When the 2012 All-Star game roster was released on Sunday, I scanned it to see which Yankees had made the roster. Of course there was the face of the Yankees, Derek Jeter who mad the roster 13 times in his career. Curtis Granderson after hitting 23 HR’s made the roster for the 2nd year in a row (he also seems to be a good candidate for the Home Run Derby). Robinson Cano who had made it to the All-Star Game 3 previous times in his career and who is the AL Home Run Derby captain made it for the fourth time in his career. CC Sabathia made the roster although he can’t pitch due to being on the DL. But after I had scanned the roster, I noticed that Rafael Soriano hadn’t made the roster, something that I felt like was a shocker since he has pitched so well this year.

Soriano started the year as the 7th inning man for the Yankees but all that had changed when Mariano Rivera went down for the year. Soriano moved into the closer role and had excelled there, saving 18 games in 19 save opportunities. Soriano in 30.1 innings has only given up 6 runs which equals a 1.78 ERA. So if Soriano has great numbers, then why didn’t he make the roster? It can’t be the reason that the Yankees can only have a certain number of players on the team since the Texas Rangers have 7 players (8 if Yu Darvish wins the Final Vote) heading to Kansas City.

This is supposed to be a game of the best of the best, and Rafael Soriano not being on the roster for a game of the best of the best is a gigantic snub. What more does Soriano have to do? Never give up runs again? It’s not going to happen since pitchers do make mistakes every once in a while. If Soriano doesn’t make it to the All-Star roster by the time the final game ends on Sunday before the break, then this will prove that Soriano is one of the most underrated closers in baseball; and he won’t even be recognized by Major League Baseball.