For the second year in a row, Yoenis Cespedes of the Oakland Athletics is the Home Run Derby champion. Cespedes swatted a total of 28 homers en route to defending his title by defeating Cincinnati’s Todd Frazier in the final round of the Derby’s new format. He is only the second player to win consecutive titles after Ken Griffey Jr. accomplished the feat in 1998 and 1999.
The baseball gods did their best to try to delay Cespedes’ repeat victory. After a nearly hour-long rain delay, the Derby plodded along as an extra two competitors tried their hand at the competition. The field consisted of Cespedes, Frazier, Jose Bautista (TOR), Brian Dozier, (MIN), Adam Jones (BAL), Josh Donaldson (OAK), Troy Tulowitzki (COL), Justin Morneau (COL), Giancarlo Stanton (MIA), and Yasiel Puig (LAD).
The first round resulted in two tiebreakers between Cespedes and Donaldson, and Frazier and Morneau. Due to the new format only allotting the competitors seven “outs” instead of the usual ten, the whole field seemed to be taking more pitches and being much more selective at what they swung at. Yet there was a startlingly low amount of home runs the while night. Dozier, Frazier and Morneau only launched two in the first round, while Cespedes and Donaldson only had three. Puig seemed especially jittery, hacking at a lot of bad balls and failing to hit a single one out.
Bautista and Stanton each received byes to the final round of competition in their respective leagues due to their strong showings, however that resulted in their downfalls. Because of the tiebreakers and second rounds, Bautista and Stanton had to wait more than an hour and a half to hit (nearly two hours for Stanton). By that time they had gone cold. Bautista only hit six, giving Cespedes a ticket to the finals. Frazier seemed done for when he managed to hit only one homer in the penultimate round, but the mighty Stanton failed to launch a single home run.
While Cespedes was impressive the entire night, the entire night was a testament to the futility of the league’s attempt to shake up the Derby and make it more interesting. Despite giving the hitter less wiggle room to work with, the competition dragged on at a freakishly sluggish pace, while giving the audience less to look at. The most impressive hitters from the first round, Bautista and Stanton, were the ones who the viewers got to see the least of, and were all but sure to have unspectacular second showings given the amount of time they had to wait.
Hopefully the league will decide to revert to the old format. Even if they do not, next year’s Derby will surely be more visually impressive, as the All-Star festivities will be held in Cincinnati’s Great American Bandbox, which is quite the bandbox.
The All-Star Game will be held tonight at 7:30 EST, and promises to be quite a spectacle as Derek Jeter makes his final appearance at the midsummer classic. Stay tuned here at LWOS and keep up with the action at @MLBFB on Twitter, as we bring you all the best commentary throughout the game and the rest of the season.
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