Giancarlo Stanton, Aaron Judge, and Cody Bellinger are your MLB betting favourites to win the 2017 home run derby, but is this really a three-horse race? Well, yes. It pretty much is. But for the sake of completion let’s have at who people who bet on baseball would call online gambling underdogs.
Miguel Ángel Jean Sanó (+750)
The Dominican professional baseball third baseman and designated hitter for the Minnesota Twins has 21 home runs this season and is on pace to break his personal single-season best of 25. According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, Sano’s goal at the HRD is to “win.” or in his own words, “I go there for a win. I don’t go there for a loss.” That’s, uh, good to know? All things considered, though, he does have the best odds to win after the three aforementioned gentlemen.
Charlie Blackmon (+1400)
The center fielder for the Colorado Rockies led the National League in hits and triples, was second in batting average, fourth in runs scored, tied for fifth in RBI, and tied for seventh with a 1.037 on-base plus slugging in May, all of which contributed to his winning his first MLB Player of the Month Award. Thirteen of Blackmon’s 21 homers came in the first two months of the season, though, so the Home Run Derby may have come just a bit too late for him.
Mike Moustakas (+1400)
The third baseman for the Kansas City Royals has twice as long MLB betting odds to win the Derby as Sano, which of course means he’s the underdog in their first round matchup, as people who bet on baseball can see. Which is a rather odd thing, seeing as how Moustakas actually has four more homers than Sano in the 2017 season. On the other hand, consistency is not Moustakas’s strong suit; he has broken the 20-homer mark only thrice in seven seasons in the majors.
Justin Bour (+1500)
The baseball first baseman for the Miami Marlins will have home field advantage – as will his teammate and current reigning and defending champeen Stanton. Bour has 20 homers but over half were in May. Moreover, he missed nine June games – following which he has hit the ball out of the park only nine times. Finally, he’s going up against Judge Dredd in the first round. Marlins fans who bet on baseball will have find solace though in the knowledge that at least one of their own will go through to the second round.
Gary Sanchez (+1500)
Sanchez became the first player in the history of the majors with four multi-homer games as a catcher in 82 games on June 1st. a week later he had another multi-hr game to become only the second player to have five multi-home run games 87 games into their career. Sanchez hit the hardest home run of his career a couple of days later, a 115.1-mph bomb to left-center field off of Mike Wright of the Orioles. The next day, Sanchez hit the farthest homer of his career, a 450-foot shot off of Kevin Gausman also of Baltimore. Unfortunately for his MLB betting odds of winning the HR Derby, he will face Stanton in the first round.