2B Brandon Phillips, 3B Scott Rolen and lefty reliever Arthur Rhodes are all heading to the All-Star Game next week. Phillips has played in 82 games for the Reds this season and he is 103 of 334 (.308 avg, .852 OPS) with 63 runs scored, 11 homers, 28 RBIs and 10 stolen bases. Amazingly this will be Phillips’ first All-Star appearance. Scott Rolen will be playing in his sixth All-Star Game next week. He has played in 74 games for the Reds this season and he is 80 of 265 (.302 avg, .945 OPS) with 42 runs scored, 17 homers and 56 RBIs. Rolen also has a very solid glove which likely means he’ll be in the game late for the N.L. 40-year old lefty reliever Arthur Rhodes will be in his first All-Star Team of his long career. He has pitched in 37 games (0 starts) for the Reds this season and he is 3-2 with a 1.09 ERA and a 0.91 WHIP. Rhodes has only given up 18 hits in 33 innings this season.

UPDATE: (7/8/2010) - 26-year old lefty swinging 1B Joey Votto has been elected by the fans to the All-Star team with the “Final Vote”. Votto has played in 80 games for the Reds this year and he is 92 of 294 (.313 avg, 1.006 OPS) with 56 runs scored, 21 homers, 59 RBIs and 7 stolen bases. The fans finally got this right as Votto is without a doubt the best player on the Reds.

26-year old lefty swinging 1B Joey Votto finished 22nd in the voting for the N.L. MVP Award. He played in 131 games for the Reds last season and he was 151 for 469 (.322 avg, .981 OPS) with 82 runs scored, 25 homers, 84 RBIs and 4 stolen bases. Votto has now played in 306 games in his three years with the Reds and he is 334 for 1,079 (.310 avg, .924 OPS) with 162 runs scored, 53 homers, 185 RBIs and 12 stolen bases. The Reds need to find out if they can depend on Votto who missed a few games due to depression last season. Votto has the talent to be the type of player the Reds can build the team around if they can trust him.