Brian Anderson trailing injured outfielders, schlubs in early All-Star fan voting

Marlins right fielder Brian Anderson enters the new week with an eight-game on-base streak...and a new chip on his shoulder. MLB announced its first update to the 2018 NL All-Star balloting on Monday afternoon. At least 15 outfielders are receiving more fan support than Miami’s standout rookie.

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Anderson ranks among the best qualified NL players at his position regardless of which stats you prefer: Wins Above Replacement (1.5 fWAR, t-10th), batting average (.303 BA, 6th), on-base percentage (.377 OBP, 4th), weighted runs created plus (124 wRC+, t-7th) and games (65 G, t-2nd).

Fellow NL ROY contender Ronald Acuña Jr. trails Anderson in every one of the above categories by a significant margin, but still has the fifth-most votes among outfielders. Just like Acuña, Arizona’s A.J. Pollock (13th) is currently injured and questionable to return to the field at any point before the All-Star Game.

Even more egregious, J.T. Realmuto is not among the top five vote-getters at catcher thus far. He’s in the midst of a career year, if you haven’t noticed.

Major League Baseball will release subsequent updates on June 18 and June 25. Voting ends on July 5 at 11:59pm ET.

In the meantime...