The news is breaking that the Cincinnati Reds have signed their first round draft pick of the 2012 draft, Nick Travieso.

The Florida high school right-hander, who was ranked No. 32 on MLB.com’s Draft Top 100 prior to the Draft, will sign for $2 million. That is below the assigned value for the pick, $2.375 million.

The news comes from the MLB Pro Blog: Big, Bald, and Beautiful. If the information is as reputable as the blog title’s description of the author, then tomorrow, we can expect an official announcement about Travieso’s signing.

Major League Baseball has again released the current count of votes for the All-Star Game, and not a whole lot has changed since last week. Joey Votto is still running away with the start at first; in fact, he’s extended his lead. He’s now got 2.5 times as many votes and the second-place vote getter Lance Berkman of the Cardinals.

Frankly, that kind of sucks. Joey Votto was the best National League first baseman before and couldn’t get voted in. Now suddenly there’s a vacuum of NL 1Bers and the field is so thin the second place guy isn’t even actively playing. Votto deserves to have beaten real competition for this honor. I hope he has 10 times the number of votes of second place when this is all done.

Brandon Phillips remains in second place behind Dan Uggla of the Braves, and he’s lost a little bit of ground in that titanic struggle. Jay Bruce has lost quite a bit of ground in the outfielder contest, dropping from ninth to fourteenth.

A bright spot in the position changes this time around: Buster Posey of the Giants has overtaken that punk Yadier Molina of the Cardinals. If you haven’t cast your votes yet, why not consider Posey? Sure, it’s ideal to vote for a Red, but I think I might make an exception in this case. Surely Ryan Hanigan will understand.

You can vote up to 25 times per email address by going to the MLB website.

Tallies as of June 12, 2012:

FIRST BASE

• Joey Votto, Reds: 2,108,725
• Lance Berkman, Cardinals: 851,373
• Freddie Freeman, Braves: 828,759
• Brandon Belt, Giants: 563,708
• Bryan LaHair, Cubs: 514,809

SECOND BASE

• Dan Uggla, Braves: 1,341,088
• Brandon Phillips, Reds: 885,250
• Omar Infante, Marlins: 737,715
• Jose Altuve, Astros: 700,640
• Rickie Weeks, Brewers: 642,184

CATCHER

• Buster Posey, Giants: 1,713,839
• Yadier Molina, Cardinals: 1,576,199
• Carlos Ruiz, Phillies: 1,191,194
• Brian McCann, Braves: 1,012,743
• Jonathan Lucroy, Brewers: 588,710

OUTFIELD

• Matt Kemp, Dodgers: 2,589,464
• Carlos Beltran, Cardinals: 1,782,831
• Ryan Braun, Brewers: 1,553,356
• Melky Cabrera, Giants: 1,357,461
• Andre Ethier, Dodgers: 1,142,312
• Matt Holliday, Cardinals: 951,652
• Hunter Pence, Phillies: 861,555
• Michael Bourn, Braves: 768,049
• Shane Victorino, Phillies: 733,310
• Carlos Gonzalez, Rockies: 728,903
• Andrew McCutchen, Pirates: 728,522
• Angel Pagan, Giants: 722,820
• Jason Heyward, Braves: 717,121
• Jay Bruce, Reds: 655,098
• Martin Prado, Braves: 560,943

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.

Boxscore

Since 75% of major league baseball was taking the night off last night, and since Mondays are dollar menu night at Victory Field, I used the opportunity to support my local Indianapolis Indians.

Justin Wilson started the night for the Indians. In 7.0 innings, he allowed 0 runs on 4 hits and no walks. He recorded 6 strike-outs. Evan Meek took on the other 2.0 innings and allowed 0 runs on 0 hits. He struck out 1.

On the offensive side, 12 different guys scored runs. These 8 guys had the RBI:

• Gorkys Hernandez
• Eric Fryer
• Starling Marte, 2
• Jose Morales, 3
• Yamaico Navarro, 3
• Brandon Boggs, 2
• Jeff Larish
• Tony Sanchez

This was the largest every shutout in Victory Field history, but lest you think it was a fluke, know the Indians had beaten the Red Wings 8-1 on Sunday. Looks like the Pirates either have some good talent on the way, or the Twins have a shallow farm system. In fact, it’s probably both, but watch out for the Pirates in the next few years.

The win brings the Indians’ record to 37-27. They lead the International League West by 7 games. Tonight they go for the sweep; first pitch is at 7:05 p.m. It’s Two-for-Tuesday night: get two tickets for the price of one with a ticket from any area McAlister’s Deli location

Updated at 10:40 a.m. to correct the affiliation of the Red Wings from Washington Nationals to Minnesota Twins. Thanks to our unofficial fact checker, @melmgoodwin.

There’s a secondary headline in a story on Reds.com today about how Dusty Baker is mentoring his guys through their struggles with hitting with runners in scoring position. It actually paints Baker in a pretty good light, especially considering that many times when he opens his mouth it’s to say really stupid things.

This time, though, he was saying how young guys come up and don’t know to think about what the pitcher is trying to do to them. Knowing if the guy is trying to strike you out, pop you up, or keep you on the ground can give you an advantage in your approach.

Sounds pretty smart to me. And then, this:

“Over the years since I’ve been here, I’ve tried to tell the guys the same thing that was told to me. The RBI man is a big man,” Baker said. “Everybody talks about on-base percentage, which is important. But even more important is when you get them out there, how many RBI men are around?”

Sing it from the hilltops, my friends: on-base percentage is important, at least in a subordinate clause kind of way. At this rate, we might even hear him utter that walks don’t clog the bases. You know, sometime before the end of this century.