St. Louis Cardinals All-Star update

Two St. Louis Cardinals remain in the lead at their respective positions as the final days of balloting for the Major League Baseball All-Star Game wind down.

With voting set to stop at 11:59 p.m. on Thursday, third baseman Matt Carpenter is neck-and-neck with Cincinnati Reds standout Todd Frazier. Approximately 63,000 votes separate the two, with Chicago Cubs phenom Kris Bryant running a distant third.

That should tell you how deep the National League Central is when it comes to quality third basemen.

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Jhonny Peralta leads all shortstops with 7,151,624 votes as of Monday, as he is way ahead of the San Francisco Giants‘ Brandon Crawford and the Colorado Rockies‘ Troy Tulowitzki.

Two other players are in second place at their spots.

Yadier Molina holds a wide edge over third-place vote-getter Francisco Cervelli, of the rival Pittsburgh Pirates. Still, the two combined have more votes than Buster Posey. The Giants standout has a shade under eight million votes and is the prohibitive favorite to start the All-Star Game.

Kolten Wong, who got off to a slow start but quickly recovered and matured into one of the top young stars in all of baseball, has over 4.7 million votes. He is easily ahead of Cincinnati’s Brandon Phillips, but Miami Marlins star Dee Gordon has parlayed a strong season into a number one spot at second base.

Matt Holliday is third among NL outfielders, but with his injury he will be prevented from playing.

The starters for the game are announced on Sunday, with the remaining reserves and pitchers set for unveiling on July 6.

This year’s game is set for July 14 at the Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati.