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For the second consecutive year, Blue Jays outfielder Jose Bautista will start the All-Star Game for the American League, receiving 4,971,155 votes. The former Silver Slugger leads the league in homeruns (26), is second is second in Rbi (63) and is fourth in runs scored (56). Bautista is the lone Blue Jay heading to the All-Star game, for third time in three years.

The 83rd Mid-Season Classic unveiled its rosters earlier today, and it included a whole lot of Yankees, Rangers, Cardinals and Giants. You can check out the full list below.

The 2012 All-Star Game will be held at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City on July 10.

Here are the roster cards for both teams:

American League roster Starters C Mike Napoli, Tex 1B Prince Fielder, Det 2B Robinson Cano, Nyy 3B Adrian Beltre, Tex SS Derek Jeter, Nyy Of Josh Hamilton, Tex Of Curtis Granderson, Nyy Of Jose Bautista, Tor Dh David Ortiz, Bos Pitchers Rhp Ryan Cook,...

No surprise there.  It goes without saying that James Cameron's sci-fi spectacle Avatar has the potential to clean house at the 8th Annual Ves Awards for its breath taking visuals by the acclaimed Weta Digital. Cameron will also be picking up a well-deserved Lifetime Achievement Award.  In the outstanding animated feature category, the nominees include Up, 9, Coraline, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs and Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs. 

The official press release is as followed:

3-D Films Dominate With Most Noms as Avatar grabs 11, Coraline 4, and Visual Effects Company Weta Digital Snags Most Company Noms with 9

Los Angeles, January 19, 2010 - The Visual Effects Society (Ves) today announced the nominees for the 8th Annual Ves Awards ceremony recognizing outstanding visual effects artistry in over twenty categories of film, animation, television, commercials and video games.  Nominees were chosen Saturday, January 16, 2010, by numerous blue ribbon panels of Ves members who...

James Cameron's "Avatar" led the list of nominations announced Monday by the Visual Effects Society, scooping up 11.

The animated "Coraline," another movie released in 3D, followed with four nominations.

New Zealand-based Weta Digital, which worked on "Avatar," led the company noms with nine.

For visual effects in an effects-driven motion picture feature, the nominees are "2012," "Avatar," "District 9," "Star Trek" and "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen."

Noms for supporting visual effects in a movie went to "Angels & Demons," "The Box," "Invictus," "The Road" and "Sherlock Holmes."

  "9," "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs," "Coraline," "Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs" and "Up" were nominated for outstanding animation in an animated feature.

Ves noms in 20 categories, covering film, animation, TV, commercials and video games were chosen Saturday by blue-ribbon panels of Ves members, meeting in Burbank, San Francisco and London.

The eighth annual Ves Awards will be handed out on Feb.

I actually think this is sort of clever, in a "we can afford to do this" kind of way (which is more than I can say for The Da Vinci Code, am I right?!). Apparently, when the production of Angels & Demons had been refused permission to shoot key scenes in the Vatican, special effects director Ryan Cook had a team of people blend in with tourists and take about 250,000 pictures and shoot hours of video to use as reference back in Los Angeles.

Said Cook in an interview with an Italian movie magazine (then excerpted by The Scotsman, and further excerpted here): "The ban really put us in a lot of trouble because we could not use the precision instruments which are used to take photographs and make reconstructions in the computer."

On a mild tangent, I have to ask whether or not our readers are getting excited for the film itself.