Acuna, Albies, Freeman Are All-Star Finalists

The first round of All-Star voting has concluded, and the Atlanta Braves have advanced three players to the final stage of voting. Unsurprisingly Ronald Acuna, Freddie Freeman, and Ozzie Albies are those three. Austin Riley, despite being deserving of an opportunity to advance, fell just short of the vote and will not get to phase two. The second phase will go from June 28th to July 1st to determine the All-Star starters.

Reigning MVP Freddie Freeman has had a down year offensively, but that hasn’t done much to impact his popularity as he finished the first phase with the second most votes among first baseman. Freddie is bidding to play in his fifth All-Star Game and start his third, which would make him the franchise’s first player since Chipper Jones to start in three All-Star games. He is joined on the ballot by Los Angeles’s Max Muncy and his friend and Chicago Cubs first baseman Anthony Rizzo.

Ozzie Albies won the first round of voting at second base, and this would be the second All- Star Game of his career and his first start. His career best season is being rewarded by voters, though he has real competition with the current second place going to Pirates star Adam Frazier who is second in the league batting title chase. Frazier is hurt by playing on a poor team, but would be a very deserving selection. Gavin Lux of the Dodgers finished in third, and frankly he was a pure popularity pick by a big fanbase because he has no business being in the conversation with the other two.

Ronald Acuna Jr. was the leading vote getter in the outfield for the National League and he would be playing in his second All-Star Game and starting his second All-Star Game when he presumably ends up as part of the top 3 vote getters. As a popular player who is among the premiere players in the sport, he should have no problem getting the votes to start. The tweet attached above has the other eight names, a solid group of people that are all not as good as Acuna.

The voting resets at this point so it will be important for Braves fans to turn out in numbers to get these three to the All-Star Game.