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Welcome to the Ding Dong Challenge, a game were we try and correctly predict who will hit the most home runs in a given week, keep score throughout the entire season, and win a free, awesome t-shirt.
IT’S THE FIRST FULL WEEK OF THE 2021 MLB SEASON AND YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS!
Yes, the Ding Dong Challenge is back so start tabulating your teams and figuring out who’ll be the one to go yard this week.
For those of you who have never participated in the Ding Dong Challenge and are wondering what the bloody hell is going on right now, let me explain. Each week you draft a team of three hitters, the goal being for your team to hit the most home runs during the week. You must pick one player from the “elites”—top 25 players in ISO rating—and two players from the “everyone else” category (which is just everyone who’s not elite), then list your team in the comments. The sooner you create your team, the better as you only get the homers from when your team is posted till the end of the week!
I’ll tally up the dingers and post next Monday the standings for how everyone has started. It’s fun. Trust me.
The key is to start NOW since who knows how much longer we’re going to actually have baseball.
Without further ado, here are your elites to start the season:
Week 1 Elites
| Name | Team | G | PA | HR | ISO |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Name | Team | G | PA | HR | ISO |
| Byron Buxton | MIN | 3 | 10 | 2 | 0.875 |
| Nick Castellanos | CIN | 3 | 12 | 2 | 0.818 |
| Alex Bregman | HOU | 3 | 14 | 2 | 0.583 |
| Evan Longoria | SFG | 3 | 13 | 2 | 0.545 |
| Austin Meadows | TBR | 3 | 13 | 2 | 0.545 |
| Gary Sanchez | NYY | 3 | 12 | 2 | 0.545 |
| Whit Merrifield | KCR | 3 | 15 | 2 | 0.538 |
| Michael A. Taylor | KCR | 3 | 13 | 2 | 0.538 |
| Ketel Marte | ARI | 4 | 18 | 2 | 0.500 |
| J.D. Martinez | BOS | 3 | 12 | 1 | 0.500 |
| Paul DeJong | STL | 3 | 14 | 2 | 0.500 |
| Manuel Margot | TBR | 3 | 10 | 1 | 0.500 |
| Kris Bryant | CHC | 3 | 12 | 1 | 0.444 |
| Garrett Cooper | MIA | 3 | 10 | 1 | 0.444 |
| Randal Grichuk | TOR | 3 | 12 | 1 | 0.400 |
| Ty France | SEA | 3 | 13 | 1 | 0.400 |
| Colin Moran | PIT | 3 | 13 | 1 | 0.400 |
| Wil Myers | SDP | 4 | 17 | 1 | 0.385 |
| Jorge Soler | KCR | 3 | 14 | 1 | 0.375 |
| Eddie Rosario | CLE | 3 | 12 | 1 | 0.375 |
| Tyler Naquin | CIN | 3 | 10 | 1 | 0.375 |
| Dylan Carlson | STL | 3 | 11 | 1 | 0.375 |
| Shohei Ohtani | LAA | 4 | 16 | 2 | 0.375 |
| Yermin Mercedes | CHW | 3 | 14 | 1 | 0.357 |
| Jake Cronenworth | SDP | 4 | 18 | 0 | 0.333 |
Anyone not on this list is an Everyone Else. Reminder: you pick one Elite and two Everyone Else each week so choose wisely! Leave your team in the comments if you want to play this week (and feel free to leave your twitter handle as we’ll give a shoutout each week to the previous week’s winner).