Latest All-Star addition is insane slap in the face to Nathan Eovaldi

It's safe to say that the Texas Rangers' season has not gone as well as anyone had hoped. But that's certainly not the fault of Cy Young candidate Nathan Eovaldi. Despite missing some time with an injury, the veteran pitcher has genuinely been one of the best in the league, and that's why, when Detroit Tigers pitcher Casey Mize was picked as a fill-in for the AL All-Star team earlier this week, it was insane that Eovaldi wasn't picked instead.

Yes, the Tigers overall are having a better season than the Rangers. They've been looking like a shoo-in for the top seed in the American League playoffs later this year. But that's not how the All-Star game works.

Nathan Eovaldi’s elite stats expose puzzling Texas Rangers All-Star snub

When comparing Eovaldi and Mize, it makes absolutely no sense that the Texas Rangers hurler isn't joining teammate and lone Rangers representative Jacob deGrom on the All-Star team.

Mize has a better record (9-2 compared to 6-3), but pitcher wins have long been an overrated stat. Winning 20 games is nice, but neither pitcher will come close to that this year, so let's throw the record out the window.

Eovaldi is better in just about every stat one can possibly look at. The Rangers star has the edge in ERA (1.62 to 2.63), strikeouts per nine innings (9.3 to 7.7), walks per nine innings (1.4 to 2.2), complete game shutouts (1 to none), home runs allowed (4 to 11), and WHIP (0.852 to 1.179).

The advanced stats show that Eovaldi isn't just slightly better, but on a whole other level compared to Mize.

Eovaldi's FIP isn't much higher than his ERA (2.29), meaning that he's gotten close to the results he should have gotten. Meanwhile, Mize's FIP is more than a run higher than his ERA (3.79), suggesting some of his success has been due to good luck.

Finally, there's ERA+ to consider. Both pitchers are above average, but while Mize is outstanding at 153, Eovaldi is elite at 230.

This kind of thing is never really asked. But it probably should. Why was Casey Mize chosen over Nathan Eovaldi? What possible rationale was there? From the outside looking in, it certainly doesn't make much sense to Texas Rangers fans. And it really shouldn't make any sense to baseball fans in general.