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David Wright named National League's captain for Home Run Derby

Wright will captain the team as he participates in his second derby.

USA TODAY Sports

Major League Baseball announced this evening that David Wright will be the captain of the National League's team at the Home Run Derby on July 15 at Citi Field. Robinson Cano will captain the American League slugging squad.

Wright participated in the event once before, finishing second in 2006 with 22 home runs in total. He hit 16 in the first round, which still ranks third for most home runs hit in a round of the derby.

This year, Wright is tied for 24th in the National League with 8 home runs, but the league likely wanted to avoid a situation like it had last year in Kansas City, where Royals fans relentlessly booed Cano for not picking Billy Butler to participate in the derby.

As for Wright's captaincy this year, he'll have plenty of names from which to choose. Here are the top ten home run hitters in the National League right now:

Num Name HR
1 Domonic Brown 19
2 Carlos Gonzalez 17
3 Troy Tulowitzki 16
4 Paul Goldschmidt 15
5 Justin Upton 14
6 Carlos Beltran 14
7 Pedro Alvarez 13
8 Dan Uggla 13
9 Carlos Gomez 11
10 John Buck 11

If I were Wright, I'd be sure to pick Beltran and Gonzalez to show support for a couple of future Mets acquisitions.