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Once on-field action concludes on Monday, the Milwaukee Brewers will have been in first place in the NL Central for 40 days.
Usually, first-place teams approaching the All-Star break have a decent amount of representatives at the Midsummer Classic. However, barring a slew of manager and player picks acting as reserves, it doesn’t appear that will be the case for this year’s Brewers.
MLB released its latest All-Star voting update, and once again, no Brewers appear in the lists the league released, which includes the top 5 vote-getters for every position (and top 15 in the outfield).
Several positions up for grabs and only four days left to vote for the 2017 @AllStarGame. Vote now at https://t.co/qd5OOxn7ED pic.twitter.com/ojaKnbw6c0
— MLB Communications (@MLB_PR) June 26, 2017
As we’ve mentioned before, part of this is bad luck for the Brewers: the positions where the team has All-Star worthy players are also some of the deepest in the National League.
Eric Thames has cooled off considerably since April, and even if he hadn’t struggled so much, he’d face an uphill battle competing against the resurgent Ryan Zimmerman and MVP candidate Paul Goldschmidt, who’s currently hitting .332/.447/.606. Joey Votto is quietly returning to MVP form himself, hitting .301/.412/.584 and matching Thames’ 20 home runs.
Travis Shaw could make a case for Brewers First Half MVP, but third base happens to be one of the deepest positions in the NL, with reigning league MVP Kris Bryant predictably leading the voting and being followed by legitimate All-Stars Nolan Arenado, Justin Turner, Anthony Rendon and Jake Lamb. Every one of those players has a case to go to Miami, and the NL isn’t going to take all five (or six, if you count Shaw).
Voting for the starters officially ends Thursday night, so there’s still some time for a handful of Brewers to make up some ground. Unfortunately, barring a minor miracle, it looks like any late push will be to just crack the Top 5 rankings. Unless Joe Maddon decides he wants Thames’ on-base skills on the bench, there’s a chance Corey Knebel could end up being the only Brewer taking his talents to South Beach next month.
Statistics courtesy of Baseball-Reference