This story was excerpted from Todd Zolecki’s Phillies Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.

Every year, there are a few players who are upset about not making the All-Star team.

Zack Wheeler should be one of them. Major League Baseball announced the All-Star Game rosters on Sunday, and Wheeler did not make the cut for the National League roster. He could be added as a replacement player before the weekend, if a few pitchers cannot pitch. But Wheeler, who pitches Wednesday night in Toronto, should have made the squad from the jump.

He is 8-4 with a 2.46 ERA, making him one of the league’s best pitchers in the first half. Entering his Wednesday start in Toronto, Wheeler was second in the NL in FIP (2.46), fourth in fWAR (3.1), fifth in ERA (2.46), fourth in strikeout-to-walk ratio (4.95), sixth in strikeout rate (27.2), seventh in strikeouts (104) and seventh in bWAR (3.3). He has an NL-best 1.53 ERA and ranks second with 3.0 fWAR in 13 starts since April 28.

Wheeler’s snub got me thinking about previous All-Star snubs among Phillies players.

It is not easy to research such a thing because every year there are unusual circumstances (i.e. Player A should have made it, but these other six players had career years, etc.). So I asked MLB.com’s research department to find the Phils' best first-half performers since 1975 not to make the All-Star team.

For position players, we looked for a .900 OPS or better with 300 or more plate appearances. For pitchers, we looked for a sub-3.00 ERA with 90 or more innings pitched.

Yeah, of course there are other criteria to consider, but this helped us find generally fantastic first halves and the All-Star snubs that followed.

Phillies position players

Bobby Abreu: .966 in 2000, .921 in '01, .911 in '02 and .914 in '06
Pat Burrell: .929 in 2002 and .979 in '08
Rhys Hoskins: .931 in 2019
Ryan Howard: .933 in 2007
Scott Rolen: .909 in 1998
Jim Thome: .931 in 2003
Von Hayes: .997 OPS in 1987

A few thoughts: It is hard to believe Abreu made only two All-Star teams with the Phils. Burrell never made an All-Star team in his 12-year career. He probably should have made at least one. I looked through The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News in July 1987 to read what folks said about Hayes not making the All-Star team, because he had the highest first-half OPS of anybody on this list.

Nobody wrote anything about Hayes’ first-half snub, which meant nobody must have felt like he got snubbed! In fact, there is a Daily News story about Phillies manager Lee Elia praising Mets manager Davey Johnson for correctly picking Juan Samuel as a reserve for the squad.

Phillies pitchers

Steve Carlton: 2.88 ERA in 1978 and 2.99 ERA in '84 
John Denny: 2.13 ERA in 1983 
Cole Hamels: 2.93 ERA in 2014 
Jim Kaat: 2.91 ERA in 1976 
Jerry Koosman: 2.83 ERA in 1984 
Mike Krukow: 2.64 ERA in 1982 
Jim Lonborg: 2.96 ERA in 1976 
Curt Schilling: 2.75 ERA in 1992 
Zack Wheeler: 2.46 ERA in 2022

A few thoughts: Denny won the 1983 NL Cy Young, but he did not make the All-Star team. He was second in the NL in ERA at the break behind San Francisco’s Atlee Hammaker. I remember Hammaker because he served up the only grand slam in All-Star Game history. Fred Lynn hit it. My favorite player as a kid, Robin Yount, was one of the baserunners.