Kerry Wood was a victim of the All-Star numbers game - his numbers weren't good enough for Jim Leyland's computer.
"He would have been a great story," the NL manager said Thursday. "If we had plugged in his numbers from yesterday, he probably would have moved up some."The manager of the World Series champion Florida Marlins said he used a computer formula to pick his pitchers. The computer took into account wins, losses, ERA, wins against teams over 0.500, quality starts, games averaging more than one strikeout per inning and games averaging less than one hit per inning.
"Even though Kerry Wood may have been the most exciting to take, according to everything I weighed, it wasn't the right decision to make this particular year," Leyland said.
The Chicago Cubs rookie, who earlier this year tied the record with 20 strikeouts in a nine-inning game, is 8-3 with a 3.38 ERA and 139 strikeouts in 93 1-3 innings.
"I wasn't expecting to make it," Wood said. "Maybe next year."
Leyland's computer had Atlanta's Greg Maddux No. 1 with 34 points, followed by Philadelphia's Curt Schilling with 25. Not including Wednesday's victory over Arizona - in which he allowed just three hits and struck out 13 in eight innings - Wood had 18 points, tied with Atlanta's Denny Neagle and the Dodgers' Ramon Martinez.
Five pitchers were tied at 19: Pittsburgh's Francisco Cordova; Houston's Mike Hampton, Jose Lima and Shane Reynolds; and the Cardinals' Todd Stottlemyre. All missed the cut.
"I did not consider the marketing aspect," Leyland said. "I tried to pick the guys I thought were most deserving, and that's what I did."
"People are talking about guys who got snubbed," Leyland said. "I publicly apologize - not apologize - but I'm sorry everybody couldn't make it, but that's the way it goes."
Leyland left off Brian Jordan of the Cardinals, the NL's leading hitter, and Mark Grace, No. 2 entering Thursday.
AL manager Mike Hargrove didn't select a pair of top pitchers on the Yankees: 11-game winner David Cone and Hideki Irabu, the AL's ERA leader. Also missing are Boston's Nomar Garciaparra, Chicago's Frank Thomas and Texas' Rick Helling.
"There's no way you can make everybody happy, and you try to be as fair as you can possibly be," Hargrove said. "I don't think people understand how difficult it is.