Shōta's an All-Star and the Cubs are getting punchy

The red hot Cubs have won three of four and got even more good news when Shōta Imanaga was named to the NL All-Star team. I mean, what more could ask for? What a fun season!

Oh, right. The Cubs have only won six of their last 17 games and if Shōta wasn’t around, you’d have a helluva time making a case for anybody else going to that All-Star game.

Sure, Ian Happ had a game against the Phillies last week where he had 11 total bases and that’s great. But he also has had three stretches of 10 games or more without 11 total bases…total.

Shōta is 7-2 in his 16 starts and should probably be 11-2. He has a 3.16 ERA, which is good, but 17 of his 32 earned runs allowed came in just two starts. He’s allowed just 15 total in his other 14. Is that good? That seems good. Maybe the Cubs can appeal to MLB to get a hit changed to an error and shave a run or seven off that total. They do it for Justin Steele all the time.

Did Steele have a case to make the team, considering he has a sub three ERA? Well, he’s got one win in 13 starts. So, no. I know wins are a team stat, but come on. One?

Shota is the seventh Cubs rookie to be selected as an All-Star. If you wonder if this historically portended greatness for those players, well, no. It has not.

The last guy to do it before Shōta was (is, still technically) really good, so for Kris Bryant, yes it did. For the others?

Kosuke Fukudome (2008) was voted in by the fans and was slashing .279/.383/.408 at the break. He hit .217/.314/.326 after the break and while he eventually rebounded to be kinda pretty good for the two and half seasons he played for the Cubs after that, that’s all he ever was.

Geovany Soto (2008) also made that All-Star team as a rookie (the Cubs had eight All-Stars that year), and he went on to win Rookie of the Year that season. He was bad in 2009, good in 2010 and then meh at best for four other teams (the White Sox twice) over the next eight seasons.

Sam Jones (1955) won 14 games that year (yay!) and lost 20 (oh). He also led the league in strikeouts (yay!) and walks (oh.) And he led the league in hit batsmen. (Yikes.) He did make another All-Star team four years later when he led the NL in wins for the Giants. For his career Sam led the NL in strikeouts three times, and walks four times. He also got to star in the Flash Gordon movie.

Wait, that was Sam L. Jones. You know, that might not be the same guy.