Well it looks like my blogging hiatus lasted about as long as Brett Favre’s “retirement”. I have enjoyed taking a break for a couple of weeks and I’ve had a couple of ideas about things I plan on blogging about in the future. But for now, I can’t resist a quick baseball post.

Every year, Sunny and I have a little competition when it comes to the Home Run Derby the day before the All-Star Game. We’ll each draft 4 players from the pool of 8, and the one who picks the winner is declared the Bybee Family HR Derby Champ. My 2nd round pick last year, Vlad Guerrero, brought home the gold for yours truly. As the reigning champ, Sunny let me pick first this year. Here’s how this year’s draft went:

Round 1
Jason takes Lance Berkman
Sunny takes Chase Utley
I like Berkman hitting lefty in Yankee Stadium. Sunny wisely chose the only other first round consideration in this field.

Round 2
Jason takes Ryan Braun
Sunny takes Evan Longoria
We both surprised each other by taking right handed power hitters in the 2nd round. We’ll see if it pays off. Sunny’s a Longoria homer because a) he’s on her fantasy team and b) his name sounds like “Eva Longoria”.

Round 3
Jason takes Josh Hamilton
Sunny takes Grady Sizemore
I thought about Sizemore here, but I couldn’t justify taking a leadoff hitter over the dude with 95 RBI. Hamilton is the feel-good story of the season so far; maybe he’ll hit it big for me in the Derby.

Round 4
Jason takes Justin Morneau
Sunny takes Dan Uggla
No-brainer for me here; Morneau is a lefty and that short porch will be calling his name. 2nd year in a row he’s been my last choice here.

There you have it. Your thoughts? How do you handicap this year’s Derby? It’s a more lackluster group than in years past, but you know I’ll be watching nonetheless.