Giants’ Cobb named to first MLB All-Star team as replacement originally appeared on NBC Sports Bay Area
The Giants now have not one, but two MLB All-Stars.
Veteran starting pitcher Alex Cobb joins teammate Camilo Doval as San Francisco’s lone representatives in the midsummer classic on Tuesday at T-Mobile Park.
Cobb was announced as a replacement for Atlanta Braves starter Bryce Elder on Saturday afternoon.
Giants manager Gabe Kapler announced Cobb’s All-Star nod to the team before the game. The veteran righty addressed his teammates with a heartfelt message.
“There are so many guys in this clubhouse that I look at as way more deserving to go to this game and so to represent you guys, it really is an honor,” Cobb said. “I’ve been wanting this for a long time, it’s surreal it’s actually happening. This is one of the best clubhouses I’ve been a part of.
“When we get back for this second half, we have a chance to do something special. Go enjoy the break, we’ll go and represent us and when we get back let’s go whoop some ass.”
Cobb joined Duane Kuiper and Mike Krukow during the NBC Sports Bay Area broadcast of Saturday’s game against the Colorado Rockies. The veteran revealed a phone call from pitching coach Andrew Bailey, who wanted him to meet with Giants coaches earlier that morning, tipped him off to the possibility that good news was to follow.
“I went through some real lows in my career,” Cobb told Krukow and Kuiper. “I probably felt like I didn’t belong on a big league field, let alone at an All-Star game. To kind of dig yourself out of that and try to get better every year and overcome some things and just figure out who you are on the mound to get to this point, it definitely means a lot.”
The honor is the first for Cobb in his 12-year MLB career and certainly is well deserved.
In 16 starts for the Giants this season, Cobb has posted a 6-2 record with a 2.91 ERA in 89 2/3 innings pitched with 86 strikeouts to 21 walks.
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Cobb likely would have been an All-Star in 2013 with the Tampa Bay Rays if not for a freak injury where he was hit in the head by a line drive on the mound and was taken off the field on a stretcher in mid-June start . Cobb finished that season with an 11-3 record and a 2.76 ERA in 143 1/3 innings pitched.
However, at long last, a 35-year-old Cobb is finally an All-Star.
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