24-year old switch-hitting 3B Pablo Sandoval has been picked to replace the injured Jose Reyes (hamstring) on the N.L. All-Star team. Sandoval has played in 49 games for the Giants so far this year and he is 58 for 190 (.305 avg, .850 OPS) with 25 runs scored, 8 homers, 28 RBIs and 2 stolen bases. The Giants have to be very pleased with the Kung Fu Panda who was in the dog house for the team last year due to the fact that he was out of shape (more than usual) in 2010. He came to spring training in much better shape, focused and motivated and now he’s an All-Star for the first time.

27-year old lefty swiniging outfielder Nate Schierholtz is making the most of his expanded playing time so far this year for the Giants. He has played in 79 games for the Giants so far this year and he is 58 for 209 (.278 avg, .771 OPS) with 28 runs scored, 6 homers, 27 RBIs and 5 stolen bases. Schierholtz is second on the Giants in runs scored (28), tied for 4th in homers (6) and he’s tied for second in both RBIs (27) and stolen bases (5). This is Schierholtz’ fifth season in the majors and he already has set new career highs in both homers and steals this year for the Giants. He will also likely set new career highs in runs scored (34) and RBIs (29) shortly for the Giants. His emergence has been a nice surprise for the Giants this year.

30-year old righty swinging RF Cody Ross is hitting the ball well so far this month. He has played in 24 games so far in June and he is 23 for 80 (.288 avg, .855 OPS) with 12 runs scored, 2 homers, 10 RBIs and 2 stolen bases. Ross has played in 59 games for the Giants so far this year and he is 50 for 191 (.262 avg, .774 OPS) with 24 runs scored, 6 homers, 23 RBIs and 4 stolen bases. Ross is tied for 2nd in runs scored (24), he is tied for 2nd in homers (6) and he is 3rd in RBIs (23) for the Giants this year. Those are alarming numbers as the Giants have had a really hard time scoring runs this year.

34-year old lefty swinging 1B Aubrey Huff is heating up with the bat so far in June. He has played in 12 games for the Giants so far this June and he is 14 for 47 (.298 avg, .978 OPS) with 6 runs scored, 4 homers and 11 RBIs. Huff isn’t missing much at what he’s swinging at so far this month as he has only struck out 3 times so far in June. Huff has now played in 65 games so far this year and he is 57 for 244 (.234 avg, .681 OPS) with 20 runs scored, 8 homers, 34 RBIs and 3 stolen bases. Huff has always been a strong second half hitter so the Giants will benefit from a big stick at 1B the rest of the year.

33-year old righty swinging outfielder Aaron Rowand had one of his worst years of his career in 2010 for the Giants. He played in 105 games for the Giants last year and he was 76 of 331 (.230 avg, .659 OPS) with 42 runs scored, 11 homers, 34 RBIs and 5 stolen bases. Rowand pretty much lost his starting job to Andres Torres last year. But, Torres has been injured most of the season so far and Rowand has taken advantage of that. Rowand has played in 19 games for the Giants this year and he is 20 for 69 (.290 avg, .793 OPS) with 12 runs scored, 1 homer and 5 RBIs. I don’t think Rowand will keep the starting job in CF when Torres comes back from injury, unless he stays really hot until then.