Good news: Manny fading from All-Star voting

Most of the news in the sporting world today will be revolving around Los Angeles, and this piece is no different.

Major League Baseball released an update today of the All-Star voting and there's some big news from a certain someone on a certain L.A. club. Manny Ramirez, who continues to serve his ban until next month, has dropped to sixth in voting for NL outfielders.

I still think it's incredible that he is even that close, but hey, it's a start.

What's even more important is the leader in the outfield for the NL. Who might that be? Raul Ibanez, who is on his way to his first career appearance in the game after getting off to a torrid start for the defending champion Philadelphia Phillies.

Behind him are Ryan Braun, Carlos Beltran, Alfonso Soriano, Shane Victorino and Ramirez.

Also dropping off from their initial high spots are Milwaukee outfielders Mike Cameron and Corey Hart, who now rank seventh and ninth, respectively.

Behind the dish, the Brewers' Jason Kendall has dropped to third while St. Louis' Yadier Molina leads the way with just over 1 million votes. Between the two is Braves' catcher Brian McCann.

Another Phillies star, Jimmy Rollins, has taken over at shortstop with 1.2 million votes. The Marlins' Hanley Ramirez has maintained his second place spot, but trails by less than 90,000 votes. Milwaukee's J.J. Hardy — who led the first update — has dropped to third place with just under 900,000 votes.

At third base, the Mets' David Wright has a commanding lead over Washington's Ryan Zimmerman, earning 1.25 million votes to Zimmerman's 920,000.

At second base, it's the defending champs again as Chase Utley continues to dominate his competition. Utley leads all NL vote getters with 2.27 million votes, while the Dodgers' Orlando Hudson is a distant second with just over 900,000.

Finally, the race for first isn't very close either as Albert Pujols is just behind Utley for the overall lead with 2.15 million votes. His closest competitor is another member of the Phillies as Ryan Howard has 1.14 million. In third is the Brewers' Prince Fielder, who is perhaps having the best season of any player not leading his position in voting for the NL right now.

So that makes for two Cardinals, three Phillies, two Mets and one Brewer in the starting lineup.

The only problem with that? Though those four teams comprise 80% of the top five teams in the NL, on the top of that list is the Los Angeles Dodgers.