AL Also Favored in HR Derby

Derwood is headed to Anaheim with his Jorge Posada batting practice shirt and 17 pens. Stay with Offbase over the next three days for All-Star coverage from a career .180 hitter.


* UPDATE - 8:57 p.m., EST *
Bud Selig just announced the winning league at the hr derby secures home field advantage at next year's All Star Legends & Celebrity Softball Game.


"Next time, for Matthew Modine, it counts"


I haven't done any research, but I'm assuming Chris Berman will once again be involved in the home run derby. Normally this would be the spot where I apologize to the Offbase readers because you'll have to hear Berman on your television, where as I get to be there live and avoid that jerk. But I'm pretty sir his voice is amplified on the PA system during the derby, so everybody loses.

Anyway, in preparation for our live coverage of the all star festivities, I took a quick glance at the home run derby rosters.

AL: Nick Swisher, David Ortiz, Vernon Wells, Miguel Cabrera

Favorite: Cabrera. Have you seen this youngster lately? Over the last few years he's added a Juan Pierre of muscle and this is a perfect event for a hulking man with a head that seems to grow by the second (see: Sosa, Sammy).

Sleepers: Wells. I know, the smart bananas would be on Ortiz because no one has a bigger head than Big Poopy, but I like Wells. For a right-handed hitter, those giant Flinstones rocks in left-center are quite inviting/dumb.

Sentimental favorite: Swisher. Quite a run for Swish the last two years. He went from playing smart ball for an idiot and having to see Ken Harrelson's face 162 times a year to being the starting right fielder for the Yankees, her, and now he's in his first all-star game and participating in the HR derby.

NL: Hanley Ramirez, Corey Hart, Matt Holliday, Chris Young

Favorite: Hart. Probably the best pure power hitter of the quartet, but if anyone in my section at Angels Stadium knows who this guy is, I'll eat my Mark Langston bobblehead doll.

Sleeper: Holliday. He did well in the '07 derby in San Fransisco and you know what they say about guys participating in two home run derbys on the same coast, three years apart: each time, the winner of the next day's all star game SECURES HOME FIELD ADVANTAGE FOR THEIR LEAGUE IN THE WORLD SERIES. That may not be the last time I mention home field advantage over the next three days.


PICK: Cabrera over Hart in final