Barring unforeseen circumstances, the Boston Red Sox will hit the most home runs in the 2011 Home Run Derby, presented by State Farm.
Barring extremely unforeseen circumstances, they'll also take the lead for most home runs by members of a team in the Derby, all-time.
St. Louis (95) has that lead currently, and with Matt Holliday participating in the event, it's likely they'll increase that total, but with Boston's David Ortiz and Adrian Gonzalez both taking part, there's a pretty good chance that Boston, which has 92 home runs from 8 participants to date, could best whatever St. Louis gets.
In an interesting subplot, the Milwaukee Brewers also have two horses in the race - captain Prince Fielder and Rickie Weeks. Both Boston and Milwaukee have sent 8 men to the Home Run Derby, although Milwaukee only has 57 dingers in the event's history.
Of course, the goal is to win - it's an individual competition, and there's no doubt that any matter of Gonzalez, Ortiz, Jose Bautista (Toronto Blue Jays) or the New York Yankees' Robinson Cano would like to win it for the American League.
Ortiz won the event last year, but the Home Run Derby hasn't had a back-to-back winner since Ken Griffey, Jr. in 1998 (Coors Field, Denver) and 1999 (Fenway Park).
In an interesting turn, the American League Derby team isn't American at all - Ortiz, Cano and Bautista are all from the Dominican Republic, while Gonzalez is a native Mexican. The National League team of Fielder and Weeks, the Los Angeles Dodgers' Matt Kemp (Los Angeles Dodgers) and Holliday? All American.
The Home Run Derby is live on ESPN on Monday night at 8 PM.