of Baseball Propectus has the season’s first published NL all-star ballot (at least that I’ve seen) here.
The only Phillie, unsurprisingly, is Chase Utley. Interestingly, Jimmy Rollins, who made a couple all-star games because there were no other options among NL shortstops, is as good as ever, but buried behind Jose Reyes, Hanley Ramirez and even Edgar Rentaria having a big year for Braves. Sheehan’s choice, Rafael Furcal, likely won’t even make the team as a reserve.
Sheehan also votes for Barry Bonds, certainly defensible since he’s leading the league in on-base and slugging percentage, and makes the following point about Barry and you-know-what:
“on both Saturday and Sunday, I heard an argument—once it was actually asked of me on the radio—that I’ve been making for years. It concerns Bonds, who has never failed a drug test. The idea seems to finally be taking hold that, whatever you may believe Bonds did, he has never once tested positive for a performance-enhancing substance. That has to carry a lot of weight in the discussion of his career, as well as the current conversation about whether Bud Selig will attend Giants’ games as Bonds approaches home run #756.
The players acceded to a prove-your-innocence program to counter a runaway public perception that drugs were pervasive in the game. It’s patently unfair to demand that they do so and then ignore the results of that program. Until Bonds joins such power hitters as Juan Rincon, Rafael Betancourt, and Guillermo Mota, and fails a test, he deserves the benefit of the doubt. And your All-Star vote.”
Problem: Bonds’ transformation into maybe the best power hitter ever coindides with his transforming his body to a spectacular - and some would say unnatural - extent. If a guy’s head doubles in size and he hasn’t tested positive for anything, people are naturally, and understandably, going to figure that tells you more about the validity of the tests than anything else.
