Choo near top of pack in early All-Star voting

Choo Shin-soo finds his name behind four other outfielders in the National League with a month to go before the All-Star Game.

Major League Baseball announced its first update on the All-Star ballot for the National League on Tuesday. The 31-year-old Korean center fielder for the Cincinnati Reds garnered 743,755 votes, right behind Carlos Beltran of the St. Louis Cardinals (847,924).

The top three vote-getters at the close of the voting will start the All-Star Game. Justin Upton of the Atlanta Braves is leading NL outfielders with 1,184,249 votes, followed by Bryce Harper of the Washington Nationals at 1,182,532, and Ryan Braun of the Milwaukee Brewers at 945,655. The final results will be announced on July 7. The All-Star Game will be played at Citi Field in New York on July 16.

Choo is off to the best start in his nine-year major-league career, raising hopes of becoming the first Korean slugger to play in an All-Star game, but his pace has slowed recently.

On Tuesday, he had two hits against the Colorado Rockies at the Great American Ball Park, his first multihit game in seven games. It was his 20th multihit game this season. Choo’s batting average and on-base percentage improved to .282 and .438. His 10 home runs among leadoff hitters lead the major leagues.

Choo’s teammates, Joey Votto and Brandon Phillips, are leading the first-base and second-base positions in NL All-Star voting, respectively.

By Moon Gwang-lip [joe@joongang.co.kr]