Major League Baseball

Pirates teammates feel Burnett should be an All-Star

Published Jun. 23, 2015 2:08 p.m. ET

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Unless something goes horribly wrong, Pirates starter A.J. Burnett will likely make his first career All-Star team this season.

Burnett has pitched in 17 seasons – having already announced that he will retire at the end of 2015 – but has yet to make an All-Star team.

However, that should change in 2015 as he is 6-3 with a 2.05 ERA.

“There’s no way, in my eyes, A.J. shouldn’t be at that game this year,” fellow starter Jeff Locke told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. “It has nothing to do with this being his final year. This isn’t his last year on the Hall of Fame ballot, so let’s just get him in. It’s not like that. He’s definitely earned his way to being in that game this year.”

Pitchers aren't voted into the All-Star game the way the starting position players are so there's no need for a giant social media campaign encouraging fans to vote, but if there is anything Burnett's teammates can do to help him get to Cincinnati, they will do so.

“If there’s any way, shape or form we could influence whether or not he gets to go to that game, I think everybody would be on board,” Locke said. “Not because this is it for him, but because he deserves the recognition.”

(h/t Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
Photo Credit: Joe Robbins/Getty Images

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