Washington Nationals right fielder Bryce Harper is cruising to his fifth career MLB All-Star selection as he currently leads the NL balloting with over 2.8 million votes. The 88th staging of the MLB All-Star Game is slated July 11 at Marlins Park in Miami. It was not surprising since Harper currently leads all NL outfielders with a 1.028 OPS aside from batting .318 with 17 home runs and 51 RBIs in 62 games for the first-place Nationals.
Harper leads 30-year-old Charlie Blackmon of the Colorado Rockies, who has 2,259,867 votes. Despite his age, Blackmon leads the Major League with 95 hits and his .610 slugging percentage tops all NL outfielders.
Marcell Ozuna made the biggest jump in terms of votes after he hit three homers in the past seven days. Ozuna is now in fifth place with 871,393 votes, ahead of Matt Kemp of the Atlanta Braves (835,324) and Giancarlo Stanton of the Miami Marlins (823,558).
Other outfielders who made it to the top 15 include Jason Heyward (973,333), Ben Zobrist (887,804) and Kyle Schwarber (775,212) of the Cubs; Yoenis Cespedes of the Mets (576,463); Reds’ Adam Duvall (532,243); Cardinals’ Dexter Fowler (490,136); Jayson Werth of the Nationals (457,714); Jay Bruce of the Mets (432,805); Yasiel Puig of the Dodgers (430,423); and Billy Hamilton of the Reds (367,684)
Giants’ Buster Posey still leads Cubs’ Wilson Contreras
For catchers, Buster Posey of the San Francisco Giants padded his lead over Wilson Contreras of the Chicago Cubs after going 8-for-20 with a homer, three doubles, and two RBIs in the past seven days.
Posey, who is aiming for his fifth All-Star appearance, now has 1,890,039 while Contreras has 957,933 votes. It was not a bad week for Contreras, who tallied six hits and six RBIs in 18 at-bats (.333). Yadier Molina of the Cardinals (857,109); Matt Wieters of the Nationals (573,072) and Yasmani Grandal of the Dodgers (525,432) also made it to the top five in voting.
Nationals’ Ryan Zimmerman keeps lead over Cubs’ Anthony Rizzo
Anthony Rizzo of the Cubs had a scorching week after he was inserted into the starting lineup as the leadoff batter, hitting .417 with three long balls and eight RBIs. However, Zimmerman still leads all first basemen with 1,404,251 while Rizzo remains second with 1,247,219.
Zimmerman, for his part, hit two home runs and drove in five runs in the past seven days.
Paul Goldschmidt of the Diamondbacks (828,361); Freddie Freeman of the Braves (637,030); and Joey Votto of the Reds (517,833) came in 3rd, 4th, and 5th, respectively. At second base, Daniel Murphy of the Nationals leads with 2,365,180 votes, ahead of Javier Baez of the Cubs (1,328,917), DJ LeMahieu of the Rockies (401,768), Brandon Phillips of the Braves (350,150) and Kolten Wong of the Cardinals (285,496).
At third base, Kris Bryant of the Cubs is ahead with 1,603,326 votes while following him were Nolan Arenado of the Rockies (1,300,612), Justin Turner of the Dodgers (747,659), Anthony Rendon of the Nationals (635,838) and Jake Lamb of the Diamondbacks (564,447).
At shortstop, Zack Cozart of the Reds still tops the race with 1,465,327 votes, ahead of Corey Seager of the Dodgers (1,143,767), Addison Russell of the Cubs (967,495), Trea Turner of the Nationals (652,507) and Chris Owings of the D-backs (541,960). The MLB said fans have until June 29 to cast their votes for starters at MLB.com and all 30 club sites.
