The mighty homerun.  Nothing leaves a fan, and even players, more in awe than a ball hit hard and far.  And to provide some entertainment during the All-Star festivities, MLB brings us the Home Run Derby.  This year’s participants are a good mixture of a former Derby Champ and MVP (Miguel Tejada), a Derby runner-up (Lance Berkman), World Series MVPs (Troy Glaus and Jermaine Dye), the current major league leader in dingers (David Ortiz), and the next generation of superstars (Miguel Cabrera, David Wright, and Ryan Howard). 

There three rounds to determine the winner with the top four scores of the first round advancing to the second round, the top two scores in the second round advancing to the championship to claim the title of “Mr. Crush-A-Lot.”  Each hitter will have ten outs in each round with an out being either a swing and a miss or anything that doesn’t leave the yard in fair territory.

Here are the participants and their power numbers - homeruns and slugging percentage:

Lance Berkman - 24 HR; .607 SLG
Miguel Cabrera - 15 HR; .566 SLG
Jermaine Dye - 25 HR; .646 SLG
Troy Glaus - 23 HR; .518 SLG
Ryan Howard - 28 HR; .582 SLG
David Ortiz - 31 HR; .609 SLG
Miguel Tejada - 17 HR; .510 SLG
David Wright - 20 HR; .575 SLG

Who do I think is going to take the Derby?  You’re looking at his picture.  If Howard does win, hopefully it doesn’t drain all of his power in the second half as it did last year when teammate Bobby Abreu won the contest, but was never the same power-wise afterwards, hitting only six homeruns after the All-Star break.  Before the break last year, he had 18 dingers.  How many does Abreu have thus far in this first half of 2006?  A pedestrian eight homers. 

Hopefully the Curse of the HR Derby only lasts one year for whomever wins.