home run derby

[upperdeck]

that was quite a display..

Vlad is a beast.. got tired

Alonso is a bear. never used his time bonus in any round and that helped make up for below avg pitching.

but the round between Vlad and Pederson is as good as it gets.

 

[br801]

that was quite a display..

Vlad is a beast.. got tired

Alonso is a bear. never used his time bonus in any round and that helped make up for below avg pitching.

but the round between Vlad and Pederson is as good as it gets.

That was great entertainment. The current format really works well. But I'll remember Guerrero and Pederson more than Alonso winning.

Someone needs to put that celebrity softball game out of its misery, though. If anyone can watch more than five minutes of that crap, they deserve some sort of award.

 

[upperdeck]

it really shows that the pitcher is pretty important too.. when they groove the pitches they hit HR in bunches. Alonso and the Atlanta kid pretty much had to hit HRs all over because so many pitches they saw were not in the sweet spot.

 

[Mareiniss]

That was great entertainment. The current format really works well. But I'll remember Guerrero and Pederson more than Alonso winning. ...

To me, it was clear that Guerrero was the best HR hitter of the bunch. It's too bad he became fatigued after all the extra tiebreakers. The format is an improvement over the past, but still needs more tweaking. Progressive Field's high fences in left field gave left-handers like Pederson an advantage. Some of his HRs were line drives to right field that would not have cleared the high fence in left field. The inconsistent pitching was a big disadvantage for some, as well.

 

[upperdeck]

maybe they should just go with a machine.. although i think if pitches were grooved they would probably hit more like 50..

vlad was gassed but he had so many more hittable balls as well

 

[Trueblue25]

Vlad’s a beautiful cross between his father and Manny

 

[UnknownOrange]

To me, it was clear that Guerrero was the best HR hitter of the bunch. It's too bad he became fatigued after all the extra tiebreakers. The format is an improvement over the past, but still needs more tweaking. Progressive Field's high fences in left field gave left-handers like Pederson an advantage. Some of his HRs were line drives to right field that would not have cleared the high fence in left field. The inconsistent pitching was a big disadvantage for some, as well.

I know what you're saying but the final four were all righties

 

[gocusecaz]

I know what you're saying but the final four were all righties

Pederson was part of the final four.

 

[UnknownOrange]

Pederson was part of the final four.

Whoops. You're right. My mistake. Either way - the field is the field. Some years it'll favor righties or lefties or be equal. Last night was perfect

 

[jncuse]

I enjoyed it. But its much less impressive when you realize the baseball is almost as juiced as a golf ball at this point. And intentionally juiced.

 

[SWC75]

Guerrero hit 91 home runs to 57 for Alonso and I agree that having to hit so many home runs to reach the finals wore him down, (although he still hit 22 homers). But there was more to it than that. Pete had another advantage: he always went second and knew exactly how many home runs he had to hit to advance. He hit that number and the round was over, so he stopped and saved his swings. Which was a disadvantage in terms of his total home runs: if he'd taken the remaining time, including the 30 second bonuses, he'd have hit more total home runs.
The fact that he didn't need to participate in "slug offs"

meant the same thing. Finally, Pete, like the greatest power hitters, is a spray hitter: of his 30 home runs this year, 8 have been to left field, 6 to left center, 6 to dead center, 8 to right center and one to right field. Guerrero is a pull hitter: of his 8 home runs since he got called up are to left, 2 to left center and 4 to center field. it looked like all his homers last night went to left. That gave him a shorter target. Pete kept hitting to center and right center and coming up short. if he ever learns to pull, some records will be broken. As it was, (and with the quality of throwing- you can't call it pitching) to him, it has hard for him to get a run of homers going. But he persevered and caught Santana, Acuna and Guerrero.

It would be nice to know the average distance of Alonso's home runs - the best I could get from looking at 3 Google pages of articles was that he averaged 421 feet in the final round. I was able to find that Guerrero averaged 424 for the entire contest and had the longest one, 488 feet.

