Yoshinobu Yamamoto is not a Pacific League All-Star this year — at least not yet.

Of all the snubs from the Central and Pacific League rosters for NPB’s All-Star games this season, Yamamoto is the biggest by a wide margin. So much so that calling it just a snub does not do it justice.

The Orix Buffaloes’ ace pitcher may still make the team through NPB’s Plus One vote — a last-chance ballot through which fans will decide the final player for each roster for the series, which takes place at Vantelin Dome Nagoya on July 19 and Mazda Stadium in Hiroshima on July 20.

Dissecting All-Star rosters is a time-honored tradition among baseball fans and media. Anytime a roster is released, mobs form in support of players who they feel should have been named instead.

Yamamoto is a different case.

This is not splitting hairs over a few deserving candidates. Yamamoto’s numbers place him squarely among NPB’s elite pitchers, and this is the most glaring omission from an All-Star roster in some time.

The right-hander is 7-3 with a 1.89 ERA that ranked second among Pa League pitchers and fifth overall in NPB through Wednesday. Yamamoto was also second to Chiba Lotte Marines pitcher Roki Sasaki in the PL with a 0.89 WHIP and fourth with 81 strikeouts.

He was also tied with teammate Shunpeita Yamashita for the PL lead in wins.

Sasaki won the fan vote, and Buffaloes rookie Yamashita made it off the players’ ballot. That left the job of filling the roster to PL manager Satoshi Nakajima — Yamamoto’s manager with the Buffaloes.

So it’s probable Nakajima is trying to steal a few days of rest for his best pitcher. Which is understandable as Yamamoto had an earlier-than-usual start to his year due to being part of Japan’s triumphant World Baseball Classic team this spring. Nakajima, who said he consulted with the other PL managers before making his picks, also left off a few other WBC members. The Buffaloes’ Hiroya Miyagi, who is 6-2 with a 2.23 ERA, was not chosen, and neither was Tohoku Rakuten Golden Eagles closer Yuki Matsui, currently second in the league with 16 saves.

“Those players can get a little break from finishing up early, and I think it’s good if they can get some rest,” Nakajima was quoted as saying by Daily Sports on Wednesday. “They are not robots.”

Nakajima’s reasoning is sound.

It ignores, however, any prestige or benefit Yamamoto may glean from having another All-Star appearance on his resume. It’s also a knock on the game itself.

A better outcome would have been for Yamamoto to make the team and be held out of the game to manage his physical condition. That way, he is still an All-Star, and another player can take his place.

Because as it stands now, NPB is in a spot where Masahiro Tanaka, who is 4-5 and has a 4.60 ERA, the worst among all qualified starters, is an All-Star, and Yamamoto is not.

What does that say about the game?

The All-Star games are fun and do not mean much when it comes to the business of winning pennants and championships. There is, though, still a certain prestige attached to the All-Star experience.

Leaving a player like Yamamoto off the squad diminishes the game in a way and is not a good look for the league.

Second chances:

NPB held its first active player draft in December, allowing players languishing on one team to be drafted by another that can give them more opportunities.

Each team was required to sign at least one player, and two of the 12 turned out to be All-Stars.

Hanshin Tigers pitcher Kotaro Otake (formerly of the Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks) and Chunichi Dragons outfielder Seiya Hosokawa (DeNA BayStars) have been paying off in a big way for their new teams.

On Wednesday, they were named to the Central League All-Star team.

Otake had a 10-9 record and 4.07 ERA in 35 appearances (31 starts) across four seasons for the Hawks. He is 7-1 with a 1.13 ERA for the Tigers in 2023.

Hosokawa only had 204 at-bats in six seasons with the BayStars before being taken by Chunichi. He is batting .293 with 10 homers and 43 RBIs in 266 at-bats this season.

While the new draft was met with apathy by some in NPB, the success Otake and Hosokawa are enjoying could make teams more eager to seek out their own diamond in the rough in future drafts.

Don’t hate the player:

There are All-Star snubs every season, but Hanshin fans were partially responsible for a few this year.

The Tigers faithful stuffed the ballot box in fan voting, filling 10 of the 11 Central League spots on the fan ballot with Tigers players, whether or not the stats warranted it. And that’s OK.

While some supporters from other teams complained, the system worked like it was supposed to — with the fans ultimately deciding who they wanted to see in the All-Star games. Fans were allowed to fill out paper ballots in stadiums to their heart’s content, and Hanshin’s normally fervent fans went into overdrive for their first-place club.

NPB can fix this by moving 100% of the voting online and limiting fans to one ballot per day (or just one entirely).

Until then, every team’s fans had chances to voice their support this year, Tigers fans just roared far louder than the rest.