Rip Hamilton

In his first game back off the DL, Rangers OF Josh Hamilton ripped his first HR of the season. He's finally on the board leaving Joe Mauer and Aaron Hill as the only derby participants that have not homered and are not out for the year.......or retired!

Fat Albert

Cards 1B Albert Pujols finally connected with a long ball. It was his first HR in 106 AB's which spanned over a 1 month period. It was the longest stretch of his career without a HR. He now has 8 HR's on the year. Derby owners might be happy to hear how many HR's he had at this point in the season last year. Thats right he had only 8 HR's last year too. He went on to finish with 42!

The Giambino

It was throw back night in Colorado last night. Rockies 1B Jason Giambi hit 3 HR's which made people look at the calendar to make sure it wasn't 1998 when he first burst on to the scene in Oakland. Giambi became the 2nd oldest player in MLB history to hit 3 HR's in 1 game, only sitting behind Stan "The Man" Musial. Giambi also goes in the books as 1 of only 4 players that have hit 3 HR's in a game after the age of 40. He joins the Hall of Fame list of Babe Ruth, Stan Musial and Reggie Jackson. Thats some good company to keep.

Harmon Killebrew

The baseball world lost Hall of Fame slugger Harmon Killebrew on Tuesday May 17th to esophageal cancer. He was 74 years old. Some interesting Killebrew facts:

-11th on baseball’s all-time home run list

- His eight seasons with 40 or more homers is tied for second in league history to Babe Ruth

- his uppercut swing formed the silhouette that inspired Major League Baseball’s official logo

- 11-time All-Star

- American League’s Most Valuable Player in 1969 after hitting 49 home runs with 140 RBIs and 145 walks, all Minnesota Twins records that stand to this day

Joey Bats

Toronto OF Jose Bautista homered 3 times on Sunday to raise his league leading total to 16. That gives him 13 HR's in the last 20 games which is an incredible pace. Most thought he was a one year wonder but he's proving his doubters wrong. Not only is he hitting the long ball but he's also batting .370. The media is starting to whisper triple crown threat. Either way watching this guy hit is flat out fun. And if he comes close to breaking his 54 HR total from 2010, ESPN will be all over it.

4 Bagger

Red Sox 1B Adrian Gonzalez has homered in 4 straight games. That gives him 5 HR's in 4 games.

Tough Break

LAA 1B/OF Kendrys Morales has once again shut it down for the season. The ankle that he broke last year, while celebrating a walk off HR, has not fully healed and will require more surgery. This is a significant blow to derby owners, fantasy owners and of course the Angels. The 11 derby owners that drafted him knew it would be a high risk/high reward situation. Looks like risk won.

The Trifecta

On Thursday May12th Carlos Beltran went yard 3 times. He was able to do it against 3 different pitchers and from both sides of the plate. He becomes the first derby player to pass his HR total from last year. The 3 teams that have him have already gotten their monies worth. Of course he does this in a contract year which only makes Met fans hate him even more. And they thought it couldn't get any worse after watching Beltran look at a called strike 3 in game 7 of the NLCS.

A Grand Slam....Or Is It?

On Wednesday May 11th, Mitch Moreland his a grand slam in the 3rd inning which gave him 6 HR's for the year. Unfortunately for Mitch and his owners heavy rains led to the game being postponed before becoming official, thus wiping out all the stats. The only people happy about that are the owners who don't have him and Oakland A's starter Gio Gonzalez. Gio had just finished the worst inning of his career getting shelled for 7 runs.

Wicked Sweet

Boston 1B Adrian Gonzalez has caught fire. In his last 9 games he has 6 HR's. After a slow start he has his derby owners jumping up in the standings. We can officially remove the early bust label.

#2 SS Derek Jeter, #2

Derek Jeter hit his 1st and 2nd HR's of the season in Sundays game against the Rangers. It was his first HR in 259 AB's, a streak that dated back to August 24th. That streak was the 2nd longest of Jeters career. It was also the 10th multi-homer game of his career. Yankee fans are hoping that this is a sign that Jeter may have a little something left in the tank.

LONG awaited HR

On Saturday 5/7 TB 3B Evan Longoria hit his first HR of the season. Looks like he is healthy and ready to get his derby owners to the top of the leaderboard.

Florida/Cincinatti

On Sunday May 1st the Marlins and Reds hit 7 HR's combined. That seems like a lot but is not even close to the MLB record. 2 times Detroit and Chicago did there best beer league softball impression by going yard 12 times combined. You were lucky to be sitting in the bleachers on 5/28/95 or 7/2/02.

Welcome To The Party

On Sunday May 1st Hanley Ramirez and Justin Morneau finally went deep. Owners can only hope that gets them going for the rest of the season.