Brandon Crawford and Buster Posey lead in first All Star ballot update

The first batch of All Star ballot numbers were released this morning with Brandon Crawford and Buster Posey leading their positions for the Giants.

Posey has just a 20,000 vote lead on the Cubs’ Willson Contreras, whereas Brandon Crawford has more than twice as many votes as his closest competitor, the Braves’ Dansby Swanson.

Which is just fine because the Braves are leading in three other positions, with Freddie Freeman taking a deserved lead for first base, Nick Markakis coming in second for the three outfield spots, and Ozzie Albies leading for second base.

The Nationals’ Bryce Harper and Dodgers’ Matt Kemp round out the outfield leaders, though Kemp’s lead isn’t very much, and the Rockies’ Nolan Arenado rounds out the group with a hefty lead at third base, naturally.

This is all fairly close to what Grant predicted in his voting guide. If you haven’t read it, you can do so now and vote accordingly (and hopefully get that pesky Dodger off of the list).

The thing that annoys me about these numbers is that not only is Brandon Belt not leading at first base, he’s losing to Freeman by a LOT. Nearly 500,000 votes. So he’s not going to get that spot. But, he isn’t even in second place. He trails the Cubs’ Anthony Rizzo by a much more attainable 90,000 votes.

After the monster season he was having before his appendectomy, my friends, that cannot be allowed to stand. Maybe voters wrongly think he won’t be back in time for the game? Maybe they forgot about his two stretches of four home runs in four straight games?

Regardless, the time has come to dust off your burner email accounts and use them for good instead of acquiring free goods and or services.

It’s true that getting second place won’t guarantee him a spot on the team, but it makes it a little bit more likely.

You remember what happened in 2016 when he was left until the Fan Vote. You remember how obnoxious we all were about voting him in. You don’t really want it to come to that again, do you?

I didn’t think so. Go vote!

And just in case you needed extra incentive: