Several Braves are among vote leaders for All-Star berths

The 2019 All-Star Game brings with it some changes to the voting system that we have become accustomed to. Rather than just a single round of voting that determines the starters for each league’s roster, there is going to be a first round of voting and after that, the finalists at each position will be pitted against each other in a final round of voting. This should, in theory, help the issue of vote splitting that does happen as fans vote for their team’s players who don’t have realistic shots at making the team.

Last year, MLB was releasing the actual vote tallies as the process went on under the old system. This year, they are just releasing the rankings of each player in the early goings and the Braves have several players in the hunt for an All-Star spot.

Ozzie Albies leading the second basemen in votes is mildly surprising, but with a lot of the top contenders at the position being from teams with less than enthusiastic fanbases and/or being guys who more around the infield a bit, it isn’t a crazy notion. It also helps that Ozzie has been reasonably productive both in the field as well as at the plate.

Dansby Swanson being recognized for his strong start to the season is really nice although there are a lot of guys who seemingly have stronger cases for an All-Star nod, so Braves fans will have to be extra enthusiastic for him to make it. Brian McCann placing second at the position may have more to do with name recognition than anything and he could easily see a lot of competition from Yasmani Grandal, J.T. Realmuto, and Wilson Contreras in the coming weeks as all three come from teams that are competitive right now and there are a couple of rabid fanbases in there as well.

Josh Donaldson currently sits in fourth place amongst third basemen and is on the outside looking in at the moment in a really competitive and loaded group of guys at the hot corner. Ronald Acuna Jr. rounds out the Braves that are getting some love from the All-Star balloting and if voting stopped today, he would be an All-Star. Cody Bellinger and Christian Yelich are having insane seasons, but Acuna is having himself a strong season as well and it definitely doesn’t hurt to have the name recognition he has from this stellar rookie campaign as well.