On Friday Christian Yelich was named the starter in right field for the 2019 Major League Baseball All-Star Game, and today on ESPN it was announced that three Brewers will join him in Cleveland next week. Yasmani Grandal, Josh Hader and Mike Moustakas have been named to the National League All-Star team.
This marks the second time in franchise history that the Brewers have had at least four All-Stars in consecutive years. The team also had four members on the roster in 1982 (Cecil Cooper, Rollie Fingers, Ben Oglivie and Robin Yount) and 1983 (Cooper, Oglivie, Ted Simmons and Yount). Last season, the Crew had a franchise-record five All-Stars – Jesús Aguilar, Lorenzo Cain, Hader, Jeremy Jeffress and Yelich.
Grandal earns his second career All-Star nod, also representing the NL in Cincinnati in 2015. Entering play today, he led the majors as a catcher in on-base percentage (.393), walks (42) and total bases (134), tied for the lead in home runs (17) and extra-base hits (30) and ranked among the leaders in RBI (2nd, 41), runs (2nd, 39), OPS (2nd, .949), slugging percentage (2nd, .556), hits (2nd, 68) and batting average (6th, .282).
He is the seventh catcher in franchise history to be named an All-Star, joining Ellie Rodriguez (1972), Darrell Porter (1974), Ted Simmons (1981), Jim Sundberg (1984), Dave Nilsson (1999) and Jonathan Lucroy (2014-15).
Hader will represent the Crew in the All-Star Game for the second consecutive year, joining Rollie Fingers (1981-82), Dan Plesac (1988-89) and Francisco Rodríguez (2014-15) as Brewers relievers who have earned back-to-back All-Star nods. Entering play Sunday, he led all Major League relievers (minimum 25 appearances) in strikeouts (77), strikeouts per nine innings (17.04), WHIP (0.62) and opponent batting average (.098, 13-for-132).
Moustakas makes his third appearance on an All-Star roster and first on the NL squad after representing the Kansas City Royals on the American League All-Star team in 2015 and 2017. Entering play today, he ranked second on the Brewers and sixth in the NL in home runs (23) and sat just outside of the top 10 in the league in slugging percentage (11th, .570), extra-base hits (Tied-11th, 40) and total bases (12th, 166).
The 90th MLB All-Star Game presented by Mastercard will be played at Progressive Field on Tuesday, July 9th.
Photo: Getty Images
Video: Fox Sports Wisconsin