Tampa Bay Rays Carl Crawford, Evan Longoria in close races in All-Star voting
Tampa Bay Rays LF Carl Crawford and 3B Evan Longoria are involved in close races as voting for the AL All-Star team comes down to the final days.
Crawford is fifth among outfielders (with 1,442,175 votes) in the latest totals released today, though less than 200,000 votes behind third-place hold Josh Hamilton (1,635,781). Another problem for Crawford is that the Angels Torii Hunter is between him and Hamilton (with 1,490,800). Hamilton has been on the DL but is rehabbing and said he plans to play if elected.
Longoria (2,988,363) remains the leader by a large margin over Alex Rodriguez for the starting spot at third, but is also in the running to surpass Yankees SS Derek Jeter (3,046,813) as the leading vote-getter.
Among other Rays, Jason Bartlett is a distant second (1,419,499) to Jeter at shortstop and Carlos Pena (767,088) finally made it into the top five among first baseman.
The starters and reserves will be named on Sunday. After fans elect the eight starters, eight reserves and eight pitchers are chosen from the players vote. AL/Rays manager Joe Maddon gets to pick the final seven, plus the five players or pitchers who will be on an additional ballot for the 32nd spot. He has to make sure every team is represented and that there are 12 pitchers on the roster.
Online voting continues through Thursday night at mlb.com.
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Crawford will make it as a reserve at least. I can't believe Hamilton is getting so many votes.
Posted by: JJ Jones | July 01, 2009 at 11:42 AM
Is it 25 per day, or 25 total?
Posted by: KT | June 30, 2009 at 09:56 PM
Carl Crawford should definitely start!
I've already voted for him a bunch of times and will continue to vote for him. It was great watching him single & steal in his first AB last night and then absolutely crush that home run off of Roy Halladay.
He's the greatest player to wear a Ray's uniform and one of the most exciting players in baseball.
I also think Adam Jones of the Orioles deserves an appearance rather than some of the players listed above him. It really is a popularity contest.
Posted by: RJ | June 30, 2009 at 06:28 PM
Jeters good but yeah, he ain't Bartlett good. IRS all a popularity contest. Longos got himself n his leg to blame for trailing. Not the time to slump!
Posted by: Jim - NJ | June 30, 2009 at 06:22 PM
all star voting is a crock, jeter shouldn't be close to first, and hamilton hasn't played in weeks.
Posted by: skp | June 30, 2009 at 04:08 PM
Crank up the voting, Rays fans. I got another 25 votes in today. Let's get our boys into the game!
Posted by: 9equals8.com | June 30, 2009 at 02:44 PM
Jeter over Bartlett isa farce.
dang new yawk homers...
Posted by: Opinion Master | June 30, 2009 at 02:21 PM