It's time to vote for the brightest stars

Jones was still on the ballot this past weekend at Comerica Park.



Wonder how many votes he ends up with?

Yup. JJones is still listed as a Tig; I just voted again about 30 minutes ago....

For Jones?

nope. Just saw him listed there.

:haha:

btw, he still can't hit

laprimamirala wrote:

I vote twice a day every day for 2 weeks. keeps my gray matter functioning!!

I vote with my husband's, son's and mom's email address as well (with permission, of course)

Trinita wrote:

laprimamirala wrote:

I vote twice a day every day for 2 weeks. keeps my gray matter functioning!!

I vote with my husband's, son's and mom's email address as well (with permission, of course)

u go, chica!

Does anyone use the ballots at Comerica Park?


I take handfuls of ballots home and bring them back the next day

Remember to write in Matt Joyce for OF, GS!

I already am!



VOTE JOYCE

Joyce Rules!

gs78 wrote:

Does anyone use the ballots at Comerica Park?


I take handfuls of ballots home and bring them back the next day

In Arizona if you hand in 250 completed ballots at once you get a Diamondbacks license plate holder for your car. Why don't other teams do that? I thought it was a neat promotion. They also had other contests and you get 1 entry per submitted ballot. I don't really know how they count them but they must have a way. I was at one game and a woman in front of me was filling out ballots. She had a grocery bag full of them. There were probably a thousand in there.

Not at Comerica


Most ballots end up covered in stale beer and peanut shells and nachos

Cubs players chase All-Star history
Two rookies among seven on team in top five in balloting
By Jim Molony / MLB.com

Geovany Soto is on pace to make National League history.

Soto, the Chicago Cubs' 25-year-old rookie, leads the NL balloting at catcher for the July 15 All-Star Game with 343,427 votes. Soto has a six-figure lead and if he maintains his hold on first place, he would become the first NL rookie catcher to start a Midsummer Classic.

Soto is one of three Cubs leading his position, according to the first NL voting update released by Major League Baseball on Wednesday, joining outfielders Kosuke Fukudome and Alfonso Soriano.

Other NL leaders for the July 15 game at Yankee Stadium include Houston first baseman Lance Berkman, Philadelphia second baseman Chase Utley, Atlanta third baseman Chipper Jones and Cincinnati outfielder Ken Griffey Jr.

Dozens of rookies have made the All-Star team over the years, including catchers like Johnny Bench, Carlton Fisk, Mike Piazza, Gary Carter and Jason Kendall. But the only rookie backstop to start an All-Star Game was Cleveland's Sandy Alomar Jr. for the American League in 1990.

Now comes Soto, who was batting .304 with nine homers and 35 RBIs through Tuesday. He has been an important contributor in Chicago's rise to the top of the NL Central Division and the voters have obviously taken notice. Soto leads Atlanta's Brian McCann (229,743) by 113,684 votes with Yadier Molina of St. Louis in third place with 188,313. Russell Martin of the Dodgers, the NL All-Star starter a year ago, is in fourth place with 160,140 votes.

Fukudome, who trails outfielder voting leader Soriano by roughly 27,000 votes, is, like Soto, a rookie with a shot at a rare accomplishment.

The last rookie to start an All-Star Game for either league was Seattle outfielder Ichiro Suzuki in 2001. There hasn't been an rookie outfielder in the starting lineup for the NL All-Star team since Philadelphia's Richie Ashburn in 1948.

Griffey, a 13-time All-Star selection who was the NL's leading vote getter last season with 2,916,818 votes, trails Fukudome by approximately 25,000 votes. Griffey, who needs two home runs to reach 600 for his career, has been elected by fans to start the All-Star Game more times than any player except Cal Ripken Jr. (17) and Rod Carew (15).

Several others are within 150,000 votes of a starting berth in the NL outfield, including Carlos Beltran and Ryan Church of the Mets, Matt Holliday of the Rockies, Pat Burrell of the Phillies, Carlos Lee and Hunter Pence of the Astros, Rick Ankiel of the Cardinals, Ryan Braun of the Brewers, Nate McLouth of the Pirates and Justin Upton of the Diamondbacks.

The 79th Midsummer Classic will be the fourth held at Yankee Stadium and the eighth in New York City. The Yankees previously hosted the All-Star Game in 1939, 1960 and 1977; the Polo Grounds held the game in 1934 and 1942; Ebbets Field was the site in 1949; and Shea Stadium hosted the 1964 Midsummer Classic.

Fans can cast their votes for starters up to 25 times with the Monster 2008 All-Star Online Ballot at MLB.com and all 30 club sites until Wednesday, July 2 at 11:59 p.m. ET.

Starting rosters will be announced during the 2008 All-Star Game Selection Show presented by Chevrolet on TBS on Sunday, July 6. Baseball fans around the world will then be able to select the final player on each team via the Monster 2008 All-Star Final Vote at MLB.com.

