Clay Buchholz is having an All-Star season
COMMENTARY
The Red Sox are guaranteed at least one representative in the 2015 MLB All-Star Game, and choosing the best player from a last place bunch seems like a challenging task.
Xander Bogaerts, Koji Uehara, and Brock Holt are all among the candidates for the team’s mandatory All-Star nod. While all three have had solid seasons, the numbers say Clay Buchholz is the clear choice for the Red Sox All-Star bid, and he might not even need the “everyone gets a trophy’’ rule to earn it.
Buchholz ranks 12th in the AL in innings (101), ninth in strikeouts (96), 18th in earned run average (3.48), and 24th in WHIP (1.24). The traditional stats don’t blow you away, but they don’t tell the whole story.
The sabermetrics say Buchholz has been an elite pitcher in 2015. His 2.67 FIP ranks fourth in the league, trailing only Chris Sale, Chris Archer, and Corey Kluber. Buchholz has a fWAR of 2.7, which ranks sixth among AL pitchers, trailing only Sale, Archer, Kluber, Sonny Gray, and David Price.
How can Buchholz be mentioned in the same breath as those CY Young favorites and not have gaudy traditional stats? Some of it can be chalked up to bad luck. Hiss .332 BABIP ranks seventh in the league, but Buchholz ranks ninth in the AL in ground ball percentage and second in the league in HR/9. So even though he’s inducing ground balls and keeping the ball in the park, the hits are finding holes in the defense.
Amid all the fuss about how poor the Red Sox have pitched this season, Buchholz has been more reliable than ever. With a pair of club options for 2016 and 2017 ($13 million and $13.5 million respectively) that look more than reasonable given the market for front-of-the-rotation arms, Buchholz is understandably the topic of trade speculation.
Whether Boston should sell high on Buchholz now or hold onto their new ace can be debated. Whether he should represent the team at the All-Star Game in Cincinnati should not be.
Forgotten Red Sox All-Stars
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