haren has stepped up and replaced the perpetually injured Rich Harden as the A’s ace. He is leading the league in all the right categories, though Oakland’s tattered remains of a bullpen and struggling offense have cost him some wins.
That shouldn’t matter with his ERA under 2.00 and BAA under.200, both leading the American League, but it’s not only those dominating stats that should earn him the hill on All-Star weekend. With the game being played in San Francisco, how great of a moment would it be for Bay Area baseball fans to watch the A’s ace take the hill, potentially against Giants slugger Barry Bonds?
Bonds currently sits in third place in All-Star voting for NL outfielders.
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Here are the some of the likely AL All-Star starter candidates’ stats through May 5 (AL ranking in parenthesis):
Dan Haren, A’s:
6-2 (t-5th in wins), 1.70 ERA (1st), 90 IP (2nd), 70 K’s (7th), .178 BAA (1st)
John Lackey, Angels:
9-3 (1st in wins), 2.37 ERA (2nd), 79.2 IP (7th), 65 K’s (10th), .240 BAA (15th)
Josh Beckett, Red Sox:
8-0 (t-2nd in wins), 2.95 ERA (5th), 64 IP (34th), 59 K’s (16), .214 BAA (4th)
C.C. Sabathia, Indians:
8-1 (t-2nd), 3.78 ERA (20th), 81 IP (6th), 75 K’s (t-3rd), .278 BAA (33rd)
Johan Santana, Twins:
6-5 (t-5th in wins), 3.30 ERA (12th), 79 IP (8th), 91 K’s (2nd), .225 (7th)
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Haren was awarded as the AL’s Pitcher of the Month for May.
