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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.