All-Star Game 2014: Orioles' Nelson Cruz, Matt Wieters lead in voting as June begins

On Monday afternoon, MLB released the second update on the voting for the 2014 All-Star Game. Two Orioles occupy the top spots for their respective positions. Catcher Matt Wieters continued atop the catcher position voting, while Nelson Cruz, ahem, cruised into first place at designated hitter, ahead of the vandal David Ortiz.

With 842,775 votes, Wieters holds what looks like a commanding lead over the competition. He leads Yankees catcher Brian McCann by over 200,000 votes in the catching category for what would be the third All-Star selection of his career.

Cruz narrowly trailed Ortiz in the first ballot update, but as he's continued to hit home runs, he's continued to gain support. Or else Orioles fans are just voting a gazillion times apiece, but hey, it's all in the game, right? People should take care to protect their phones around Ortiz now. Cruz has 888,855 votes, which is good for a lead of a bit more than 80,000 votes over Ortiz. Everyone likes home runs. Cruz has 20.

Five other Orioles are listed among the leaders, though realistically, none of them stand any chance of surging into one of the starter positions. Chris Davis is fourth among first basemen, trailing leader Miguel Cabrera by about a half million votes. Manny Machado is also fourth among third basemen, trailing leader Josh Donaldson by nearly a half million votes.

At shortstop, J.J. Hardy sits in third, but he also trails the leader, Derek Jeter, by about a half million votes. Outfielders Adam Jones and Nick Markakis rank sixth and tenth, respectively, at that position. The top three are the ones named as the starters in the game. The tenth place Markakis is about 300,000 votes shy of third place Melky Cabrera, while sixth place Jones needs another 200,000 votes to get into third place.

After ending up with five All-Stars last year, the Orioles don't look to be quite so flush this time around. Cruz and Wieters look like they will be it. Wieters, being injured and only just now starting the basics of a throwing program, probably wouldn't play in the game even if selected. Maybe someone like Jones will get selected as a reserve. It's hard to imagine any pitcher getting a selection this time around, as Chris Tillman did last year.

MLB looks to be releasing voting updates every Monday, so we'll see if there's been any more movement a week from now. Online voting runs through July 3. There's still another month of voting to go.