Nelson Cruz slips from starting All-Star spot

June, 18, 2012
6/18/12
2:07
PM CT
The only change for the Rangers in the latest update of All-Star Game voting is that Nelson Cruz is no longer third among AL outfielders. Cruz, who held a slight advantage for the third and final starting spot in the outfield last week, is now fifth behind Toronto's Jose Bautista and Baltimore's Adam Jones. Some other Rangers notes from the ballots:

* Josh Hamilton still leads all AL vote-getters with 5,414,880 votes. He's on pace to break Bautista's single-season record. Hamilton is vying to start the All-Star Game for a fifth straight time.

* Ian Kinsler is in the closest race on the ballot, leading Robinson Cano by a little more than 15,000 votes to start at second base. If Kinsler does it, he'd join Julio Franco (1989) and Alfonso Soriano (2004) as the Rangers' only second basemen to start in the All-Star Game.

* Adrian Beltre leads Miguel Cabrera by about 381,000 votes to start at third base.

* Mike Napoli has a commanding lead at catcher. He has more than 2.2 million votes while Joe Mauer is nearly a million behind.

* Elvis Andrus (shortstop) and Michael Young (DH) are second in their respective positions. Derek Jeter leads Andrus by more than 1. 3 million votes and David Ortiz is ahead of Young by nearly a half-million votes.

* Mitch Moreland remains fourth among first baseman, but is still getting more votes than Albert Pujols (1,202,724 to 1,047,722).

* David Murphy is sixth among outfielders, which is now just one spot behind his teammate Cruz.
Richard Durrett joined ESPNDallas.com in September 2009. He writes about colleges, the Dallas Stars and the Texas Rangers. Richard spent nine years at The Dallas Morning News covering the Rangers, Stars, colleges, motorsports and high schools.

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TEAM LEADERS

BA LEADER
Lance Berkman
BA HR RBI R
.309 3 25 20
OTHER LEADERS
HRN. Cruz 11
RBIN. Cruz 33
RE. Andrus 28
OPSM. Moreland .922
WY. Darvish 7
ERAY. Darvish 2.97
SOY. Darvish 86

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