Nooooo!

Evan Longoria has relinquished the all-star vote lead back to Derek Jeter.

Dirtbag had been leading the votes for the last several weeks, and looked like a lock to be the number 1 vote getter, but a few slow weeks due to the injured hammy and the subsequently less impressive stats have let Jeter claw his way back into the lead.

I know a lot of Rays fans and Longo supporters had begun to rest on their laurels when it came to All-Star voting, but it's time to get back on that horse and start voting again.

In related news, Crawford has also fallen off pace and is now the number 5 outfielder.

Bartlett is second amongst shortstops, and will not catch Jeter.

Vote Here

Don't Forget To Keep Voting.

A few weeks ago we asked Rays fans to rally together to make sure that Jason Bartlett, Carl Crawford, and Carlos Pena get a much-deserved trip to the All-Star game. We need to continue the support. Also, let's try to get Ben Zobrist into the game as a write-in.









Keep voting! Click the picture above to be taken to the original post which then has a link to the MLB voting page.

Remember, you can vote up to 20 times per day, per e-mail account.

Call To Arms..

A few days ago I posted in regard to rising-up and making sure that Jason Bartlett is on the All-Star roster (See You In St Louis).

Since that post (and I'm not implying that my post had anything to do with it) Bartlett has risen from fourth to second place in votes for SS. I highly doubt that it's realistic to expect him to surpass Jeter, but we need to continue to vote and promote Bartlett (as well as Longo).

In addition to Longoria and Bartlett we have to remember to keep pumping-out votes for CC and Pena as well. CC has been downright amazing on many levels, and Pena has led the bigs in homers essentially from day 1, has continued to play gold-glove defense, and may be just as deserving as any other Devil Ray outside of Bartlett.

Remember, you can vote 25 times per day per e-mail account, so lets keep blowing-up the ballot box, and make this a Devil Rays v. NL game. Vote Here.

See You In St Louis

With just a few more days left before June, talk of the 2009 All-Popularity Game is all the rage, especially in Rays' circles thanks to some guy named Longoria raking in votes like leaves in autumn (Evan currently has the 2nd most AL all-star votes behind only Derek Jeter).

I couldn't be happier for Evan, but with all the pomp and circumstance that led to Evan becoming a major league player, and considering that he's already considered one of the top 20 players in the entire league, its certainly no surprise to see him garnering so much love and support from the masses- it was to be expected.

However, the person for whom I think the most love is actually deserved currently lies 4th in the voting among players at his position, despite the fact that he has the leagues' highest batting average (.373), a nice fielding percentage (.978), a very impressive OBP (.418), and a handful of stolen bases (14).

This player leads all other all-popularity players from his position in OBP, Steals, RBI, and batting average.

I'm talking, of course, about our very own Jason Bartlett.

Up until he hit the DL, JB was having a career year, and there's no reason to believe that a slight ankle injury should change that. Sadly I'm not sure that Bartlett would have gotten enough votes prior to his injury, but now the typical fans' "out of sight, out of mind" mentality matched with most fans' "homerism" will most likely doom JB to the ranks of "best players not in St Louis" in July (much like Aki last season).

Unless...

Unless we can mount-up and get serious about making certain that Bartlett gets the trip to St Louis that he deserves. Let's find a way to get Bartlett the attention he deserves, and show America that the All-Star game is for the best players, not just the most popular ones.

Join us in voting early and often for Jason Bartlett (you can vote 25 times per day per e-mail account).

Start voting- the kid deserves it! Vote Here.