And the voting doesn't end there. Fans will have the opportunity to participate in the official voting for the Ted Williams Most Valuable Player presented by Chevrolet at the All-Star Game via the Monster 2008 All-Star Game MVP vote at MLB.com.

The All-Star Game will be televised nationally by FOX and around the world by Major League Baseball International. ESPN Radio will provide exclusive national radio play-by-play, while MLB.com will offer extensive online coverage.

The balloting at most of the other infield spots are even closer than the outfield campaign.

Berkman, who leads the NL in RBIs and is tied with Utley and Florida's Dan Uggla for the league lead in home runs, has a scant 12,1560-vote edge over Albert Pujols of St. Louis. Derrek Lee of the Cubs is on their heels in third place. Lee trails Pujols by less than 34,000 votes.

Utley's 537,788 votes are the most of any Senior Circuit candidate and fourth most overall, trailing only Boston's David Ortiz (556,567), Manny Ramirez (539,122) and New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter (523,187).

Utley leads the next closest candidate, Kazuo Matsui of Houston, by more than 350,000 votes.

The race is much tighter at shortstop, where Ramirez (268,386) is less than 12,000 votes ahead of Houston's Miguel Tejada and roughly 31,000 votes in front of Jose Reyes of the Mets. Chicago's Ryan Theriot and Philadelphia's Jimmy Rollins are in close pursuit.

At third base is Jones, who leads the Major Leagues with a .418 batting average, leads New York's David Wright by almost 100,000 votes, with Chicago's Aramis Ramirez less than 80,000 behind Wright.

The first-place Cubs have seven players currently in the top five of the voting. NL East leader Florida has two -- shortstop leader Ramirez, and Uggla (fourth in the second base balloting). NL West leader Arizona does not have any representatives in the top five.

never thought I would see the day...."first place Cubs"

I bet a lot of Japanese Fans are voting for Fukudome

Votebook: Quentin leads list of write-ins
Many deserving players not found on this year's All-Star ballot
By Tom Singer / MLB.com

The point is often made that a baseball season is improvisation at its best, that it cannot be scripted.

Apparently, the same goes for baseball All-Star ballots.

This spring, as always, the folks responsible for ensuring the proper representation of every starting player on millions of paper and cyber ballots for the July 15 spectacular in Yankee Stadium carefully canvassed each Major League team, and, as always, the inconsiderate guys in uniform go and muddle those well-laid plans.

We're not referring to minor scrambles, like Detroit manager Jim Leyland flip-flopping his corner infielders two weeks into the season. Miguel Cabrera's and Carlos Guillen's names at least appear on the ballot, whichever bases they're playing.

But how about Carlos Quentin, cast as a bench player for the White Sox, who has the nerve to lead the American League in home runs and rank second in RBIs?

The former Arizona No. 1 Draft choice, boosted by a strong Spring Training, has been Chicago's starting left fielder from day one. But the White Sox outfielder still keeping ballot company with Jermaine Dye and Nick Swisher is Jerry Owens -- who has been in Triple-A Charlotte all season.

Or, Evan Longoria, the young hotshot at the hot corner for the hot Tampa Bay Rays -- whose listed third baseman is Willy Aybar?

Or Jacoby Ellsbury? Deemed baseball's next "Natural," the multitalented outfielder naturally is preempted on the ballot by Coco Crisp -- a case of the traditional ballot choice of experience before potential.

Or Skip Schumaker, who has become the Cardinals' valuable leadoff hitter while starting all over the outfield -- in spots reserved on the All-Star ballot for Rick Ankiel, Ryan Ludwick and Chris Duncan?

Or Matt Kemp, arguably the Dodgers' top young talent and factually their top offensive producer? Two center fielders -- Juan Pierre and the injured Andruw Jones -- shoehorned onto the ballot along with Andre Ethier, leaving no room for the guy with the best across-the-board numbers (.312-3-28 through Wednesday) on the team.

Heard enough? There's more:

David Murphy is the Rangers' runner-up in RBIs after emerging as their starting right fielder -- which was supposed to be Milton Bradley, who instead has been the everyday DH, but retains his ballot outfield niche along with Josh Hamilton and Marlon Byrd, who missed half of the young season with a left-knee injury.

Ryan Doumit went down with a broken left thumb a couple of weeks ago, but that doesn't lessen his claim to the Pirates' listing at catcher, which instead belongs to Ronny Paulino, who even now is batting 146 points lower in the same number of at-bats.

Clearly, good-intentioned baseball fans have a lot of homework to do, and either a lot of pencils to sharpen or computer keys to click.

Oh, yes. The ballot blank for write-in votes.

