With 10 days of MLB All-Star voting remaining, three Braves players lead the NL vote count at their positions – first baseman Freddie Freeman, second baseman Ozzie Albies and outfielder Nick Markakis. And their showings may not even be the best indications of how enthusiastically Braves fans have approached the online voting.
Consider, for example, Braves rookie Ronald Acuna, who has received about 930,000 votes – fifth most among NL outfielders – despite playing only 29 major-league games. And consider Dansby Swanson (second among NL shortstops), Kurt Suzuki (third among NL catchers) and Ender Inciarte (sixth among NL outfielders), each with more than 800,000 votes. Even Johan Camargo has gotten more than 600,000 votes – third most among NL third basemen – despite starting just 31 games at the position for Atlanta this season.
In fact, of the eight Braves players on the ballot, all are currently among the top three vote-getters at their positions (or top six in the case of outfielders, who are all lumped together).
The vote totals “not only speak to the popularity of these players and this team locally and even regionally, but also nationally,” Braves president and CEO Derek Schiller said last week.
He relishes the way Braves fans are voting.
“Once people are presumably voting for one or two or three players, they might as well vote for all their favorite Braves players,” said Schiller, adding with a laugh: “And by the way we encourage them to do just that.”
Freeman is the overall leading vote-getter in the NL with almost 2.2 million votes, and Markakis is the leader among outfielders with more than 1.8 million votes. At second base, Albies (1.4 million votes) leads the Cubs’ Javier Baez by about 220,000 votes and the Reds’ Scooter Gennett by about 240,000.
There will probably be another surge of Albies votes after his walk-off home run in the 11th inning gave the Braves a 5-4 win over the Reds on Monday night (actually, early Tuesday morning) at SunTrust Park.
Votes can be cast at MLB.com and the 30 teams' websites until 11:59 p.m. on July 5. Each fan is allowed to vote up to five times per 24-hour period and can cast a maximum of 35 ballots.
The All-Star game will be played July 17 at Nationals Park in Washington.
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TODAY’S LEADOFF LINKS
> It's not just Braves fans making their presence felt in All-Star voting. Atlanta United fans dominated the voting for the MLS All-Star game, placing six Atlanta players on the roster. Read Doug Roberson's story here.
> Did Hawks GM Travis Schlenk have the Golden State Warriors in mind while selecting three players in last week's draft? Read Michael Cunningham's story here.
> Former University of Georgia athletic director Damon Evans has been hired as the AD at Maryland. See story here.
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