He hasn't come anywhere close to keeping up his pace from early in the year, when 10 home runs in 21 games put him on a trajectory for 77. (1994, 19) as the only player to win three derbies.Īnd with the way Alonso is swinging it this season, why shouldn't he win? He's back for another go at matching Ken Griffey Jr. We're only listing the three longest taters by each player, but Pete Alonso has mashed a total of seven home runs to left-center this season that traveled at least 430 feet.īut annual Home Run Derby viewers should be in no way surprised by this information, as the Polar Bear has annihilated more than a few of the 174 home runs that he hit between the 2019, 20 derbies.Īlonso won it in both 20 before getting smoked by Julio Rodríguez in last year's semifinals. Would be nice to give those fans something to cheer about before half of the team gets scrapped for prospects. Hopefully Robert at least makes it out of the first round, though. At least Chicago isn't that bad, and at least we won't have to spend the entirety of this derby hearing about trade possibilities, as Robert (signed through 2027) is one of the few White Sox players that definitely won't be going anywhere. Last year's Home Run Derby champion (Juan Soto) played for a team that was 32 games below. Heck, he hit 11 just from June 8-30-almost fittingly during a 22-game stretch in which the White Sox went 9-13 to fade even further into oblivion. With 26 home runs on the year, the 25-year-old centerfielder has already left his previous career best of 13 in the dust. It's one thing to square up a 100 MPH fastball and send it a mile-which Robert did on a 418-foot opposite field home run off Hunter Greene on May 5-but taking a 73.5 MPH sweeper from Chris Bassitt and crushing it 450 feet could be a fitting preview of a memorable derby performance. One thing worth noting about Luis Robert Jr.'s most explosive home runs is that they all came on off-speed pitches. With that out of the way, let's talk about each participant in this year's Derby, including video clips of the three longest home runs each player has hit this season, followed by our round-by-round predictions of how it'll all play out. And if there's still a tie after 60 seconds, they'll do three-swing swing-offs until the tie is finally broken. In the case of a tie, each hitter gets another 60 seconds (no timeouts). And if at any point the second hitter pulls ahead of the first hitter, the round ends right then and there. That initial two- or three-minute period will be followed by either a 30-second segment of bonus time or a 60-second segment, depending on whether the player hits two home runs that travels at least 440 feet during the first two or three minutes. (Seeds were based on home run total through July 4, with tiebreakers based on who had hit the most home runs from June 15 through July 4.)įor the first two rounds, each hitter gets three minutes-two minutes in the championship-during which time he is allowed one 45-second timeout while trying to hit as many home runs as possible. Yes, even better than the NBA's Slam Dunk contest.Īnd when you inevitably tune in Monday night for the 2023 rendition of moonshots, taters and tank jobs, there will be no shortage of star power or storyline intrigue.Īs a quick reminder of the format, it's a head-to-head bracket in which the better-seeded hitter will bat second in each round. It's the most entertaining exhibition spectacle in sports.
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