Baseball: All-Star voting thread..

Despite being on the disabled list for over a month, Chicago Cubs shortstop Nomar Garciaparra was among the leaders in the National League All-Star voting when the first returns were released Wednesday.

LINK






[Edited on 7/6/05 by TRD]

Injured Nomar Garciaparra retained his lead at shortstop and Bobby Abreu of the Philadelphia Phillies surged past Ken Griffey Jr. among outfielders in the latest National League All-Star voting released on Tuesday. A career .320 hitter, Garciaparra had a dismal .157 average without a home run for the Chicago Cubs when he tore his left groin running out of the batter's box in an April 20 game. A five-time All-Star, Garciaparra has 312,892 votes and holds a slim lead over David Eckstein of the St. Louis Cardinals (295,955).

After being named as the NL Player of the Month, Abreu rode a wave of more than 150,000 votes over the last seven days to move into third place among outfielders with a total of 376,338. Griffey Jr. of the Cincinnati Reds slipped to fourth with 360,947.

First baseman Albert Pujols of the Cardinals is the leading vote-getter with 748,844, well ahead of Chicago's Derrek Lee (435,404), the league leader in batting average, home runs and RBI.

Two other Cardinals are among the leaders at their respective positions, with third baseman Scott Rolen (539,087) well ahead of Atlanta's Chipper Jones (383,083) and center fielder Jim Edmonds (546,739) trailing only Carlos Beltran of the New York Mets (672,050) in the outfield.

At the other positions, Mets catcher Mike Piazza (579,502) leads Paul Lo Duca of the Florida Marlins (378,213) behind the plate and Los Angeles' Jeff Kent (506,272) is ahead of Houston's Craig Biggio (322,126) at second base.

Source: SI.com