When it comes to National League All-Stars its basically the Phillies, Mets and Cardinals. Then everyone else. The Phillies (Chase Utley, Raul Ibañez, Jimmy Rollins), as of the official June 15th results, have three players set to start for the N.L. in the 2009 All-Star Game. The Mets have two (David Wright, Carlos Beltran), as do the Cardinals (Albert Pujols, Yadier Molina). The final spot (excluding pitcher) would be Milwaukee's Ryan Braun. Of course we're still about a month from the game; aything can happen until the teams are announced. Current results below.
The most newsworthy item this week may be Utley taking over the #1 spot from Pujols, in terms of total votes. The Phillies second baseman, who had the most votes among N.L. players in 2008, now has 2,273,355 votes. Pujols is second overall with 2,158,036.
So obviously Ryan Howard still is lurking behind Pujols at first base. Don't expect Howard to pass him. However, Howard could become a reserve. Actually it's probably a forgone conclusion that Howard will indeed be in St. Louis this July.
Nothing else to say about Utley. The Dodgers Orlando Hudson is a distant second at second base with 904,648 votes.
The most undeserving starters is, unfortunately, Rollins at short stop. Jimmy has shown signs of improvement recently but should not be set to start in front of Hanley Ramirez (a close second) or Miguel Tejada (a distant fifth). J.J Hardy is third while Jose Reyes (why?) is 4th.
Third base has gone completely unchanged, order-wise. It goes Wright, Ryan Zimmerman, Chipper Jones, Pedro Feliz, Bill Hall. I'd love to see Feliz make it as a reserve but doubt he'll get the nod over Zimmerman or Jones.
Carlos Ruiz is up to 4th! "Chooch" is having the best season of his MLB career and with the lack of big names behind the plate this season has a good a case as any to make the All-Star team for the N.L. Ruiz has 809,633 votes, about 6,000 behind 3rd place Jason Kendall and 85,000 behind 2nd place Brian McCann.
Ibañez, Braun and Beltran remain 1-2-3 in the outfield, though the Cubs Alfonso Soriano is approaching the Mets OF. Phillies OF Shane Victorino has jumped suspended Dodgers OF Manny Ramirez for 5th. Teammate Jayson Werth remains in 8th.
I'm expecting five Phillies to make the team - Utley, Ibañez, Rollins, Howard and either Ruiz or Hamels.
If I were choosing who should go, I'd tab Utley, Ibañez, Howard and Ruiz.
Sorry, J-Roll.
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