Nelson Cruz and Matt Wieters continue to lead in voting for AL All-Star team

By Steve Melewski

Orioles

June 08, 2014, 5:00pm

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Two Orioles continue to lead their positions in voting for the American League All-Star team. Nelson Cruz remains first in voting at designated hitter and Matt Wieters leads all catchers.

Cruz, who entered play on Sunday leading the majors with 21 home runs and 55 RBIs, maintains his lead over Boston's David Ortiz. Cruz, a two-time All-Star, has 1,404,275 votes while Ortiz, a nine-time All-Star, has received a total of 1,036,055 votes.

Wieters has gotten 1,235,369 votes to lead seven-time All-Star Brian McCann (827,200) of the Yankees and A's backstop Derek Norris (813,053). Wieters, a two-time All-Star, is seeking his first fan-elected start and would join Terry Kennedy (1987) as the only catchers in Orioles history to earn a fan election. Wieters is currently on the disabled list with a strained right elbow.

Wieters and Cruz, if they get voted to the team, would give the Orioles multiple starters in consecutive years (Chris Davis, J.J. Hardy and Adam Jones in 2013) for the first time since 1997 (Roberto Alomar, Cal Ripken Jr., Brady Anderson) and 1998 (Alomar, Ripken).

Elsewhere in the voting, Chris Davis is fourth at first base. Manny Machado and J.J. Hardy are third at third base and shortstop, respectively. Adam Jones has moved up to fourth among outfielders and Nick Markakis is ninth.

Jones trails Melky Cabrera of Toronto for third place and a starting spot on the AL team. Cabrera has 1,096,784 votes and Jones has 820,336.

The 85th All-Star Game will be played on Tuesday, July 15 at Target Field in Minnesota.