By Chris Brown / STL Baseball Today | @cbrown_STLBBT | June 1, 2016, 10:20 pm CT
By Barbara Moore / CC Image / No changes made
If All-Star Game fan voting ended today (Wednesday), the National League team would feature an all Cubs infield with five combined All-Star selections and an Cardinal with seven behind the plate.
Major League Baseball released its first NL fan balloting update on Wednesday, and Cardinals catcher Yadier Molina leads all NL catchers with 517,825 votes. The Giants’ Buster Posey is less than 100,000 votes behind with 439,239, while Miguel Montero of the Cubs is in a distant third place with 286,494 votes.
If elected through the fan vote or by other means – the players or NL manager Terry Collins – Molina would receive his eighth consecutive All-Star selection.
Aside from Molina, though, redbirds players were largely absent from the running at all positions. Matt Carpenter is the only other Cardinal beside Molina to be in the top five at their position, and he trails Kris Bryant (CHC), Nolan Arenado (COL), and David Wright (NYM) at third base.
Stephen Piscotty is 14th among outfielders, and the only Cardinals outfielder to make the top 15.
Meanwhile, Cubs outfielders Jason Heyward (4th in voting) and Jorge Soler (6th) were hitting only .220 and .202, respectively, headed into action on Wednesday.
The 87th MLB All-Star Game will be held San Diego on July 12, and the fan vote continues online at MLB.com until June 30th at 11:59 pm ET.
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Cubs 1B Anthony Rizzo paces the NL in fan balloting for the 2016 MLB All-Star Game presented by MasterCard. pic.twitter.com/hIgb4KMwAn
— MLB Communications (@MLB_PR) June 1, 2016
