Here at Inscriber Magazine, we like to have friendly competition this rings true even with the MLB Homerun Derby. I personally have already made a wager on who will win. Now, my wager was based on the best value for my money, not who I actually think will win. I went with Miguel Sano as he was 7-1 and I put $10 on him to win. I would have loved to bet on Giancarlo Stanton or Aaron Judge but they were only paying 1.8-1 which are basically bet 1 to win 1.80 not really great odds.
With that being said, I took a couple of the writers from the magazine and we held a friendly competition. The way it will work is as follows. Every correct 1st round selection will earn you 2 points. The second round correct selections will be worth 6 points and if you pick the correct winner it will be worth 10 points. The person with the highest point total will win. The staff writers who are participating are as follows Michael Esposito (me), Kenny Magner, Sydney Moore, Jon Blayne, Ryne Milkins, Doug Rush and Nick Ficorelli.
The breakdown of the 2017 MLB Home Derby participants is as follows:
(1) Giancarlo Stanton, Miami Marlins vs (8) Gary Sanchez, New York Yankees
(4) Miguel Sano, Minnesota Twins vs (5) Mike Moustakas, Kansas City Royals
(2) Aaron Judge, New York Yankees vs (7) Justin Bour, Miami Marlins
(3) Cody Bellinger, Los Angeles Dodgers vs (6) Charlie Blackmon, Colorado Rockies
First I will do my predictions, In the first round, I have
- Stanton over Sanchez, Sano over Moustakas, Judge Over Bour, and Bellinger over Blackmon
- Second Round I have Sano over Stanton and Judge over Bellinger
- Finals I pick Sano to edge out Judge making Sano the champ.
For Nick Ficorelli’s Picks, he has
- Stanton over Sanchez, Sano over Moustakas, Judge over Bour and Bellinger over Blackmon
- Second Round he has Stanton over Sano and Judge over Bellinger
- Finals he picked Judge over Stanton making Judge the Homerun Derby Champ
For Sydney Moore’s picks, she has
- Stanton over Sanchez, Sano over Moustakas, Judge over Bour, and Blackmon over Bellinger.
- Second Round she has Sano over Stanton and Judge over Blackmon
- Finals She has Judge winning over Sano making Judge the 2017 HR Derby Champ.
For Kenny Magner’s picks, he has
- Stanton over Sanchez, Moustakas over Sano, Judge over Bour, Blackmon over Bellinger.
- Second Round he has Moustakas over Stanton and Judge over Blackmon
- Finals he has Judge over Moustakas making Judge the Champ
For Ryne Milkin’s Picks, he has
- Stanton over Sanchez, Sano over Moustakas, Blackmon over Bellinger, Judge over Bour
- Second round he has Stanton over Sano and Judge over Blackmon
- Finals he has Judge over Stanton, Marking another person who has Aaron Judge winning it all.
For Jon Blayne’s Picks, he has
- Stanton over Sanchez, Sano over Moustakas, Bellinger over Blackmon, Judge over Bour.
- Second Round he has Stanton over Sano and Judge over Bellinger.
- Finals he too believes Judge will win the Derby over Stanton. Here is a little blurb he wrote about why. My overall prediction is Aaron Judge to win it. He has the built and the mindset to pull it off. I see the finals being between Aaron Judge and Giancarlo Stanton.
For Doug Rush’s Picks, he has
- Stanton over Sanchez, Sano over Moustakas, Judge over Bour, Bellinger over Blackmon.
- Sano over Stanton, Judge over Bellinger
- Judge over Sano.
So as you can see an overwhelming amount of people believe Judge will win this which coincides with Vegas’s thinking hence the reason their odds are so low on him. No one is giving Justin Bour a chance to win his first round matchup against Judge. Either way, it should be fun and entertaining as it always is.