MILWAUKEE – The Braves are good and folks really like them, if the All-Star balloting and selection process was any indication.
The team’s surprising success on the field carried over to ballot boxes as Braves first baseman Freddie Freeman and right fielder Nick Markakis were voted National League starters. Second baseman Ozzie Albies and pitcher Mike Foltynewicz also made the team for the July 17 game at Washington, D.C.
“It’s still kind of hard to put into words the love and support that we got from Braves Country and all fans,” said Freeman, the overall voting leader on the NL team. “It’s pretty special and obviously it’s the way the team’s been playing that we’re getting this recognition.”
More videos: Freeman speaks | Markakis | Albies
It’s the first time the Braves have had four All-Stars since 2012, which was also the last time they had three position players on the All-Star team. They had only one All-Star in each of the past three rebuilding seasons when the Braves lost at least 90 games per year.
National League and American League All-Star teams were announced Sunday night. It’s the third All-Star selection for Freeman and the first for each of the other three: Markakis, who’s 34 and playing his 13th season; Albies, who’s 21 and in his first full season, and Foltynewicz, 26.
“It’s kind of emotional,” Markakis said. “I know my kids and my family are going to be ecstatic, especially. My two older (sons). My little one, he’s getting it a little bit, but my older ones, they’re pretty on-point with baseball and the players. They’re excited. I’m happy for them and it’s going to be a fun time.”
Starting position players for National League and American League All-Star teams were selected via fan voting, while backups and pitching staffs were selected through a combination of player balloting and selections made by the commissioner’s office to assure that each team has at least one representative.
The selection of Markakis, a quiet and revered leader in the Braves clubhouse, was especially popular among teammates and others who thought it overdue. The former Woodstock High School and Young Harris College standout ranks sixth among active players with 2,164 hits. Before Sunday he led the NL in hits (112) and multi-hit games (37), was tied for second in doubles (27), and was third in average (.324) and fifth in on-base percentage (.392).
“The last three years we’ve only had one (All-Star), kind of how it’s been going around here,” Freeman said. “But this is a big deal. To have Nick Markakis go to the All-Star game, you almost get a little bit emotional. He deserved it many more times before this. The guy has over 2,000 hits, the ultimate pro. It’s going to be awesome to see that.”
Albies, a 5-foot-8 dynamo from Curacao, leads the Braves with 18 home runs and led the NL in doubles (29), extra-base hits (50), runs (69) and total bases (169) before Sunday. He was the voting leader at second base until the last few days of the process, and if he’d been voted a starter it would have given the Braves three starting position-player All-Stars since 1960, when the team was still in Milwaukee.
“Either way is good,” he said of being selected to the team by players rather than voted a starter by fans. “It feels excellent. It feels great. Hopefully I’ll keep doing what I’m doing. ...
“It feels great that four of us made it, and hopefully in years to come we keep bringing more guys to the All-Star game.”
Foltynewicz is 6-5 with a 2.37 ERA in 17 starts, with 11 of the 25 earned runs he’s allowed coming in two innings. He has pitched to a 1.35 ERA in his other 93 innings and has 114 strikeouts with 40 walks.
“It’s a huge honor,” Foltynewicz said of making his first All-Star team, one year after going 10-13 with a 4.79 ERA. “The main goal this year was just to be consistent, not try to come in and make the All-Star game. ... Getting voted in by my peers, guys I’ve facing, other guys watching me, it’s pretty cool.
“I’m just really nervous and excited. I’m speechless. I just don’t really know what to say. I can’t wait to go tell all my family and see their reaction.”
Freeman, 28, is the only one of the Braves All-Star foursome who wouldn’t have been considered a surprise selection before the season. He’s established himself as one of the elite all-around hitters in baseball and, despite a recent slump, entered Sunday ranked sixth in the NL in average (.310), third in OBP (.401) and OPS (.938), tied for fifth in extra-base hits (42) and seventh in slugging percentage (.537).
Markakis’ late-career resurgence and the stunning early-season performance of Albies have been among the main reasons for this year’s substantial step forward by the the Braves. After three consecutive seasons with at least 90 losses, they’re on pace to win 92-93 games in a season when oddsmakers set their over-under at 74 or 75 wins coming out of spring training.
The last time the Braves had had more than two starting position players in an All-Star game was 1960, when the Milwaukee Braves had four -- Hank Aaron, Eddie Mathews, Joe Adcock and Del Crandall – in both All-Star games during a brief period when major league baseball played two All-Star games annually.
The Braves had three All-Star starters in 1998 but only two were position players, as third baseman Chipper Jones and shortstop Walt Weiss joined pitcher Greg Maddux in the National League lineup. Jones and Maddux have since been elected to the baseball Hall of Fame and Weiss is the Braves’ first-year bench coach.
The two starters from the Braves this year will be two more than the team had in the past five All-Star games combined: Their last starter was second baseman Dan Uggla in 2012, when Jones and outfielder Michael Bourn were reserves and closer Craig Kimbrel also made the All-Star team.
Freeman, who’s in his eighth full season, was an All-Star in 2013 and 2014 but missed more than 40 games with injuries in both the 2015 and 2017 seasons. He didn’t make the team in 2016 despite hitting a career-high 34 home runs and finishing sixth in the NL Most Valuable Player balloting. But this year, he was the leading vote-getter on the NL team regardless of position, a lead he held throughout the balloting process as voting updates were announced weekly during the past month.
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