Shohei Otani Leading the Pacific League DH in All-Star Voting Despite Injury

The All-star voting in Nippon Professional Baseball are ongoing, and for Japanese phenom Shohei Otani, despite playing only just 8 games this regular season, and is currently in the DL after being sidelined for at least 6 weeks due to an injury (pulled biceps femoris muscle) back in April 8 in a game against the Orix Buffaloes, is leading Japan’s Pacific League in the designated hitter category in their all-star voting.

Shohei Otani has yet to make a pitching appearance for the Hokkaido Nippon-Ham Fighters this year, as he mainly plays as their DH, so far, he currently owns a batting line of .407/.469./815 with 2 homeruns and 3 RBIs in 27 at-bats.

Here are the leading players in each respective positions so far this season via fan voting:

[Pacific League players]

Pitchers:

SB SP, Kodai Senga (with 18,088 votes)
SEI RP, Kazuhisa Makita (with 34,077 votes)
RAK RP, Yuki Matsui (with 36,801 votes)

Position Players:

RAK C, Motohiro Shima (with 26,309 votes)
HOK 1B, Sho Nakata (with 26,586 votes)
SEI 2B, Hideto Asamura (with 32,110 votes)
SB 3B, Nobuhiro Matsuda (with 24,236 votes)
RAK SS, Eigoro Mogi (with 28,747 votes)
SEI OF, Shogo Akiyama (with 36,422 votes)
SB OF, Yuki Yanagita (with 30,248 votes)
HOK OF, Kensuke Kondo (with 23, 471 votes)

Designated Hitter:

HOK SP/DH, Shohei Otani (with 27,805 votes)

[Central League players]

Pitchers:

YOM SP, Tomoyuki Sugano (with 22,461 votes)
HAN RP, Marcos Mateo (with 14,772 votes)
HAN RP, Rafael Dolis (with 24,184 votes)

Position Players:

HAN C, Ryutaro Umeno (with 25,989 votes)
HIR 1B, Takahiro Arai (with 25,948 votes)
HIR 2B, Ryosuke Kikuchi (with 31,960 votes)
HAN 3B, Takashi Toritani (with 35,799 votes)
YOM SS, Hayato Sakamoto (with 37,333 votes)
YOK OF, Yoshitomo Tsutsugo (with 34,223 votes)
HIR OF, Seiya Suzuki (with 35,498 votes)
HAN OF, Yoshio Itoi (with 39,852 votes)

Fan voting started back in May 16 (Tuesday) and will end until June 18 (Sunday), along with the player voting. Game 1 of the all-star game will take place at Nagoya Dome in July 14 (Friday), and Game 2 at ZOZO Marine Stadium in the next day, July 15 (Saturday).