Ryan Braun remains fourth in all-star balloting

Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Ryan Braun remains fourth in the balloting among National League outfielders according to the voting totals released by Major League Baseball today.

With 1,645,084 votes, Braun has fallen way behind the pace. St. Louis' Carlos Beltran, who ranked third in the balloting last week but has surged into the lead this week with 2,385,240 votes.

Atlanta's Justin Upton (2,054,225) and Washington's Bryce Harper (1,981,030) rank second and third.

Braun isn't likely to gain any ground in the coming week either, as he's now on the disabled list with a right-thumb contusion.

Carlos Gomez jumped up one spot to 11th this week with 1,027,684 votes.

Other Brewers leaders include shortstop Jean Segura, who remains at third in the balloting at that position with 1,188,317 votes.

The leading vote-getter at shortstop, Troy Tulowitzki (2,443,772) suffered a broken rib last week and is expected to miss 4-6 weeks.

That could open the door for Segura to be the NL's starting shortstop, considering second-place vote-getter Brandon Crawford of the San Francisco Giants (1,293,476) doesn't have near the numbers Segura has posted to this point.

At catcher, Jonathan Lucroy moved up to fourth place with 630,902. Lucroy trails NL leading vote-getter Buster Posey of the San Francisco Giants (2,606,434), St. Louis' Yadier Molina (2,543,588) and New York's John Buck (866,471).

The All-Star Game will be played on July 16 at Citi Field, home of the New York Mets. The all-star teams will be announced on July 7.

Both the NL and AL teams will have eight fan-elected starters. The pitchers and reserves are determined through a combination of player ballots and selections made by the managers for each all-star team.


(jsonline.com)