It is not a cure-all. Fans are vexed by the limitation of one write-in vote per league per online ballot, forcing them to ration the total of 25 ballots they are allowed.

The one-ballot, one-vote rule also applies to listed players, of course. But the restriction is different for write-ins, if fans choose to divide their votes among so many worthy candidates.

Yet the Chicago write-in campaign for Quentin is already at full steam, more brushfire than grassroots. And write-ins have had an impact on past Midsummer Classics.

Only two players have ever been elected as write-in starters, none in 34 years since Dodgers first baseman Steve Garvey in 1974; Atlanta outfielder Rico Carty had also been a write-in choice in 1970.

However, even much more recently, unlisted players have garnered significant, deserved support.

In 2006, on his way to the NL batting title, erstwhile Pittsburgh utilityman Freddy Sanchez drew 856,685 write-in votes at third base.

Interestingly, the notoriety of being omitted from that year's ballot ironically became Sanchez's biggest ally -- the ensuing year, when he was listed, he attracted fewer votes, even as he was authoring another impressive season (.304, with as many RBIs and twice as many homers).

Last year, an outfielder in each league received notable write-in support: Detroit's Curtis Granderson led all players with 376,033 and Hamilton, then Cincinnati's feel-good story of the season, led NL players with 141,245 write-ins.

No one is as deserving this time around as Quentin, obviously. If you want to go head-to-head with the traditional vote-leading left fielder, his numbers (.296, 14 homers, 47 RBIs) are better across the board than those of Boston's Manny Ramirez (.292, 9, 34).

Quentin, who fell out of favor with the Diamondbacks following his sparkling 2006 debut (four homers in his first seven games), seems more concerned with continuing his career revival than its possible All-Star spoils.

"I'm worried more about quality at-bats and doing what I can to help the team win," he said recently. "Simple thoughts that allow me to have success in this game."

Yet, Quentin's recent streak of heroism -- seven RBIs in the AL Central-leading White Sox's last three wins through Wednesday -- only amplified manager Ozzie Guillen's desire to see justice.

"He should be in the All-Star Game. You don't know how they're going to pick," said Guillen, alluding to AL manager Terry Francona's ultimate choices to round out the roster. "But Carlos is the best player we have right now."

Quentin's first-things-first attitude is typical of the breakthrough players whose ballot omission is becoming glaring.

Asked about resenting his absence, Schumaker grew wide-eyed and said, "Me? No. No, man, I'm just trying to put some good at-bats together ... That's the last thing I look forward to."

As a rookie, a late-arriving one at that, Longoria defers being heard to being seen. But the blue-chipper has certainly been giving people plenty to look at, with seven homers and 28 RBIs since replacing Aybar, who got into only seven games before being ousted by a sore left hamstring.

Willy to Wally? As in Wally Pipp, who couldn't play because of a headache on June 2, 1925 and was replaced in the Yankees lineup by Lou Gehrig.

They didn't have All-Star ballots then, of course. But if they did, Pipp would have been on it. So, in all those years, nothing has changed: All-Star propriety can still be a headache.

I was voting for Joyce!


Not anymore

25 times is a lot of voting!!!

But I bring ballots from Comerica Park home with me.


I got like 10 write in votes for Joyce.

still got about 10 or 15 more to fill out.

06/02/2008 2:00 PM ET
Rodriguez falls to third in All-Star voting
Catcher trailing two in bid for 13th Midsummer Classic start
By Jason Beck / MLB.com

SEATTLE -- Ivan Rodriguez has fallen to third among American League catchers in his quest for a 13th All-Star Game start.

Like last week, no Tigers lead at any position in All-Star balloting. The difference with the latest update is that many Tigers players seem to be falling further behind. Rodriguez, who was second to Boston's Jason Varitek with last week's initial voting update, now has Minnesota's Joe Mauer ahead of him as well.

Rodriguez has started for the AL at catcher in three of his four seasons as a Tiger. The exception was in 2005, when Varitek won the honor in balloting and Rodriguez was selected as a reserve.

The closest any Tiger currently stands towards a starting spot is Edgar Renteria, second to Derek Jeter among candidates at shortstop. Miguel Cabrera is third behind Alex Rodriguez and Mike Lowell at third base, the position Cabrera was playing when the ballots were finalized, while Placido Polanco trails Dustin Pedroia and Robinson Cano in his defense of the starting nod at second.

As it stands, the Tigers wouldn't have anybody in the AL starting lineup, but neither would any of the current AL division leaders. Yankees or Red Sox players lead in seven of the nine positions, with the lone exception being the second and third outfield spots. Rangers slugger Josh Hamilton and Seattle's Ichiro Suzuki hold the edge in those for now, with Magglio Ordonez in sixth behind Vladimir Guerrero and Bobby Abreu.

