The Mid Summer classic. A great time for the fans and players especially. Some need this break for a mental reasons and others need it for physical reasons. Worst of all, some don’t get a break at all until Wednesday. Those that do not get a break are either in the Home Run Derby tonight, Monday, and or playing in the All-Star game tomorrow night in Cleveland. Let’s check out who is participating in this years Home Run Derby:

•  Matt Chapman, Oakland A’s
•  Vlad Guerrero Jr., Toronto Blue Jays
• Carlos Santana, Cleveland Indians
•  Josh Bell, Pittsburgh Pirates
•  Peter Alonso, New York Mets
•  Ronald Acuna Jr., Atlanta Braves
•  Joc Pederson, Los Angeles Dodgers
•  Alex Bregman, Houston Astros

All great hitters with a few bomb droppers sprinkled in there. This one is a bit sketch. You have guys like Acuna, Bregman, and Matt Chapman who are great hitters but categorizing them as a “power hitter” doesn’t exactly fit their own bill of themselves and how the public perceives them. Then you have guys like Peter Alonso, Josh Bell, Vlad Jr, and Joc Pederson who fit the bill of a “power hitter.”

Now, I have done many home run derby’s in my prime, shoutout to the one home run I hit during senior day during my last college game, but it’s almost like who can take the best batting practice and not get tired. I would win if I were involved right now but I never got the invite this year for some reason and I’m pretty sure because they don’t want me to win the $1 million prize. I do however have an opinion on who I would pick and who could quite possibly be the sleeper of the Derby. Let’s look:

My Pick: Vlad Guerrero Jr.

Kind of hard to not get intrigued when a young star like Vlad Jr. gets an opportunity to showcase his power on one of baseballs biggest stages during the Mid Summer Classic. Love saying that phrase. Unless you’ve been locked up in my basement, you have had to get an opportunity to watch Vlad hit baseballs. It’s pretty exciting if you enjoy someone mastering the art of hitting that little round object hard and far. Vlad does it pretty well. Maybe his numbers so far this year do not exactly scream “mastering the art of hitting” but the man just turned 20 and will have more adrenaline going through his body than maybe every before. This could be very exciting to watch.

Sleeper: Joc Pederson

There’s not much to Pederson’s game anymore than dropping bombs and drawing walks as evidenced by his numbers. Pederson comes into the Home Run Derby slashing .239/.333/.521 with 20 bombs and 42 RBI. Pederson doesn’t play a lot against lefties anymore and in the Home Run Derby you’re allowed to pick your pitcher so the odds are with Pederson on this one. Pederson and Bregman are the only two who have done this before so the man has an idea on how to approach the event. This could be a random dub for Pederson.

Of course we could choose any of these guys to fit the bill of the categories of “my pick and sleeper” but I feel a good vibe from those two. I do believe that Josh Bell and Peter Alonso are going to make some noise as well. This should be a fun event to watch and gives you something actually exciting to do on a Monday night. Good luck to all and congratulations to the All-Stars.