NL's pitching flop without Phillies' Zack Wheeler again highlights why MLB must consider revising All-Star Game policies

Attribute his poor showing to nerves. Sanchez has been selected to just two All-Star Games in his six-year career, and Tuesday marked his first start in the event. Wheeler would've been more poised. He has never started an All-Star Game but has made three trips to the event in his 12-year career. 

Not all blame should fall on Sanchez. The rest of the NL's pitching staff didn't do its job. It allowed seven hits, while the AL allowed three. The dud ultimately tanked the NL. It lost 4-0, marking the first shutout in an All-Star Game since 2013.

Wheeler's exclusion from the initial All-Star roster isn't the lone reason the NL lost. That said, it certainly could've helped if he were in the rotation. 

"I think [Wheeler's] one of the best pitchers of our game ...," Atlanta Braves ace Chris Sale, who didn't pitch Tuesday despite making the cut, said in a recent interview with "Foul Territory." "I think if we were just to look at his stat lines by itself... It's a head-scratcher to say the least. His numbers are better than mine, and I'm sitting here. I'll leave it at that." 

Sale has a 9-6 starting record, 2.20 ERA and 1.11 WHIP entering the All-Star Game. Wheeler, meanwhile, has a 2.13 ERA and 0.89 WHIP. 

Now, in the modern era of baseball, in which pitchers keep trying to throw as fast as humanly possible, it falls on MLB to safeguard pitchers from arm injuries. Still, it should consider revising the policy that initially kept Wheeler off the All-Star roster.  

The All-Star Game is supposed to be a night where the game showcases the best talents it has to offer. One was missing on Tuesday night, and he shouldn't have been.