Tony DeMarco

NEW YORK - When Evan Longoria of the formerly floundering Tampa Bay Rays and Corey Hart of the small-market Milwaukee Brewers win the online voting for the final two roster spots over established stars such as David Wright and Brian Roberts, you know it's a brave new All-Star Game world.

The fact that there are enough first-time all-stars — including seven starters — to almost fill an entire roster only strengthens the case for a new generation of emerging talent.

So it only follows that Monday night's Home Run Derby goes along with the trend. And joining derby veterans Lance Berkman and Justin Morneau are a half-dozen first-timers whose impact this season has been undeniable:

Josh Hamilton
By now, everybody is aware of Hamilton's amazing comeback story in the games of life and baseball. But what the casual fan might not be aware of is Hamilton's prodigious raw power.

No less an authority than the Rangers' hitting instructor Rudy Jaramillo says Hamilton has more power than either Sammy Sosa or Juan Gonzalez — two of his previous pupils.

In fact, mix that with the advantage of aiming at the short right-field porch in Yankee Stadium that all the left-handed hitters will enjoy, and you can make a case for Hamilton as the derby favorite.

Hamilton trails Grady Sizemore by one in the AL home run race, and is on pace — 95 RBI in 95 games — to crack Gonzalez's club-record single-season total of 157.

Grady Sizemore
Somebody has to lead off the derby, and it would be fitting it turns out to be Sizemore, who has been a cleanup-like presence at the top of the Indians' lineup all season.

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Nothing much else has gone right in Cleveland this year — with apologies to Cliff Lee, of course — but Sizemore is producing as much as ever. He entered the weekend with an American League-leading 22 homers — only six short of his career high — and is the only AL player with a 20-homer/20-steal season already in the books.

Sizemore also leads the Indians in hits, runs, stolen bases, total bases, RBI, slugging percentage and on-base percentage, and how many leadoff hitters have ever done that over a full season?

Chase Utley
It's a stretch to call Utley a rising star — at 29, he has been one for awhile, enters the game as the NL's leading vote-getter, and widely is regarded as the game's best second baseman in the last two decades. But Utley is a new face when it comes to the game's slugging elite and the derby.

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Utley's power surge has him third in the majors with 25 homers — only seven short of his career high — and it took a recent 0-for-24 slump to knock his average down to right around .300.

Utley also is capable of getting on the kind of roll that can capture these contests, as twice this season, he has hit home runs in five consecutive games. His short compact stroke is perfect at Citizens Bank Park, so it should be the same in Yankee Stadium.