WASHINGTON – Matt Kemp remained fifth in the latest National League All-Star fan voting update announced Monday, but the Braves’ veteran left fielder’s deficit behind third-place Jason Heyward has more than doubled since the previous update.
Fans vote for the starting position players, while the commissioner’s office, with input from the All-Star managers, picks the reserves and pitchers.
The outfielders aren’t separated according to position, so the top 15 vote-getters are given among all NL outfielders, while the top five vote-getters are updated at the other positions. The top three outfielders will be starters for the All-Star game, assuming all remain healthy and available to play.
The only other Braves mentioned in this or the previous two fan-vote updates were Brandon Phillips, who remained fourth among NL second basemen, and injured first baseman Freddie Freeman, fourth among NL first basemen.
Kemp had 641,728 votes in the Monday update, behind the Cubs duo of Ben Zobrist (fourth with 678,795 votes) and Heyward (737,147) and far behind the two leaders, the Rockies’ Charlie Blackmon (1,588,498) and the Nationals’ Bryce Harper, the overall leading NL votes leader with 2,132,795.
Kemp entered Monday night’s game against the Nationals with a .326 batting average, .361 OBP, .549 slugging percentage (.910 OPS) with 10 home runs and 31 RBIs, then hit his 11th homer in the first inning off Stephen Strasburg.
Heyward began Monday with .257 average, .344 OBP, .414 slugging percentage (.758 OPS) with five homers and 27 RBIs.
If the current voting leaders remain unchanged, five of the eight starting NL position players would be Nationals or Cubs. Washington also had Daniel Murphy leading at second base and Ryan Zimmerman at first base, while the Cubs had Kris Bryant leading at third base.
