Justin Steele, Marcus Stroman, Dansby Swanson Named to All-Star Team
Marcus Stroman announced his All-Star selection via Twitter and then Adbert Alzolay congratulated both Stroman and Justin Steele on their selections. Stroman subsequently congratulated Dansby Swanson on making the NL squad, then proceeded to advocate for Alzolay, Nico Hoerner, and Mark Leiter Jr.
All-Star. Thankful and grateful always! 🗣️⭐️ @Cubs
— Marcus Stroman (@STR0) July 2, 2023
Congrats to @STR0 @J_Steele21 all stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.. best 1-2 punch in the league
— Adbert Alzolay (@adbert29) July 2, 2023
Steele’s 2.43 ERA leads all qualified pitchers and his nine wins are tied with Stroman for third in the NL. It’s worth noting that Steele has made fewer starts than wins leaders Zac Gallen and Clayton Kershaw, plus the Cubs have a worse record than either the Dodgers or Diamondbacks.
Swanson leads all NL shortstops with 2.9 fWAR and he’s third in MLB at his position, so it’s easy to see how he got the nod. That’s a whole half-win better than Carlos Correa (0.8) and Trea Turner (1.6) combined, and Xander Bogaerts is at 1.8 fWAR. Seems like the Cubs ended up making a pretty good decision even after we were all clamoring for them to go bigger.