Jose Quintana Is Finally An All Star

It’s about goddamn time.  Jose Quintana has been the most underrated pitcher in the game for 3+ seasons now.  Not one of the most, the most.  Ever since he was a rookie in 2012, he’s been an unbelievably consistent performer.  He has guaranteed the White Sox 200+ innings, a 3.30ish ERA and 25+ quality starts Every. Single. Year.   He’d be the best pitcher in most rotations.  He’s just had the shit luck of getting god awful run support every year with bad defense behind him.  He has zero room for error just about any time he takes the mound, and it’s reflected in his mediocre career W/L record.  One can even argue that he’s been better than Chris Sale over the last 35 or so starts.

Hardly anyone outside of White Sox fans know this because he’s just not a sexy pitcher.  He doesn’t have a 97MPH fastball, a knee buckling curveball or a wipe out change up.  There’s nothing flashy about him.  But he goes out and gives 6-7 innings of 2-3 run baseball almost every start, and that’s invaluable.  Be it the eye test, standard metrics or advanced metrics, Q is just a flat out stud.  It’s really as easy as that.  And he’s finally been vindicated.

Here’s a list of fWAR leaders from 2013-2016 for starting pitchers:

Now, if the Sox were to trade him in the next year or so, he’d command a massive, massive return.  He’s one of the best pitchers in baseball signed to one of the best contracts in baseball in his age 26 season.  I hope Q is pitching for the Sox for the remainder of his career, but should the Sox trade him they’d get a HAUL.  Top 20 prospects and more, just one more reason Q is so important to the Sox.