With a little over a month remaining until the July 14 MLB All-Star Game, Major League Baseball released the third voting update for the National League Tuesday, and it features some extremely intriguing races.
Here is a look at where things currently stand in the NL with three more updates due before voting officially closes, according to MLB Communications:
Not surprisingly, Washington Nationals outfielder Bryce Harper continues to lead all vote-getters with nearly 3,690,414 tallies to his credit. The 22-year-old slugger is enjoying a spectacular season with a .326 batting average, 19 home runs and 46 RBI through 56 games.
His Nats teammate, starting pitcher Jordan Zimmermann, figured all along that Harper would perform well in the balloting, per Byron Kerr of MASNSports.com: "I think he got that before the season. He's playing great right now. I'm happy he's on our team. He's a tough out for any pitcher. It's fun to watch."
Aside from Harper, the NL voting has a decidedly St. Louis Cardinals flavor as catcher Yadier Molina, third baseman Matt Carpenter, shortstop Jhonny Peralta and outfielder Matt Holliday are all currently in position to start.
Also, second baseman Kolten Wong is second in the voting to Dee Gordon of the Miami Marlins, while Matt Adams is trailing only Arizona Diamondbacks star Paul Goldschmidt and Adrian Gonzalez of the Los Angeles Dodgers at first base.
Perhaps the voter turnout in St. Louis shouldn't come as a surprise since nearby Kansas City is dominating the American League balloting. In fact, Royals fans are even having an impact on the NL as they are attempting to push former Royal Nori Aoki past Marlins outfielder Giancarlo Stanton, according to Bill Shaikin of the Los Angeles Times:
Stanton currently leads the San Francisco Giants outfielder by less than 50,000 votes for the third and final starting spot at the position, but the voting is far from over.
Things can change significantly over the next few weeks, but the National League All-Star team certainly looks as though it will be stacked with plenty of Cardinals to go along with big-time sluggers, such as Harper and Goldschmidt.
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