Bay Moves To The Top Of Outfielder Voting

[ThomasTomasz]

NEW YORK (Ticker) - Thanks to the hard work of the faithful at PNC Park, the Pittsburgh Pirates' Jason Bay has continued his climb.

In the latest voting released Monday, Bay has moved into the top outfield spot to start the 77th All-Star Game.

Climbing two spots, Bay has now amassed the second-highest total in the National League with 1,706,105 votes. The New York Mets' Carlos Beltran is second with 1,537,849 followed by Alfonso Soriano of the Washington Nationals with 1,484,845.

In the first balloting results on June 5, Bay ranked just 15th.

Named the NL Player of the Week for the second straight time Monday, the Mets' Jose Reyes led all shortstops with 1,068,105 votes. The speedster is just over 81,000 votes ahead of the Pirates' Jack Wilson.

Returning from a right oblique strain that forced him to miss two weeks, St. Louis Cardinals first baseman Albert Pujols remained the top vote getter in the NL with 2,206,409. The slugger leads the majors with 26 homers and is second with 67 RBI.

At third base, David Wright remained one of four Mets leading their position with 1,386,584 votes. The Cardinals' Scott Rolen (1,041,250) is second.

Wright, who ranks sixth in the NL with .336 average, would become the first Met third baseman since Howard Johnson in 1989 to start an All-Star Game. Johnson was filling in for the injured Mike Schmidt.

Paul Lo Duca (1,281,767) still leads former Met Mike Piazza (880,948) of the San Diego Padres for the starting job behind the plate.

At second base, Chase Utley (1,236,143) of the Philadelphia Phillies leads Craig Biggio (1,097,119) of the Houston Astros.

Rosters for the All-Star Game, to be played July 11 at PNC Park in Pittsburgh, will be released at 7 p.m. EDT on Sunday.

http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news?slu...v=st&type=lgns

[Kingdom]

Wilson is second in voting for SS's? What?

Go Bay, though.

[Witlon]

I saw this yesterday, ****ing right Jason.

As for Jack being ahead of Renteria, well, it's just wrong and I voted for Reyes, anyway.

[Witlon]

PITTSBURGH -- The Pirates' 2006 All-Star campaign blitz will indisputedly go down as one of history's finest.
While the team continues to founder on the field, dropping 11 straight for the first time in more than 50 years, they just continue to rise in the Midsummer Classic's fan voting totals.

With the Pirates advertising everywhere and anywhere -- television, radio, billboards -- Jason Bay now leads all outfielders in votes, Jack Wilson is less than 80,000 votes from starting at shortstop and write-in candidate Freddy Sanchez has improbably surged into fourth place at third base in the latest National League vote totals released on Monday.

Paper balloting is now over, but fans still have until Thursday to vote online with the Monster.com 2006 All-Star Online Ballot at MLB.com.

The push originally started to ensure Bay would be patrolling left field when the first pitch was thrown at PNC Park on July 11. Though he was arguably the league's most complete outfielder, Bay could not be found among the top 15 at his position when the initial totals came in four weeks ago. Monday, he was the second-leading vote-getter in the National League with 1,706,705.

Perhaps most impressive has been the response to Sanchez, who has increasingly become the face of the club's drive. A bench player to start the year, Sanchez's name wasn't on the ballot. But when he took over the starting role at third base and was leading the league in hitting more than two months into the season -- he's now third in the NL with a .351 average -- fans took notice.

An astounding 597,249 fans have now written Sanchez in at third base -- more than any write-in candidate in baseball -- putting him fourth behind New York's David Wright (1,386,584), St. Louis' Scott Rolen and Houston's Morgan Ensberg.

Shortstop Wilson has also made his way onto the All-Star radar, progressing from out of the top five to fourth last week to second place Monday in emerging as a dark-horse starter. His 986,117 are within 80,000 of New York's Jose Reyes.

Jose Castillo continues to sit in third place at second base with 1,051,990 votes, trailing Philadelphia's Chase Utley (1,236,143) and Houston's Craig Biggio (1,097,119).

Holy shit, Go Freddy!

[DravenX]

Paul Lo Duca (1,281,767) still leads former Met Mike Piazza (880,948) of the San Diego Padres for the starting job behind the plate.

That is complete crap. Brian McCann should be in the lead. Lo Duca sucks and so does Piazza.

OBP - SLG - AVG
Lo Duca: .323 - .394 - .282
Piazza: .321 - .462 - .259
McCann: .417 - .515 - .352

For everyone out their that voted for Lo Duca and Piazza, you people are stupid. McCann deserves it and the stats prove it.