Bonds is an All-Star

Barry Bonds finally got in to the All-Star game as a starter. He made up more than 100 K votes on the last few days to leap-frog his competition. The Giants PR machine put all its efforts in to making Bonds an All-Star. Poor Bengie Molina! No similar campaign for him. Bonds was not having a great season and it seemed like the fans were doing the right thing by keeping him out. But how can you keep Bonds out of the All Star game in his hometown San Francisco, that too this season when he is chasing Hank Aaron's home run record? So it seemed like he had to be let in on account of his "lifetime achievement". But you look at his numbers now, it ain't half bad. You sure can make an argument that he is a deserving All-Star. He is batting .304 with 16 homers, 40 RBIs with an OBP of .516 with 84 walks. Thats impressive. It's amazing how much he controls the Giants lineup. Without him, they are just garbage. With him, they are still garbage, but the guys batting in-front of him and behind him see a lot more hittable pitches and they are the biggest beneficiaries. Bonds is a one-man lineup.

Speaking of the Giants, I might have seen the best young pitcher this Sunday. Young pitchers are sometimes like super-models on a fashion-show runway. They keep coming one after the other and they all look terrific for a while, but they all disappear sooner than later. You lose some pitchers to injuries and the others just get figured out by the big league hitters. Few do survive like Johan Santana and Jake Peavy, but there are countless hyped up young studs who are just nowhere after a few years. But this kid Tim Lincecum looked unstoppable yesterday against the D'Backs. He just flat out dominated with filthy stuff. All his pitches were working and the DBacks hitters appeared clueless as to what was coming their way. He had 12 strikeouts in 7 innings and looked like a future superstar. You are also amazed just looking at this guy because he looks like a middle-school kid waiting for his mom to pick him up from school! The Giants rotation is looking good right now with Lincecum and Matt Cain, both just 23 years old. Noah Lowry is not too old either. But everything else is broken with the Giants. I am not really complaining as a Diamondbacks fan (and as an A's fans in the AL).