As impressive as Guerrero's home run total was, saying he deserved to win is a bit like saying that the team that scores the most points in the NCAA tournament is the national champion.

 

[Mareiniss]

... Guerrero is a pull hitter: of his 8 home runs since he got called up are to left, 2 to left center and 4 to center field. it looked like all his homers last night went to left. That gave him a shorter target. Pete kept hitting to center and right center and coming up short. if he ever learns to pull, some records will be broken. As it was, (and with the quality of throwing- you can't call it pitching) to him, it has hard for him to get a run of homers going. But he persevered and caught Santana, Acuna and Guerrero.

... As impressive as Guerrero's home run total was, saying he deserved to win is a bit like saying that the team that scores the most points in the NCAA tournament is the national champion.

I’m not saying that Guerrero deserved to win. Props to Alonso for taking full advantage of the rules and field conditions, and for being able to hit to the opposite field.

But the field conditions should be fairly equal, whether in left or right field. Here is how baseballstadiums.net describes the dimensions of Progressive Field:

“The Left Field wall, once known as “Jacob’s Ladder”, is only 325 ft. from home plate, but has a 19’ wall. Much like Fenway Park’s Green Monster, this wall is a common spot for many doubles to hit off of due to its short distance and high wall. The Right field wall is also 325 ft. with only 9’ walls, which makes it a great place to hit for left handed batters.”

Why not put up a temporary fence of the same uniform height all the way around the outfield, just for the home run derby, with the same distances down the line and the same, presumably longer, distances to left-center and right-center?

 

[Chip]

I hope Vlad Abreu’s the 2nd half.

Genius of MLB to display their young talent like that.

 

[upperdeck]

Vlas basically had one swing and when the pitch was grooved there he crushed it anything else he didnt do much

Alonso hit pitches where they were pitched and when he accepted the pitches and just hit them where they were he hit HRs, he got pull happy a bit and the pitches were so bad escpecially the first round he struggled. the last 2 rds he hit around 20 without using his full time alotments.

 

[shandeezy7]

My only complaint with the new format is that they don't enforce the rules that the next pitch isn't allowed to be thrown until the ball has landed. There were times when there was too much going on, and even the cameras couldn't keep up. I like being able to watch these moonshots that these guys are hitting, not trying to follow three different baseballs in the air at once.

 

[upperdeck]

they mentioned how they slacked off that enforcement a bit this year..

 

[donniesyracuse]

MLB All-Star Game draws record low 6.2 overnight rating

"If there’s a bright side for MLB, it’s that no All-Star Games are peaking in this day and age. The NBA All-Star Game drew a record low overnight back in February, and Pro Bowl viewership has been sinking for years, even with ESPN simulcasting the game on three English-language networks.

As for Monday’s thrilling Home Run Derby, it drew a 4.5 overnight, slightly up from last year, but down nearly 20% from 2017."

 

[Fly Rodder]

MLB All-Star Game draws record low 6.2 overnight rating

"If there’s a bright side for MLB, it’s that no All-Star Games are peaking in this day and age. The NBA All-Star Game drew a record low overnight back in February, and Pro Bowl viewership has been sinking for years, even with ESPN simulcasting the game on three English-language networks.

As for Monday’s thrilling Home Run Derby, it drew a 4.5 overnight, slightly up from last year, but down nearly 20% from 2017."

I watched enough to see Trout and Gary Sanchez hit a few times and then turned it off. It was cringeworthy all-around from Joe Buck in general, to talking to the OFers in-game, to having the managers pitch MasterCard in game. A travesty of a production.

 

[SWC75]

I watched enough to see Trout and Gary Sanchez hit a few times and then turned it off. It was cringeworthy all-around from Joe Buck in general, to talking to the OFers in-game, to having the managers pitch MasterCard in game. A travesty of a production.

All-Star baseball like it oughta be, (starts at the 5 minute mark):