NL All-Star Pitchers

We continue rolling out the 2017 All-Star set with the pitchers from the National League. A reminder: these cards were constructed using only pre-All Star game statistics, so they're inevitably a bit overpowered due to the small sample size. Unsurprisingly, many of these pitchers were unable to maintain their incredible first half stats throughout 2017. However, Stephen Strasburg actually finished the season with a better card and Kershaw, Scherzer, and Ray maintained their excellent tier 2 status. Meanwhile, Alex Wood dropped down a tier and Greg Holland basically had his arm fall off in Coors Field, going from a sub-2 to a 3.61 ERA between the break and end of the season.



Starting Pitching: Max Scherzer gets the start for the NL squad, followed in the "rotation" by fellow future Hall-of-Fame stud Clayton Kershaw. Kershaw's surprising teammate (and sole Tier 1 starter in the set) Alex Wood makes the team too, followed by a pair of DBacks in Greinke and Ray. Scherzer's teammate Strasburg makes the team too, giving three teams nearly 86% of the all-star game starting pitching. Rounding out the All Star starters is Carlos Martinez, with a solid David Cone-like chart.

Bullpen: What a strength! Perhaps nothing illustrates the rise of the bullpen in baseball quite like the depth of excellent Showdown cards. Jansen is as steady as ever, putting in a sub-one ERA in the first half. Meanwhile, guys like Wade Davis and Greg Holland kept their Royals stardom going in the first half of 2017, with both guys keeping their ERAs below 2. Pat Neschek was a lone bright spot in Philly, where he will return this year after being dealt to Colorado at the 2017 trade deadline. Corey Knebel was incredible in Milwaukee, helping the Brewers finish 10 games over .500 with his huge K-rate. Brad Hand also brings a steady card out of San Diego. There is no real weakness at all in the back end of the NL pitching staff!