Saw a flash of the ASG voting so far.  It's not surprising that Albert Pujols is far in the overall lead, and he deserves it.  Bad news, though, things won't work out as they really should.  Fan voting, bad!

I can't think of a good reason why Jason Bay won't be a starting outfielder other than "he plays for the Pirates."  He's hitting .303/.425/.596 (a gaudy 1.021 OPS) with 16 homers and 45 RBI.  His average is well above other noted vote-getters Andruw Jones, Bobby Abreu and Carlos Beltran, so it's no surprise he leads them all in TB as well.  Only Abreu's OPS is higher.  He leads them all in home runs, hits, runs, games played, and is second in walks.  They're all out-playing Ken Griffey, Jr., a voting leader, for what that's worth.

For comparison: http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/stats/league_leaders.jsp?c_id=mlb&section1=null&statSet1=null& amp;sortByStat=RBI&statType=1&timeFrame=1&timeSubFrame=2006&baseballScope=NL&pre vPage1=1&readBoxes=true&box2=XXXX116662atlO&box4=XXXX424726pitO&box8=XXXX110029phiO& amp;box12=XXXX136860nynO&box49=XXXX115135cinO&compare.x=37&compare.y=7

I realize Bay's hot streak came after voting had already started, but that won't matter in the end in the same way Jack Wilson was jobbed out of at least one Gold Glove so far.  It also fails to explain Griffey, who's playing just barely better than Jeromy Burnitz overall (in roughly half the games).

I feel bad for Jack, having a good year just when other National League shortstops are having better ones.