They are an extremely important part of a baseball team, but very few people know their names.

They are recognized by baseball people.

It's almost impossible to have a successful baseball team in this era without a strong corps of middle relievers and setup men to get you from the starting pitchers to the closer.

That's true even in a lost-cause game. You need that guy who will eat up innings to save the rest of the bullpen.

The relief pitcher on every team that gets the attention is the closer. That's understandable. After all, closing out a win is one of the most difficult jobs in the game. And the closer has a prime statistical category – the save.

Which is why in every All-Star Game, you'll see the game's best starters and closers pitching for each league.

Rarely, however, is there a middle reliever or a setup reliever in the All-Star Game.

As sad as this is, again, it's understandable. Like we said earlier, middle/setup relievers don't have a recognizable statistic.

You'll see the “hold” statistic in the boxscore, but I've never seen a list of holds leaders. Middle/setup relievers can't get a save because they don't get the final outs, but they can get a blown save . . . which doesn't make a lot of sense.

And wins and losses are really hit-and-miss things that the middle/setup reliever really has limited control over.

So middle/setup relief is a difficult spot when it comes to the All-Star selections. They are like the pinch hitter. The middle/setup reliever is an important part of the game, but he's not recognized as being the great weapon that he is.

Plus, because many great relievers become closers, there doesn't seem to be a great concern that they're not recognized more.

Maybe we want to make a category for relief pitchers in the All-Star Game. The NFL does it by picking a special teams player on each side in the Pro Bowl.

I've voted for middle and setup relievers on my All-Star ballot. But I can understand why others don't. The All-Star Game is for numbers. And like we've said, relievers don't really have numbers they can point to.

Great defensive players are in the same bind. Great defensive players don't get rewarded with All-Star berths. At least they make the highlight replays.

Middle and setup relievers fly totally under the radar. They are not on ESPN unless they give up a home run. You never see a highlight of a middle reliever coming into a game to strike out someone with the bases loaded in the seventh. You will see the closer two innings later.

Yet there are so many around the league who deserve recognition. We have one of the best here in setup man Heath Bell.

Other guys we've seen this year who come immediately to mind are Taylor Buchholz of the Rockies, Chad Qualls of Arizona, Carlos Marmol of the Cubs and Jonathan Broxton of the Dodgers.

There are many more. They have one thing in common. None are going to the All-Star Game.