The MLB All-Star game is set for July 11th in Miami after on Sunday night, July 2nd, there was a special ESPN program to announce the starters, pitchers, and reserves. If you follow the voting over at MLB.com over the past several weeks and the results that the league announced, a few of the players were not a big surprise that won the popular vote categories.
Leading the popular vote for all players this year was the Washington Nationals, Bryce Harper, who gathered up the most votes for any player. Just a few short years ago, some people were on the fence about how good Harper actually is, but with his winning of the NL MVP in 2015, he answered a lot of his critics with that solid showing.
Aaron Judge was also solidly voted into the 88th annual All-Star Game that this year will take place at the beautiful Marlins Park. Judge got the most votes for all American League players at just under 5 million votes. He burst onto the MLB scene this year with many towering home runs for the Yankees so far just prior to the All-Star break.
For the Phillies, there was a couple names floating around as possible candidates. Pat Neshek, Phillies relief pitcher, was the favorite with this ERA that stood at 1.39 as the announcement of the All-Star representatives were announced, the other was Aaron Altherr, Phillies outfielder, who has shown the way for the Phillies offense so far this year with 13 HR and 41 RBI as of Sunday, July 2nd. It was Neshek who was selected to represent the Phillies this year, this decision didn’t fall on the NL manager’s lap as it did in the previous years, the decision for the teams that had no winners in the popular vote went to MLB executive, Joe Torre.
As far as this year’s All-Star game is concerned, it should be again very interesting to see what team emerges as the winner. Last year it was the American League who won 4-2 at Petco Park in San Diego. In fact the AL has won the last 4 All-Star games. The over/under for the All-Star game is set at an interesting 7.5, should great pitching prevail, this could be an easy run line win. If the bats show up though, we could be looking at an explosive run line in this game.
Since the All-Star game started in 1933, the American League holds a 43-39-2 advantage over the National League. You can see that it’s very evenly matched up by that stat, the only two ties were in 2002 (2-2) and in 1961 (1-1).
Here’s a list of players that were voted in for this year’s All-Star Game:
American League:
- Aaron Judge, NY Yankees, OF
- Mike Trout, LA Angels, OF
- George Springer, Houston Astros, OF
- Justin Smoak, Toronto Blue Jays, 1B
- Jose Altuve, Houston Astros, 2B
- Carlos Correa, Houston Astros, SS
- Jose Ramirez, Cleveland Indians, 3B
- Corey Dickerson, Tampa Bay Rays, DH
- Salvador Perez, Kansas City Royals, C
- Charlie Blackmon, Colorado Rockies, OF
- Bryce Harper, Washington Nationals, OF
- Marcell Ozuna, Miami Marlins, OF
- Ryan Zimmerman, Washington Nationals, 1B
- Daniel Murphy, Washington Nationals, 2B
- Zack Cosart, Cincinnati Reds, SS
- Nolan Arenado, Colorado Rockies, 3B
- Buster Posey, San Francisco, C
Reserves:
American League:
Mookie Betts, outfielder, Boston Red Sox
National League:
