Early NL All Star Voting Results

The early voting numbers for the 2013 All Star Game for the NL team were posted today. Some of the votes at the positions were interesting.

Catcher
At the Catcher position Buster Posey of the San Francisco Giants led the way with 1,275,956 votes. Buster Posey was followed by Yadier Molina of the St. Louis Cardinals with 938,911. The player that should be competing for this spot on the NL All Star team along with Buster Posey is Evan Gattis of the Atlanta Braves because he has had a spectacular first half of his first pro season. I talked a little about Evan Gattis last week when I talked about the NL East standings. The only reason that Gattis is not in the ballot results is simple, his name was not on the ballot because only a select number of players are on the ballot for each position. Buster Posey is a good decision but Gattis should be competing with him for the spot.

First Base
At the First Base position Joey Votto of the Cincinnati Reds is leading the voting with 1,044,742 votes. He is followed by Brandon Belt of the San Francisco Giants with 513,371 votes. This just proves that the voting for the All Star game is a popularity contest because Brandon Belt is not the second best First Basemen in the league because the second best is Freddie Freeman of the Atlanta Braves. Freeman is currently fifth in voting among First Basemen with 438,868 votes. The first basemen voting is partly right with Joey Votto leading the votes but Freddie Freeman should not be that far behind him in the voting.

Second Base
At the Second Base position it is probably the only position other than the outfield voting that is right in the way that votes have gone so far. At the Second Base position Brandon Phillips of the Cincinnati Reds is leading the voting with 1,019,240 votes. In second is Marco Scutaro of the San Francisco Giants with 801,754. These players are the right choice for this position because Brandon Phillips is the best Second Basemen in the National League hands down and after the World Series performance the Marco Scutaro had last year he has been the second best Second Basemen hands down.

Shortstop
At the Shortstop position Troy Tulowitzki of the Colorado Rockies is first in the voting with 1,025,844. Second in voting is Brandon Crawford of the San Francisco Giants with 668,140. I agree with who is first in the voting right now with Troy Tulowitzki because he is the best hitting Shortstop in the National League. Brandon Crawford is an alright choice for second in the voting but you could go many other Shortstops for second in voting such as the the current third and fourth place vote getters in the NL which is Jean Segura of the Milwaukee Brewers with 554,403 votes and Andrelton Simmons of the Atlanta Braves with 372,844 votes. Segura and Simmons are very good defensive players at the Shortstop position and both deserve to be ahead of Brandon Crawford of the Giants.

Third Base
At the Third Base position Pablo Sandoval of the San Francisco Giants is the leading vote getter with 1,094,475 votes. The second leading vote getter is David Wright of the New York Mets with 967,299 votes. The votes are right about David Wright in that he arguably the best Third Basemen in not only the NL but in all of baseball. David Wright should be ahead of Pablo Sandoval of the Giants. Sandoval is a very good player but he is not as good as David Wright. Also I don't even think that Sandoval should even be in the top two vote getters at the position because I think that Chris Johnson of the Atlanta Braves should be ahead of Sandoval because Chris Johnson led the NL at one point this season with the best batting average. Chris Johnson is in third place with 386,811 of the votes.

Outfield
The Outfield is the most unique of all the positions in that the top three vote getters get to start the All Star Game. In the National League the top three vote getters are Justin Upton of the Atlanta Braves with 1,184,249 votes. Justin Upton has started out his first season with Atlanta Braves as an MVP caliber campaign. He has 14 home runs and he is a very talented good young player. Second in voting for the Outfield is Bryce Harper of the Washington Nationals with 1,182,532. Bryce Harper is a good young player and he is on his second season with the Washington Nationals after having a stellar rookie season. Third in voting for the Outfield is Ryan Braun of the Milwaukee Brewers with 945,665 votes. Ryan Braun is a very good hitter and he is a veteran but he is still young as he is only 29 years old. The Outfield will be very good for the National League if these votes hold up.

For More Information on the National League Voting, go to the MLB webpage.