In the fan voting for the Major League Baseball All-Star Game, two Korean players -- Kim Hye-seong, who is currently playing in the minors, and Kim Ha-seong, who has been struggling badly at the plate -- have ranked surprisingly high.
According to the interim results of the American League and National League All-Star fan voting released by MLB headquarters on Monday, Kim Hye-seong of the Los Angeles Dodgers has received 345,924 votes, placing fourth among National League second basemen.
Kim Ha-seong of the Atlanta Braves, despite batting just .089 this season, ranked sixth among National League shortstops with 153,077 votes.
In contrast, Lee Jung-hoo, who currently ranks second in all of MLB with a .331 batting average, sits only 20th in National League outfield voting with 166,215 votes.
Fans vote among one player nominated by each of the 15 American League teams and 15 National League teams for each infield position, while each team nominates three candidates for outfield spots and fans correspondingly vote for any three outfielders.
Kim Hye-seong was recently sent down to the minors because of roster constraints, but appears to have earned strong support thanks to his reliable defense and excellent baserunning.
Kim Ha-seong, despite hitting below the Mendoza Line, is performing well in the vote largely because of his defensive reputation as a National League Gold Glove winner.
Both Kim Hye-seong and Kim Ha-seong have benefited from playing for division-leading teams, with the Braves leading the East and the Dodgers comfortably atop the West.
Meanwhile, Lee has been hurt by his team's standing. Despite excellent individual numbers, the San Francisco Giants sit fourth in their division, which appears to have negatively impacted fan voting. Even so, he ranks highest among San Francisco's outfielders.
Shohei Ohtani, the Dodgers' superstar, leads everyone on the ballot with 1,165,133 votes in the designated hitter category.
Ohtani is on track to make his sixth consecutive All-Star appearance via fan voting.
In the American League, Yordan Alvarez leads voting in the designated hitter spot with 1,015,768 votes.
The top overall vote-getter in each league during the first round automatically qualifies for the All-Star Game, bypassing the second-round runoff vote between the top two finalists at each position.
(This article was produced with the assistance of AI. — Ed.)
khnews@heraldcorp.com
