Cincinnati Reds’ Zack Cozart no longer deserving of All-Star start

With another leg injury Cincinnati Reds’ Zack Cozart has cost himself the right to start the All-Star Game.

Prior to injuring his quad, Cincinnati Reds’ Zack Cozart was the best shortstop in the National League without a doubt.  With this injury the Los Angeles Dodgers’ Corey Seager and the Washington Nationals’ Trea Turner have staked their claim as having better first halves of the season.

Seager now leads NL shortstops in hits, runs, and home runs.  Turner leads the NL shortstops in steals so far this season.  Cozart still leads qualifying shortstops in batting average and OBP, despite trying to play through the quad injury.

Among the three, Cozart is still the best defensive shortstop by a  good margin.  Turner’s athleticism is such that he may someday surpass Cozart in that area and battle Addison Russell of the Chicago Cubs for the Gold Glove.  Seager’s defense is solid and resembles Cal Ripken’s more than Omar Vizquel’s for style.

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The other shortstop that has been having a quietly great season is Chris Owings of the Arizona Diamondbacks.  He is leading the NL shortstops in RBIs while ranking second in steals.  He has also spent some time in right field and at second base for Arizona.

There are other Cincinnati Reds that should be on the team with Zack Cozart, most notably Joey Votto.

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For the past several years the NL has been home to the two best first baseman in baseball, Joey Votto and Paul Goldschmidt of the Diamondbacks.  Ryan Zimmerman of the Nationals got off to a great start, but both Goldschmidt and Votto have passed him in recent weeks if not in All-Star votes.  Goldschmidt leads NL first basemen in hits, runs, RBIs, steals, and OBP among qualifiers.

The other Red that deserves to make the team almost as much as Cozart and Votto is first year closer, Raisel Iglesias.

It is more difficult to quantify a closer’s impact on a losing team, but the bullpen solidified under him this year.  In fact it may be so difficult to quantify his impact that he may miss the team because of it.

In the entire NL only two closers have more saves with fewer blown saves.  They are Wade Davis of the Cubs and Kenley Jansen of the Dodgers.  Jansen is the only closer with more saves in the NL that has a WHIP below one, like Raisel’s 0.96.  Jansen is also the only closer in the NL with more saves that also has more strikeouts than Raisel’s 45.  That makes Jansen the definitive best NL closer this season.

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Cozart deserves to make the team, if he is healthy in time, before the Reds trade him away.  Iglesias has done enough to earn the right, but may lose his spot due to his bad team.  Regardless of anything else, Votto should be the top back-up to Goldschmidt at first for the NL team in Miami.