NL All-Stars

Well, now the shoe is on the other foot... and it feels so good!

To my knowledge, it's the prior baseball season's world series managers that are given the choice of whom to select for the All-Star game, aside from the starting position players. So Giants manager Bruce Bochy was given the honor (and headache) of filling out the National League roster this year. Besides closer Brian Wilson, chosen by his peers I believe, Bochy went ahead and made three Giants starters All-Stars for this year's Summer Classic: Tim Lincecum, Matt Cain, and Ryan Vogelsong.

In previous years, I've only looked at whether or not a player deserved to go based on their performance for the first half of the season leading up to the All-Star game. Leading up to this year's contest, however, I was finally made privy to the other school of thought that says that selection should be based on the second half of the previous season in addition to the first half of the current season.

Well, in that case, then, stellar post-season performances should weigh in too! I'm all in favor now of rewarding players that were part and parcel of a championship run. It makes sense now... I've seen the light. Lincecum and Cain are stars in the league and should be recognized by their manager for helping their team win the World Series last year. Go Giants! And as for Vogelsong, of all the San Francisco players, I wanted him to go most of all. One of the best stories in baseball.

Those who follow the Giants could even look back now and say that Barry Zito's injury that caused him to be placed on the disabled list in the first place was a most fortuitous event: it gave Vogelsong the opportunity to take his place in the rotation, solidify it, and accomplish all that he did. Plus, it gave Zito a chance to go back and recapture his 'stuff' to become a more effective pitcher himself. Win-win. If Jonathan Sanchez also comes back from the DL stronger than ever, well, I'd rather have too many good pitchers than not enough. A great problem to have.

Giants fans and players have gone through years and years of slights by World Series managers playing favorites in choosing their own players – now the Giants are in that position to have the choice, so go ahead and take it! Maybe in future years, I'll be more understanding of the obvious bias. And sad but true, managers do have to live with their own players after All-Star selections and snubs, so why make things difficult?

On another note, should the results of the All-Star game decide home-field advantage for the World Series? I prefer the idea I heard the other night that whichever league has the better win-loss record for interleague play during the season should be awarded home-field advantage. If that results in a tie, then perhaps they can go to the winner of the All-Star game, but hopefully it would never come to that.