Arizona Diamondbacks: Jake Lamb overlooked in ASG voting
By Trisha Garcia
Third baseman Jake Lamb and first baseman Paul Goldschmidt of the Arizona Diamondbacks hope their success will gain national attention.
The MLB Communications twitter account released the fourth 2017 National League All-Star Balloting Voting Update on Monday, and referenced “close infield races.” The voting revealed that Jake Lamb of the Arizona Diamondbacks is overshadowed.
Lamb is not the only Arizona player overlooked at the national level. The Washington Nationals’ Ryan Zimmerman leads the way at first base with 1.4 million votes over the Cubs’ Anthony Rizzo. Paul Goldschmidt is in third with just over 800 thousand votes.
Daniel Murphy of Washington has a commanding lead for the starting second baseman position with 2.3 million votes, followed by the Cubs’ Javier Baez holding 1.3 million votes.
The Reds’ Zack Cozart is holding a close lead at shortstop over the Dodgers’ Corey Seager with 1.4 million and 1.1 million votes, respectively.
The surprising race is the one for the National League’s All-Star third baseman.
The Cubs’ Kris Bryant has 1.6 million votes, over Nolan Arenado of the Colorado Rockies, who has 1.3 million votes. They’re followed by the Dodgers’ Justin Turner, with just over 700k. That is despite that Turner had recent stint on the disabled list, and the Nationals’ Anthony Rendon picked up just over 600,000.
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Rounding out the race for third base is the Diamondbacks’ Jake Lamb with over 500,000 votes.
No argument needs to be made for Arenado starting. With a .299 batting average, 15 HR and 55 RBI, the Rockies’ star also owns a 3.2 WAR, higher than any other third baseman in the race. Arenado’s latest boost for his candidacy to start resulted from hitting for the cycle last Sunday, including a walk-off, three-homer which help defeat the San Francisco Giants.
However, Lamb is being overlooked as a contender and is not receiving the votes he deserves. Of the five potential third basemen, Lamb has more home runs (16) and more RBI (59) than third base candidate.
Bryant’s surge in voting, probably has more to do with the Cubs’ popularity than with his performance this season. The Cubs’ third baseman is batting .264 with 15 HR and 28 RBI.
The Rockies (46-26) sit on top of the tight NL West race, while the Diamondbacks (44-26) are one game back, both teams drawing significant success from their third basemen.
If votes for Lamb do not increase, this won’t be the first time he falls short of the All-Star game. In 2016, Lamb lost the fan vote to the Giants’ Brandon Belt and that was despite the team’s best efforts to promote #VoteLamb.
With only 10 days of voting remaining, the clock is ticking for the Diamondbacks to gain some national attention. While they campaign for Goldschmidt, Lamb and Chris Owings, who is losing the shortstop race, they are riding a seven-game winning streak to Colorado to face the NL West leading Rockies.
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