Saturday BP: Who wins the Home Run Derby?

Hello and happy Saturday.

They waited until oddly close to the actual event, but MLB has named the participants for the 2021 Home Run Derby.

The San Francisco Giants are not represented, though it’s worth noting that Brandon Crawford has more home runs than half of the field, and Buster Posey and Mike Yastrzemski have more home runs than a quarter of it (as of Thursday, at least).

In fact, the Giants haven’t had a derby participant in almost two decades, spanning back to when Barry Bonds had all of two home runs in the 2002 contest. Cursed year.

Anyway, here’s the eight-player lineup this year. They’ll slug it out Monday night.

Pete Alonso (Mets)
Joey Gallo (Rangers)
Trey Mancini (Orioles)
Shohei Ohtani (Angels)
Matt Olson (A’s)
Salvador Pérez (Royals)
Juan Soto (Nationals)
Trevor Story (Rockies)

Story’s inclusion is particularly humorous to me, since he has all of 11 home runs this year and plays half his games at Coors Field. They presumably needed a player from the home team, as the Rockies are hosting the event, and Story is admittedly a good home run hitter in his career, but it’s still amusing.

So, who ya got? Acceptable answers range from “Shohei” to “Ohtani.” I’ll also allow “Brandon Crawford was robbed.”

Old, random MCC article for you to read

Hank Greenwald was a perfect Giants announcer (Oct. 23, 2018 — Grant Brisbee)

What time do the Giants play today?

The Giants play the Nationals this afternoon at 1:05 p.m. PT.

Have a really wonderful Saturday, everyone.