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With All-Star voting set to end this Thursday, July 5th, the Braves found themselves in the, at least until recently, unfamiliar position of both leading the NL East and have several very deserving candidates for the All-Star game. Pitcher Sean Newcomb and Mike Foltynewicz both have strong cases for slots and Nick Markakis, Ozzie Albies, and Freddie Freeman all are showing out in 2018.
Well it has been clear that Braves fans have both taken notice of their position players’ performances and are energized in a way they haven’t been in years as it looks like, barring an upset at this point, the Braves will have three players that have led balloting at their positions wire-to-wire as representatives in the All-Star game.
Here are the latest American League and National League balloting totals for the 2018 @AllStarGame with less than four full days of voting left for the @CampingWorld All-Star Ballot. Visit https://t.co/Jd6REEkFYI to vote. #MLBVote pic.twitter.com/xQMrIIUtVr
— MLB Communications (@MLB_PR) July 2, 2018
Freddie Freeman, who has been the best hitter in the National League by most measures in 2018, is the leading vote-getter in the NL by a mile with over 2.9 million votes. Nick Markakis is in the middle of a career year and has been rewarded as the leader amongst outfielders with over 2.4 million votes. Both Markakis and Freeman are locks for the All-Star game at this point.
Ozzie Albies has been leading second basemen from the start of voting, but has faced more competition from Scooter Gennett and Javier Baez. Ozzie currently leads the voting by over 160,000 votes and it would take a big surge from another candidate and for Ozzie fans to basically stop voting over the next couple of days (which they have shown no signs of doing) for him to miss out on his first All-Star appearance. It helps that he is hitting out of his mind right now as he looks to solidify his candidacy in the coming days.
The Braves have others in the top 5 in their respective positions including shortstop Dansby Swanson (2nd), third baseman Johan Camargo (3rd), catcher Kurt Suzuki (3rd), and outfielders Ronald Acuna Jr. and Ender Inciarte (5th and 6th). It is unlikely that they will able to overtake anyone for slots with the notable exception of Kurt Suzuki who could feasibly overtake Willson Contreras and Buster Posey at catcher with a big surge in Braves fans voting.
Speaking of which, if you want to cast your ballots for the All-Star game, it is not too late. Voting ends July 5th at 11:59 ET and you can do so by voting right at this link.