• Thu. Mar 28th, 2024

Yanks’ Cano and Mets’ Wright named captains of 2013 Home Run Derby: Who they should select to compete

Robinson Cano and David Wright have been named captains of the American and National league Home Run Derby squads. Each player will be responsible for picking players in their league to compete and will compete themselves.

The Home Run derby format has changed in recent years, as there is now a league competition in addition to the individual contest. Last year the AL out homered the NL by a score of 61-21, while Detroit’s Prince Fielder took home the individual honor.

Cano is hoping to erase some bad memories from last year’s derby, where he was booed mercifully by Royals fans and failed to hit a single home run. Wright has not competed in the derby in seven years, where in 2006 he came up short in the finals and lost to Ryan Howard.

Here are a look at the players for each side that I believe should be picked-

American League:

Chris Davis- with 20 home runs to this point Davis leads all of baseball in that category. He has never competed in a Derby but with an All Star selection likely coming, this would be a great way to infuse some new blood into the competition.

Edwin Encarnacion- he is a buddy of Cano, as the two train together in the Dominican Republic in the offseason. However Encarnacion has earned the right to enter this contest, hitting 18 home runs and showing excellent power to all fields.

Prince Fielder- while his teammate Miguel Cabrera has hit more homers than prince (18-12), it doesn’t seem that a contest like this should go on without the defending champ. Because of this I believe Prince will take his taylor-made derby swing up to Queens.

Toughest omissions- Cabrera, Jose Bautista, David Ortiz

National League:

Domonic Brown- the young Phillie leads the National League in homers with 19 and has been on an absolute tear since May started. He has a wonderful lefty swing, perfect for the Derby and is another infusion of some new blood into this contest.

Carlos Gonzalez- a tough call between Gonzalez and his teammate Troy Tulowitzki, but Gonzalez currently has two more homers than Tulo (18-16) and has the ability to hit to all fields that makes him dangerous in a contest like this.

Bryce Harper- although Harper sits just 10th in the National league with 12 home runs, his immense popularity combined with a powerful lefty swing makes him the fan favorite and a good bet to help draw some ratings to the derby.

Toughest omissions- Tulowitzki, Ryan Braun, Ryan Howard, Justin Upton

By Vernon McKenzie

Graduate of New Institute Of Technology with a BA in Communications with a focus on Television Radio. Owner and Executive Producer of PureSportsNY

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