Early tallies are out for the National League All-Star voting, and it shouldn’t be any surprise that Joey Votto is at the top of the heap. Even if there weren’t a sudden vacuum of first basemen in the NL, Votto blow ’em all out of the water anyway.

Brandon Phillips, though also obviously the best in the NL at his position, is behind Dan Uggla. Surely we can do something about that. Jay Bruce has the disadvantage of being lumped in the all-encompassing “outfield” category, but he still ought to be higher than ninth.

Add your voice! You can vote up to 25 times per email address by going to the MLB website. And don’t forget to stuff the ballot boxes when you go to the park.

Tallies as of June 5, 2012:

FIRST BASE

• Joey Votto, Reds: 1,314,516
• Lance Berkman, Cardinals: 634,473
• Freddie Freeman, Braves: 576,255
• Bryan LaHair, Cubs: 391,497
• Adam LaRoche, Nationals: 331,772

SECOND BASE

• Dan Uggla, Braves: 872,136
• Brandon Phillips, Reds: 586,835
• Omar Infante, Marlins: 512,049
• Rickie Weeks, Brewers: 512,021
• Jose Altuve, Astros: 472,292

OUTFIELDERS

• Matt Kemp, Dodgers: 1,952,910
• Carlos Beltran, Cardinals: 1,212,030
• Ryan Braun, Brewers: 1,112,971
• Andre Ethier, Dodgers: 827,262
• Melky Cabrera, Giants: 714,642
• Matt Holliday, Cardinals: 667,544
• Jason Heyward, Braves: 515,340
• Michael Bourn, Braves: 498,070
• Jay Bruce, Reds: 460,853
• Andrew McCutchen, Pirates: 457,223
• Hunter Pence, Phillies: 446,460
• Corey Hart, Brewers: 417,929
• Carlos Gonzalez, Rockies: 386,860
• Jon Jay, Cardinals: 373,833
• Shane Victorino, Phillies: 373,034

To see the tallies for the other positions, you can go to this story on MLB.com and scroll all the way to the bottom.

This is one of those posts that’s only going to make sense to long-time RHM readers. You would have had to have been around, like, 5-7 years ago to remember when platoon catcher Javier Valentín was dubbed the “Latin Love Machine” and became sort of a mascot to the site.

Back then we had the whole blogsphere calling him “the LLM”. We posted up a bouncing Javy head every year on his birthday. We even added a site tagline in his honor: “Making Javier Valentín a household name since 2005.”

Those were heady days.

But yesterday, there was promise for the return of the Latin Love Machine dynasty. Javy’s nephew, Jesmuel Valentín was drafted by the L.A. Dodgers with the 51st overall pick. So keep your eye on L.A. the next couple years to see if Jesmuel can achieve household name status.

Yesterday was the first day of the First-Year Player Draft. The Reds had the 14th, 49th, and 57th picks yesterday. Now they have until 5 p.m. ET on July 13 to sign these guys.

14th – Nick Travieso
Right-handed pitcher
Age: 18 HT: 6’2″ WT: 215 lbs
Archbishop McCarthy High School, Southwest Rances FL
Travieso is a bit of a flamethrower and has topped out at 99 MPH.

49th – Jesse Winker
Corner outfielder; bats left; throws left
Age: 18 HT: 6’3″ WT: 200 lbs
Olympia High School, Orlando FL
.488 AVG, 3 HR, 30 RBI in 30 games, toolsy

57th – Jeff Gelalich
Corner outfielder; bats left; throws right
Age: 27 HT: 6’1″ WT: 205
UCLA
.372 AVG, 11 HR, 46 RBI and .462 OBP in 59 games, base-stealing threat

The draft continues today and Wednesday. The Reds still have the 78th, 109th, and 142nd picks ahead of them.