Freddie Freeman and Ronald Acuna Jr. named as 2019 MLB All-Star Game starters

The MLB All Star is always a fun spectacle where we get to see many of the game’s best and brightest stars compete against one another. Thankfully, the game doesn’t have home field ramifications for the World Series or any of that nonsense anymore, so instead one can focus on just enjoying the exhibition and not reading too much into it beyond that. Reasonable people can disagree over how much All Star nods should mean as to evaluating players against one another and whether it should be used as a contract incentive given that fan votes/perception plays a larger role than it probably should, but it is still a fun thing and an honor.

The Braves (and their fanbase) performed very well in the first round of voting to get finalists at every position for the starting All Star roster. However, in several circumstances, there were tough hills to climb given the level of competition at some positions. Fortunately, the Braves will be represented well on the starting NL All Star roster.

Ronald Acuna Jr. was in a pretty clear third place throughout the voting for National League outfielders behind Cody Bellinger and Christian Yelich who both have been legitimately insane this year. He has a wide appeal nationally thanks to his Rookie of the Year performance last year and he has performed well in the first half of 2019 as well.

Freddie Freeman has been in a close battle with Josh Bell, who has been great in 2019 so far as well, but was able to claim the first base starting job for the National League. Freddie has remained one of the top hitters in the NL through the first half of 2019 and that, combined with a rabid Braves fan base and respect nationally, was able to overcome Bell.

As for the Braves that did not win starting jobs on the All Star roster, they should fear not as several of them are likely to be selected as All Star reserves when they are announced this coming Sunday. In addition, we will also get some clarity as to who amongst the Braves’ pitching staff could get an All Star nod with rookie Mike Soroka the most likely candidate to get in for Atlanta.