The 79th Major League Baseball All-Star Game, being held at Yankee Stadium in its final season, will be televised nationally by FOX Sports, in Canada by Rogers Sportsnet and Sportsnet HD and televised around the world by Major League Baseball International, with pregame ceremonies beginning at 8 p.m. ET. ESPN Radio will provide exclusive national radio coverage, while MLB.com will provide extensive online coverage. XM will provide satellite radio play-by-play coverage of the XM All-Star Futures Game.

Fans can cast their votes for starters up to 25 times with the Monster 2008 All-Star Game Online Ballot at MLB.com and all 30 club sites until Wednesday, July 2, at 11:59 p.m. ET. Once the Tigers return home later this week, fans in Detroit can also vote in person at Comerica Park, where balloting runs through June 24.

Starting rosters will be announced during the 2008 All-Star Game Selection Show presented by Chevrolet on TBS on Sunday, July 6. Baseball fans around the world will then be able to select the final player on each team via the Monster 2008 All-Star Final Vote at MLB.com.

The voting doesn't end there. Fans will have the opportunity to participate in the official voting for the Ted Williams Most Valuable Player presented by Chevrolet at the All-Star Game via the Monster 2008 All-Star Game MVP vote at MLB.com.

2008 MLB All-Star Balloting : Results updated: Monday, June 2, 2008

American League
First Base

RANK--	PLAYER NAME--	AL TEAM--	TOTAL VOTES
1.	Youkilis, K.	Red Sox	662,869
2.	Morneau, J.	Twins	409,406
3.	Giambi, J.	Yankees	283,596
4.	Pena, C.	Rays	199,568
5.	Guillen, C.	Tigers	181,328

Second Base

RANK--	PLAYER NAME--	AL TEAM--	TOTAL VOTES
1.	Pedroia, D.	Red Sox	591,860
2.	Cano, R.	Yankees	354,535
3.	Polanco, P.	Tigers	241,282
4.	Kinsler, I.	Rangers	232,611
5.	Roberts, B.	Orioles	165,949

Third base

RANK--	PLAYER NAME--	AL TEAM---	TOTAL VOTES
1.	Rodriguez, A.	Yankees	712,899
2.	Lowell, M.	Red Sox	409,685
3.	Cabrera, M.	Tigers	283,542
4.	Crede, J.	White Sox	222,084
5.	Rolen, S.	Blue Jays	137,604

Shortstop

RANK--	PLAYER NAME--	AL TEAM--	TOTAL VOTES
1.	Jeter, D.	Yankees	832,561
2.	Renteria, E.	Tigers	273,857
3.	Young, M.	Rangers	266,494
4.	Lugo, J.	Red Sox	204,041
5.	Cabrera, O.	White Sox	175,138

Catcher

RANK--	PLAYER NAME--	AL TEAM--	TOTAL VOTES
1.	Varitek, J.	Red Sox	477,630
2.	Mauer, J.	Twins	396,643
3.	Rodriguez, I.	Tigers	349,130
4.	Posada, J.	Yankees	312,279
5.	Martinez, V.	Indians	234,008

Designated hitter

RANK--	PLAYER NAME--	AL TEAM--	TOTAL VOTES
1.	Ortiz, D.	Red Sox	893,915
2.	Matsui, H.	Yankees	423,551
3.	Thome, J.	White Sox	264,156
4.	Sheffield, G.	Tigers	144,919
5.	Hafner, T.	Indians	109,044

Outfield

RANK--	PLAYER NAME--	AL TEAM--	TOTAL VOTES
1.	Ramirez, M.	Red Sox	811,612
2.	Hamilton, J.	Rangers	479,492
3.	Suzuki, I.	Mariners	456,136
4.	Guerrero, V.	Angels	431,101
5.	Abreu, B.	Yankees	373,889
6.	Ordonez, M.	Tigers	362,179
7.	Cabrera, M.	Yankees	310,477
8.	Damon, J.	Yankees	302,972
9.	Hunter, T.	Angels	296,301
10.	Drew, J.D.	Red Sox	292,629
11.	Sizemore, G.	Indians	280,975
12.	Crawford, C.	Rays	247,997
13.	Crisp, C.	Red Sox	231,799
14.	Granderson, C.	Tigers	194,293
15.	Upton, B.J.	Rays	193,585

Vote folks, vote!

I did my 25!! But we started to flail after last year's ASB so maybe we shouldn't go this year!!!

Vote for your hubby, Granderson and Ordonez still deserves to go!

I just don't think mi campeon should do the Home Run Derby. Weird things started happening to him after that.
p.s. do you use your actual birthday when voting?

laprimamirala wrote:

I just don't think mi campeon should do the Home Run Derby. Weird things started happening to him after that.
p.s. do you use your actual birthday when voting?

Yes I do. My mom, who is 80, has me vote for her too... which I still need to do.