Chris Berman is fine-tuning his "BackBackBackBackBackBackGONE!" which can only mean one thing: it's time for the MLB Home Run Derby.
The 2010 Home Run Derby begins Monday night, at 8 P.M. EDT, and is set to broadcast live from Angel Stadium on ESPN, ESPN 3D (it's ESPN's first program fully produced in 3D) and ESPN Deportes.
The rules, which are painfully simple but yet will be repeated roughly 1843 times tonight, are as follows:
- hit a home run
- if you swing and don't hit a home run, it's an out
- after 10 outs, your round is over
- all eight players hit in the first round; the top four move onto to the second round (with totals carrying over from the opening round); the top two slug it out for all the glory in the finals.
From the Mothership, a brief look at the eight participants (none of which are the Blue Jays' José Bautista, who leads all of baseball with 24 home runs, so there's some credibility right there):
American League
National League
WHO'S MISSING
There are currently 11 players in the league with 20 or more home runs. Nine of them - Jose Bautista, Josh Hamilton, Joey Votto, Adam Dunn, Albert Pujols, Vladimir Guerrero, Paul Konerko, Mark Reynolds, and Prince Fielder - either declined to participate, or were not invited. Which is how we wound up with Hanley Ramirez, who currently has fewer home runs than Shane Victorino. Meaningful competition!
ODDS & FAVORITES
Coming straight from some place called Sports Interaction:
- David Ortiz and Miguel Cabrera are tied as favorites to win, at +250, which is a gambling term that means something
- Hanley Ramirez faces the longest odds, at +1000
- Nick Swisher is the current favorite to hit the fewest dingers in the first round, at +350
- Ortiz and Cabrera are also favorites for the longest home run in the first round, and the most first round homers overall
We'll provide live updates after each round for David Ortiz here in this StoryStream.