Barry Bonds: The Only Voted Giant

Two things surprised regarding the Giants and the All-Star game selections. I cannot believe Barry Bonds made up the 120,000 votes he needed to beat out Alfonso Soriano to start in the outfield and he did it in the final 72 hours of voting. When it comes down to the numbers, Bonds deserved the spot over Soriano, but with all the hatred most baseball fans have towards him, I was surprised to see him gain that many votes in that little time. There was no question he was going to make the team in some, but most people, including myself, did not expect to see him in the starting lineup, just for the simple fact that the fans choose the starters All-Star team. Let's face it, outside of San Francisco, Bonds is baseball's most hated ballplayer, and he still somehow gained enough votes to crack the starting lineup. I'm sure that having the game in San Francisco had something to do with it and I wouldn't be surprised if there were some strings pulled that enabled Bonds to start this game. However it panned out, I am glad to see him in there because he really does deserve it. He leads the world in OBP and OPS and even though he's still walking more than anyone else in the game, he's still among the league leaders in home runs. On top of all that, he's 43 and there isn't another all-star positional player within 5 years of that. Say what you want about Barry Bonds, but your being biased if you fail to recognize the fact that he is a greatest players this game has ever seen.

The second thing that I was surprised about regarding the Giants and the All-Star selections was the fact that Brain McCann was voted in as the second catcher over Bengie Molina. Molina is hitting 20 points better, has more RBI and home runs and is one of the top hitters in the national league with runners in scoring position. Not to mention he has done a terrific job calling games for a very young starting rotation. The only other Giant who had a shot at making the team was Matt Morris, but with there are just too many pitchers having good years in the NL this season and Morris picked the worst time to have his two worst starts of the season in late June. There is still a shot Molina could get chosen if a position player opts out, but I would give it about a 10% chance of happening. The one thing in Molina's favor is the fact that the NL only has 2 catchers and it's standard for there to be 3.