Voting for the 2011 MLB All-Star Game ends on Thursday, and the latest batch of numbers for which players are leading was released on Tuesday. The only position where a Detroit Tigers player is even in contention for a starting spot is at catcher, but Alex Avila is still trailing New York Yankees catcher Russell Martin by more than 400,000 votes.
Here's a look at the top five players at catcher as of Tuesday:
CATCHER
Russell Martin, Yankees: 2,779,592
Alex Avila, Tigers: 2,345,065
Joe Mauer, Twins: 1,699,604
Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Red Sox: 1,505,143
Yorvit Torrealba, Rangers: 1,309,802
The "Vote Avila" campaign has been in full swing for the last week or so. Justin Verlander jumped on board and has been very active on Twitter promoting it. He is doing his best to get people to vote for Avila and unseat Martin as the starter behind home plate in this year's All-Star Game.
Like Avila, Verlander deserves to be a starter in the All-Star Game. Starting pitchers aren't determined by a vote, but chances are he would take the hill first for the American League if the dates of his starts worked out. Unfortunately because Verlander is scheduled to start the Tigers' final game before the All-Star break, he won't be eligible to start.
Regardless of who ends up starting at pitcher and catcher for the AL, I think most baseball fans would agree that the Tigers' duo of Verlander and Avila should be in the starting lineup. Thanks to the schedule and Yankees fans, however, it looks like neither will get that honor this year.