L.A. Times: Manny Ramirez falls behind in All-Star voting

Ramirez trails Milwaukee’s Ryan Braun, Philadelphia’s Raul Ibanez, the Chicago Cubs’ Alfonso Soriano and the New York Mets’ Carlos Beltran in the voting. Ramirez is nearly 135,000 votes behind Soriano in the race for the third spot.

Ramirez’s 635,530 votes are the most for any Dodgers player. Orlando Hudson is second in the balloting at second base, but he trails leader Chase Utley of the Phillies by more than 625,000 votes.

Ramirez’s suspension is scheduled to end July 3, and if he were voted onto the NL team for the July 14 All-Star Game in St. Louis, baseball’s collective-bargaining agreement gives Selig little power to prevent him from playing. That would be a public-relations nightmare for Selig and baseball, who would see one of their jewel events overtaken by discussion of performance-enhancing drugs.

Cardinals’ first baseman Albert Pujols leads all NL vote-getters with 1.240 million. San Diego’s Adrian Gonzalez, who leads the majors with 20 homers, has just 220,080 votes and is fifth in the balloting at first base.

The Mets’ David Wright leads at third base—the Dodgers’ Casey Blake is not in the top five—Florida’s Hanley Ramirez is tops at shortstop and the Cardinals’ Yadier Molina leads at catcher, where Russell Martin ranks fifth.