Washington: Rays' Price is strong candidate to be AL starting pitcher

Rangers manager Ron Washington said Rays lefthander David Price is "certainly at the top of list" of candidates to start this year's All-Star game.

Price, who has an AL-leading 11 wins and a 2.82 ERA, started the game before back in 2010 and was picked for his third straight All-Star team. Rangers LHP Matt Harrison and Tigers RHP Justin Verlander are also candidates.

"David Price is definitely a candidate," Washington said today in an All-Star managers conference call. "You have quite a few of them. I don't feel like you can go wrong. We're certainly in discussions in how we want to maneuver this, we've had some options that we've put together, threw some options out there and we just haven't come to a final conclusion on it yet. David Price is certainly at the top of that list."