Jose Bautista is the predictable and prohibitive favorite in this year's MLB Home Run Derby, but the odds have Cardinals outfielder Matt Holliday smack in the center of the pack in the strange field chosen by captains David Ortiz and Prince Fielder. After Bautista (3/1), Fielder, and Ortiz, who are all bunched together atop the field as the only true sluggers, comes Holliday, who at 9/2 is significantly ahead of Matt Kemp, Adrian Gonzalez, and the two second basemen, Robinson Cano and Rickie Weeks.
Holliday hit five home runs in his first Home Run Derby appearance, in 2010, and while he's never hit more than 36 home runs in a season—and that in Coors Field—he looks the part of a slugger, standing at a muscular 6'4" and taking vicious swings that just happen to turn into hard-hit line drives instead of lofty fly balls.
Holliday's hit four home runs since being named to the Home Run Derby, so maybe he's already practicing; at 14, he has a ways to go to catch Bautista's 29, which currently lead the Major Leagues.