Oakland A's: Did Gio Gonzalez Deserve the Athletics' All Star Spot?

Some might say that Gio Gonzalez is on the 2011 All-Star team due to the fact that every Major League team has to have a representative.

Others would argue that he has pitched well enough to be selected regardless of the rules.  Actually if you look at some of the other pitchers on the roster and the way Gio has pitched down the stretch of the first half, that argument definitely has merit.

Compared to guys like Michael Pineda and Felix Hernandez, the two starting pitchers from the Seattle Mariners who made the All-Star team, Gio is right in the mix.  Pineda is 8-6 with a 3.03 ERA and 113 strikeouts.  King Felix weighs in at 8-7 with a 3.19 ERA and 140 Strikeouts.

Gonzalez is 8-6 with a 2.47 ERA, (ERA ranks fifth in American League), and 111 strikeouts.  I know that Hernandez and Pineda are the sexier picks and the pair doesn't receive a lot of run support, which hurts them in terms of wins and losses.

Run support? If your a pitcher in Oakaland, run support is like trying to find a clock in Las Vegas so please don't talk to Gio when it comes to run support.  In five of his six losses Gonzalez has received two runs or less of run support four times.

Although Gonzalez stumbled in his last start, the young lefty has been the only diamond in a big bucket of coal that is the Oakland A's.

For the purposes of this article I only needed to convince fans that Gio was the most deserving Athletic to make the All-Star roster, but I wanted to make it a fair fight so I put him up against other pitchers from other teams.

Let's be real here folks, other than Trevor Cahill and Grant Balfour, who did American League manager Ron Washington have to choose from?

Cahill wouldn't have been too surprising but the way he tripped and skinned his knee in mid May and into June, put him out of the running.

Balfour made a great case for himself until his injury.

On offense the only player making any noise is rookie Jemile Weeks, but he hasn't played in nearly enough games to be an All-Star selection.

If anyone thinks that someone else should have taken Gio's spot, please feel free to let me know.

Unless I'm totally missing something here I think Ron Washington was looking at a no-brainer when this decision had to be made.