Why you should still be voting for Troy Tulowitzki

Updated NL All Star polls were posted earlier today, showing Troy Tulowitzki still third place amongst NL Shortstops. Tulowitzki trails first place Hanley Ramirez by 564,718 votes and second place Jimmy Rollins by 269,494 votes.

There are several reasons why you as a Rockies fan, and if not a Rockies fan, as a baseball fan, should be voting for Troy Tulowitzki.

First of all, despite his current status on the Disabled List, Tulowitzki has had the best first half of all National League SS, hands down, without a doubt.

Offensively he rakes. Troy Tulowitzki is leading all NL SS in AVG* (.306), SLUG (.502), and Runs. He is second in OBP and OBS and third in HR and RBI.

Defensively he's rock solid. He's third amoung NL SS in Fielding PCT with a .985 clip, but leads in Total Chances (330), Put Outs (124), Assists (201), and double plays (55).

Just above Troy in the All-Star balloting is Jimmy Rollins, who has been on the DL most of the year. He has played in as many games (13) as Ubaldo Jimenez has won as a Starting Pitcher. There is no way Rollins should be garnering more votes than Tulo.

Both Tulo and Rollins trail Hanley Ramirez, who has put up decent numbers this year, but was benched earlier this year for questions of hustle on the field and disagreements with his manager and team. The Florida Marlins have had a strong push to buy votes from fans with promotional items.

The fact that Tulowitzki is not first in All-Star balloting should feel like a slap in the face to Rockies nation. The good news is there is still time. The polls are still open online. You can vote up to 25 times per email at http://bit.ly/VoteTULO.

Additionally there is a campaign on Twitter, encouraging everyone to vote for Troy Tulowitzki that can be followed at @VoteTULO.

*Technical requirements to be counted amoungst the league leaders in stat categories such as AVG, SLUG, OBP, etc, is to have 3.1 plate appearances per team game. Currently Troy has 265 Total Plate Appearances, meaning that he'll drop out of eligibility after the Rockies 85th game, which will occur after the home series against the St. Louis Cardinals in July, 3 games before the All-Star Break.