I'm not particularly surprised there is not a thread for this already... Does anyone have any interest in watching the Home Run Derby, or is it not relevant? It could be interesting to see if Chris Davis can pull it out but I wish Miguel Cabrera was participating. I am betting Prince Fielder will win it.
Does it prove I am a homer that I think Chris Carter should be in this? Dude would put on a show. I mean he isn't that far out of the top 10.
He's the main reason I'll be watching this year too. He has one of the most fluid power swings out there. Should be perfect for the derby.
Great point. I think Bryce Harper has a solid swing, but he has not put up much in the way of numbers this year. I am expecting Cuddyer to put up a pretty good number despite the criticism.
I don't know who this is... this was retweeted by Zachary Levine. <blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p>Guys, ESPN Deportes has the <a href="https://twitter.com/search?q=%23HRDerby&src=hash">#HRDerby</a> without Chris Berman. I don't understand what they're saying, but it's 100x better.</p>— Jeff Shafer (@jmshafer) <a href="https://twitter.com/jmshafer/statuses/356937556522307585">July 16, 2013</a></blockquote> <script async src="//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
Chris Carter is having a better year than Yoenis Cespedes. His AVG, OBP, HRs, RBIs are all better. I'm a little late, but no one imagined he deserved to be there.
In my preteen years, the day of the home run derby was on my short list of favorite days of the year. I just couldn't get enough. After not doing so well in his first foray into the HR Derby, Bagwell getting into the second round in '99 at Fenway is still one of my favorite memories of the event. Now, I still watch almost just out of respect for what the event used to mean to me. I can't stand Berman, just like everyone else, but I think the event is still fun if it's not taken too seriously. That brings me to my next point. I understand that no player wants to pull a Cano from last year or a Bret Boone from 2001 or 2003, but the players take this thing waaaaaaayyyyy too seriously at this point. Stretching to avoid getting hurt is one thing, but now we have players taking cuts in the cage before rounds and taking eight or ten pitches between swings. Maybe it's because I was too young to notice or maybe it's just because we didn't have Twitter back then, but I don't remember anyone complaining about the event being drudgery back in the late-90s. And to me, that's because those guys back then were there to get their swings in and put on a show, not wait for the one pitch in the one location they can launch the ball out on. Guys are up there for 20 minutes at a time and that's what makes this thing drag on.
