Should The Duke have Been An All-Star?
I wasn’t too shocked to see Freddy Sanchez as the Pirates All-Star Rep, but I thought maybe it should have been Zach Duke. So what better way to do that than compare his stats to those of the pitchers who did make the All-Star game. There are 13 pitchers in the game 8 of them are starters. There are 4 stats I think are very important when judging a pitcher W-L, ERA, IP, and WHIP. I found out all these stats for the eight starters Santan, Lincecum, Lilly, Billingsley, Cain, Haren, Johnson, and Marquis then compared them to Duke and here is what I think
1.Win- Losses
The Win Loss record of a pitcher is very important to see what kind of pitcher they are talent wise and For the All Stars a big determining factor. The top Winner of the eight starters is Jason Marquis with a 10-5 record the lowest number of wins is Josh Johnson with only a 7-1 record. Duke has a record of 8-7, which is most comparable to Ted Lilly who is 8-6 & Dan Haren who is 8-5, and the other four all stars have 9 wins.
2.Earned Run Average (ERA)
ERA is a stat that tells the average number of runs a pitcher would surrender over the course of a full game to actually figure out this stat you multiply 9 by earned runs allowed divided by innings pitched. Well anyways it is a stat that is looked at closely by most people, and of the 8 starters the best ERA is 2.16 and belongs to Dan Haren. The worst ERA of an All Star pitcher is Jason Marquis with a 3.87 ERA. Zach Duke has an ERA of 3.28 that is better than Santana 3.29, Lilly 3.32, and Marqis 3.87. And the other 4 ERA’s are Lincecum 2.23, Cain 2.48, Johnson 2.76, and Billingsley 3.12
3.Innings Pitched (IP)
Most might think this is not an important stat when looking at the All Star selections but I think it is. I believe that it shows the stamina and how hard a pitcher works. The tops for this stat of the 8 are 121 innings pitched which is held by 2 Lincecum and Haren. The worst is 108.2 innings pitched by Cain. Zach Duke has pitched 118 innings none of the other 6 All Stars have more than Duke.
4.Walks + Hits / Innings Pitched (WHIP)
This is probably the most important stat when looking at a pitcher. It is a measure of a pitcher’s ability to prevent batters from reaching base. The top WHIP of the All star pitchers is Dan Haren’s .83 WHIP. The worst WHIP 1.31 belongs to Marquis. Zach Duke has a WHIP of 1.22 better than four of the all stars Santana and Cain both with a 1.23, Billingley with a 1.26, and the forementoined Marquis 1.31. While the other 3 lay not far below Lincecum 1.05, Johnson 1.13, and Lilly 1.14.
Should he have been in the All Star game wow is that hard to say well lets see I think his stats compare closely to the all star selections Which means yeah I think he should have and I believe would have had he won these game that he should have
May 01 vs. Cin He took the Loss While Pitching 7.0 Innings Giving up 6 Hits,1 ER,
0 HR, 2 Walks, and 5 Strikeouts
May 22 @CWS He took the Loss While Pitching 8.0 Innings Giving up 6 Hits,2 ER,
1 HR, 2 Walks, and 7 Strikeouts
May 27 @CHC He had a no decision While Pitching 7.0 Innings Giving up 8 Hits,2 ER,
0 HR, 2 Walks, and 3 Strikeouts
There are a couple more but those aren’t as bad when you go 7 and 8 innings and only give up 1 and 2 runs and lose that’s a problem just imagine those 3 wins he’d be 11-5 while all his other stats might still be the same he’d have the top Win- Loss record and most defiantly would be in the All Star. Even with these stats he has I think there is one Guy he Definitely Should Have Beat that’s Ted Lilly. They compare very closely and are both south paws so should Duke be in yes but he has one group to thank for non invite to the All Star game and that is the Pirates offense for taking the night off when Duke Starts
How Bout Dem Pirates 
I really didn’t know enough to back up my reasoning before this. I mean Ted Lilly? Really? Duke Nuke’em has better stats than half of those guys. This really hurts because I have no doubt that the fact that he pitches in Pittsburgh factors into this.