Lastings Milledge(notes) has been publicly shamed and banished back to the minor leagues since mid-April and there are no current signs to indicate he'll be returning to Washington's lineup any time soon. 

Yet he's still listed as one of the Nationals' candidates on the All-Star ballot, which brings up a scary, but interesting question. 

Could a well-coordinated voting effort somehow put the Syracuse Chief into this year's Midsummer Classic like NHL fans almost did with Rory Fitzpatrick?

Some nefarious Red Sox fans who already have a track record of getting out the vote for undeserving candidates have brought up the possibility.  

From Sons of Sam Horn:

"As good citizens of NatsTown, I think we need to get as many Natinals on the All-Star team as possible.

"Specifically, Lastings Milledge is on the NL All-Star ballot. He needs to make the team. Nothing would be more NatsTown than having the Natinals' (lone?) All-Star game representative be a AAA player for whom the organization has no plan.

"How can we make this happen?"

Well, considering that millions of Red Sox fans cast ballots each year and don't have many horses on the NL side (except for, uh, Manny Ramirez(notes)), a simple game of telephone at Fenway Park could elicit plenty of votes for Milledge in the coming months. Throw in Nats fans like Chris Needham who wish to see their franchise shamed and scheming baseball bloggers like yours truly and maybe there's a chance to generate some headlines with inflated vote totals.

Would it be tough to pass all the votes that Manny Ramirez, Ryan Braun and the Cubs contingent are sure to get? Of course, but at the very least we'd be teaching MLB a valuable lesson on how to take a person's name off the digital ballot if they're not even wearing a major league uniform at the time. Why is Milledge even eligible?

To vote for Milledge or any of MLB's other All-Stars click here.