Only 12 hours left in Monster All-Star online balloting program

NEW YORK -- Will Ryan Braun become the first Milwaukee Brewers outfielder tobe elected by the fans? Will Joe Mauer become the first Minnesota Twins catcher to be a fanelectedstarter? Will Chase Utley become the first Philadelphia Phillies player to be the overall topvote-getter? These are only a few of the questions that will be answered as fans around the worldcast their final online votes during today's last 12 hours of the Monster 2008 All-Star OnlineBalloting Program, conducted exclusively at MLB.com and all 30 individual club sites.

With the majority of individual races still too close to call and online fan balloting closing at 11:59p.m. (EDT) tonight, votes continue to come in at a record pace with more than 15 million votes caston Tuesday alone, making it one of the largest single day totals in the program's history.

Braun, who was trailing Kosuke Fukudome of the Chicago Cubs for the final starting outfield spotby a mere 32,925 votes in the last National League update, continues to charge as he has received53% more online votes than Fukudome in the past 72 hours of exclusive online voting. In addition,Florida's Hanley Ramirez held a slight edge over Houston's Miguel Tejada in the race for thestarting shortstop spot.

The six-player scramble for the third and final American League outfield slot, which in the mostrecent American League update saw Seattle's Ichiro Suzuki leading the way, is coming down to thewire. Over the past 72 hours of exclusive online voting, Boston's J.D. Drew held a small lead overthe remaining five candidates - Ichiro, Vladimir Guerrero, Bobby Abreu, Johnny Damon andMilton Bradley - by receiving at least 20% percent more votes than the others.

In other tight American League races, Drew's Boston teammates Dustin Pedroia and KevinYoukilis are vying to hold onto their narrow leads over Ian Kinsler and Justin Morneau,respectively, while Mauer looks to get that starting catcher spot over Jason Varitek of the Red Sox.

The 2008 American and National League All-Star Teams will be unveiled on Sunday, July 6 on the2008 MLB All-Star Game Selection Show presented by Chevy, which will be televised nationallyon TBS at 2 p.m. (EDT).