Why Didn’t Bruce Bochy Use Any of the Giants’ Starting Pitchers in All-Star Game?

You know how we roll at LBS. When we seem some b.s., we call b.s. And Giants manager Bruce Bochy naming three of his starting pitchers to the NL All-Star team was a total homer move. It’s not the first time a manager has picked his own players to join the All-Star team when other players were more deserving, but it was a pretty blatant abuse of powers. Even though two of the Giants were on our list of NL players who should have been left off the roster, we lived with Bochy’s decisions. But the crap he pulled managing the NL squad was inexcusable.

In case you missed it, Bochy did not use any of his starting pitchers during the game. That’s right, he put 60% of his starting rotation on the squad and didn’t use of one of them. Naturally you’re asking if his pitchers had proper rest to be able to pitch. Here’s the breakdown:

– Matt Cain pitched Sunday, so he was ineligible
– Tim Lincecum pitched Saturday, he could have gone an inning
– Ryan Vogelsong pitched Friday, he should have been able to pitch an inning

For comparison, let’s look at the starters of other NL teams he decided to use instead:

– Cliff Lee pitched Saturday, threw 1.2 innings in the All-Star Game
– Kevin Correia pitched Saturday, did not pitch in All-Star Game
– Roy Halladay pitched Friday, started and went two innings
– Clayton Kershaw pitched Thursday, went one inning
– Jair Jurrjens pitched Wednesday, went 1.2 innings

Bochy could say that Lee and Halladay came up to him and asked to pitch in the game, while Lincecum and Vogelson asked not to pitch, but that still doesn’t make it excusable. Please tell me why it’s alright for Bochy to burn the arms of every other pitcher in the N.L. but not his own. Tim Lincecum is a two-time Cy Young winner. You telling me fans didn’t want to see him more than Tyler freaking Clippard?

MLB won’t address this with Bochy because they’re so chicken**** they still haven’t even included instant replay in the game, but they should. If Bochy is going to abuse his powers as the manager by adding all his guys on the roster, he darn well better make them play equally. This is absolutely inexcusable.