The balls will fly Monday night at Petco Park in San Diego as the Major League Baseball presents its annual Home Run Derby. It’s probably less overwhelming for us because being both of our first times, we know where to go, we know a lot of people, we know the clubhouse.
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Stanton’s 490-foot home run on May 6 was the longest of the season, and his 470-foot shot on July 6 was the fifth-longest of 2016. That was at Marlins Park off Phillies right-hander Hector Neris with an exit velocity of 113 miles per hour. I predict Stanton will do a lot like Josh Hamilton in 2008 and hit like 50 homers in the first couple of rounds and be way too exhausted by the finals. A 494-footer by Stanton.
It’s good to see Mark Trumbo as the top overall seed in the contest, since he now leads all of baseball in home runs with 28. In fact, only three players that night hit more than 10 home runs in a single round (David Wright, 16, David Ortiz and Ryan Howard, 10).
Mark Trumbo, Baltimore vs. He leads the majors with 28 homers and is the top seed, facing off against Dodgers rookie and No. 8 Corey Seager (+900) in the first round.
Single-elimination tournament in which the victor of each matchup advances and the loser of each matchup is eliminated. Wil Myers, San Diego.
First-round pairings are: Trumbo vs. Seager, Frazier vs. Gonzalez, Duvall vs. Myers and Cano vs. Stanton.
Frazier’s work with the wood was the majority of the production the White Sox gave lefty Jose Quintana. He’ll look to become the second straight Reds player to win the Derby as Frazier did previous year prior to being dealt to Chicago this offseason. He was traded this offseason to Chicago. The Cubs’ Ryne Sandberg in 1984 was the only other time a player from the hosting team won the Derby.
Unfortunately, we won’t get the chance to see any of these awesome All-Star options this season, but we still have the derby tonight, which is pretty fun.
Todd Frazier, defending his Home Run Derby title, started off on a roll. In the first round and semifinals, each batter is allowed one 45-second timeout. He also said between the games that he would be happy to participate in the Home Run Derby if selected.
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Gonzalez is third on the Rockies with 19 homers this season, 14 of which have come at the hitter-friendly Coors Field. But the victor should be a contestant with experience that can be consistent for three straight rounds. This annual event between batters from the American League and National League happens annually during MLB All Star break.
