As captain of the NL's Home Run Derby squad, Matt Kemp of the Los Angeles Dodgers gets to pick who will slug for his side. The same goes for AL captain Robinson Cano, the event's defending champion. Kemp already said he invited teammate Andre Ethier to join him at Kauffman Stadium in Kansas City on July 9, so that leaves two spots on the four-man squad. One of them will not be given to 19-year-old Bryce Harper of the Washington Nationals. Kemp explained to reporter Jorge L. Ortiz of USA TODAY why Harper failed to make the cut: Harper has earned enough respect from his peers that Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Cole Hamels, who drew a five-game suspension after intentionally hitting him with a pitch earlier this season, said the hard-nosed outfielder got his vote for the All-Star Game . That wasn't enough to sway Kemp, who said he already has his four-member team in place and mostly chose the participants on the basis of stats. "That's how I got in last year,'' Kemp said. "I had a lot of home runs in the first half. So you have to take that into consideration.'' Considering that Harper has seven home runs, which doesn't even put him in the top 40 in the NL, it's hard to use numbers...