The Red Sox have done better in terms of All-Star voting in previous years, but thankfully, at least one familiar face seems to be destined for Kansas City.
David Ortiz widened his lead in voting as designated hitter with 1,758,369 votes. No surprises there for Big Papi, who is widely expected to stay ahead in the voting and grab the American League’s DH spot. Ortiz won the 2010 Home Run Derby with ease but said he will likely sit out this year’s Derby festivities.
Dustin Pedroia currently sits in third place for AL second base voting behind big names Ian Kinsler of the Rangers (1,920,364) and Robinson Cano of the Yankees (1,732,359). Pedroia sits comfortably in third with 1,037,522 votes.
Surprisingly, Jacoby Ellsbury is currently the only Red Sox outfielder in contention for an All-Star spot. Rangers superstar Josh Hamilton still leads the outfield voting by a commanding amount and has so far received 3,833,504 votes — nearly 1,800,000 tallys ahead of second-place outfield vote-getter Curtis Granderson of the Yankees.
Hamilton isn’t the only Ranger posting big numbers at the ballot boxes for Texas. The Rangers currently lead the American League for voting in four of the seven All-Star positions. Hamilton leads in the outfield and Kinsler at second base while Adrian Beltre has a slight lead for third base voting and Mike Napoli leads at catcher.
And despite Texas’ dominance, the Yankees are the only AL team to have more than one player with over two million votes. Granderson has collected 2,003,239 and All-Star regular Derek Jeter has 2,419,508 votes at shortstop so far.
Rounding out the remaining positions, Prince Fielder of the Detroit Tigers leads first base voting, Behind Hamilton and Granderson in the outfield are Nelson Cruz of the Rangers, Jose Bautista of the Blue Jays and Adam Jones of the Orioles respectively.
Voting ends on June 28 with the rosters announced on July 1.
