Baseball Bloggers Alliance
Names 2011 All Stars
Outfielders Jose Bautista of the Toronto Blue Jays and Matt
Kemp from the Los Angeles Dodgers led their respective leagues in balloting for
Major League Baseball’s All-Star Game as conducted by members of the Baseball
Bloggers Alliance and announced today.
Bautista, who has an American
League-leading 1.133 OPS to go along with his 24 home runs, was named on 50
ballots, not including one ballot that placed him at third base. Bautista
was joined in the outfield by Curtis Granderson of
the New York Yankees, who received 48 votes, and Jacoby Ellsbury
of the Boston Red Sox, who tallied 23 votes.
There were few close races in
the AL voting by the BBA. The tightest was at third base, where Yankee
Alex Rodriguez outpolled Adrian Beltre of the Texas
Rangers 30-16. All other races were decided by at least twenty votes save
the nod for starting pitcher. Detroit Tigers ace Justin Verlander won that 16-6 over Jered
Weaver of the Los Angeles Angels, but many bloggers did not designate a
specific starter so fewer votes were cast in that category.
Other American League nods were
to Tigers catcher Alex Avila, first baseman Adrian Gonzalez of the Boston Red
Sox, Yankee second baseman Robinson Cano, and shortstop Asdrubal
Cabrera of the Cleveland Indians. Red Sox designated hitter David Ortiz
was selected at that position.
Over in the National League,
Kemp’s stellar first half--he sits second in batting average, first in home
runs, second in RBI and has 21 stolen bases to boot--earned him mention on 54
ballots. Accompanying him in the outfield was Ryan Braun of the Milwaukee
Brewers and Lance Berkman of the St. Louis Cardinals.
As in the junior circuit, the
closest race in the NL was at the hot corner. Philadelphia Phillies third
baseman Placido Polanco
edged out Chase Headley of the San Diego Padres 21-14, with Atlanta Brave
Chipper Jones receiving 10 votes.
The other races were not a
contest, as Braves catcher Brian McCann, Brewers first baseman Prince Fielder
and second baseman Rickie Weeks, and New York Mets shortstop Jose Reyes all won
their slots by at least 25 votes.
Starting the contest for the NL
was Roy Halladay, who easily outpolled his
Philadelphia teammate Cole Hamels for the honor.
The Baseball Bloggers Alliance
was formed in 2009 with the purpose of encouraging collaboration and communication
among bloggers from across baseball. As a secondary goal, they vote on
various awards throughout the year. In January, they recommended Roberto
Alomar and Bert Blyleven for the Baseball Hall of Fame and in March, they
created a new award to honor the top internet writer and then named it after
the first recipient, Sports Illustrated’s Joe Posnanski.
You can find the BBA at their website or on Facebook. You can follow the
Alliance at @baseballblogs
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