AL All Star Balloting Has Begun

The balloting to decide the American League All Stars for 2009 are underway and once again the price of New York, Derek Jeter, is leading the way. Unlike other years where Jeter has blown away the competition, he just barely leads the way with young stud Evan Longoria of the Tampa Bay Rays right behind him.

Jeter is vying for his 10^th all star appearance and looks like he will easily get into the game as he leads the shortstop category by over 400,000 votes so far. In second, a distance second, is Marco Scutaro of the Toronto Blue Jays who would be a very surprise choice to start for the AL team. It would have to take a drastic incident for Jeter to not once again be the starting shortstop. The rest of the shortstops that follow are Jason Bartlett of the Rays, sophomore Alexei Ramirez of the Chicago White Sox and Texas Rangers rookie Elvis Andrus.

When it comes to the third base category, Longoria also has a strangle hold on the position with over 650,000 votes. He leads the league in RBI's, has 11 home runs and has kept pace with his .324 batting average. He leads Michael Young by about 350,000 votes with Alex Rodriguez, Scott Rolen and Mike Lowell not too far behind.

The MLB all star game will take place on July 14^th in St. Louis, so there is still a long time for the votes to change. Voting closing at the beginning of July and the starting rosters should be announced by July 5^th.

The exciting part of this year is that baseball fans will be given the choice to select the final player on both the NL and AL rosters after the starting lineups are announced. The MLB is running a promotion called the All Star Game Sprint Final Vote which will allow an unsung hero or a star left of the roster to make the team based on the decision of the fans.

At the first base position the race is a little tighter with Red Sox Kevin Youkilis barely leading the way over Detroit's Miguel Cabrera and New York Yankees powerhouse Mark Teixeira. The surprising emerging star among this group of veterans is Texas Rangers stand out Chris Davis.

Dustin Pedroia has been unable to hold his spot at the top of the list as Ian Kinsler is another Texas Rangers star that is taking over the balloting. However the competition doesn’t end there with Toronto's Aaron Hill also close behind.

The race to be starting catcher is far less close as Joe Mauer is having a breakout season and everyone is starting to take notice. He is hitting above .400 on the season and has established some new power with 11 home runs on the season.

Jason Bay of the Red Sox, Josh Hamilton and Ichiro Suzuki of the Seattle Mariners lead the way in the outfield category but one of the big surprises is Ken Griffey Jr.'s emergence back into the top five. It would be quite historic for Griffey to make the starting roster in his first season back with the Mariners.