New year, new rules, new excitement.
Coming into this year’s Home Run Derby, many people were skeptical on how it would go. The main reason for that was the changing of the rules. One change that was made was that participants would no longer have ten outs in a round. However, they would have four minutes to hit as many home runs as they can. And once they got to a certain number, they would receive bonus time, which was an extra 30 seconds.
Another change to the rules was the bracket style competition. Based on how many home runs the participants have hit so far this year, they were given seed numbers from 1-to-8, and were matched up as follows: (1) Albert Pujols vs. (8) Kris Bryant; (2) Todd Frazier vs. (7) Prince Fielder; (3) Josh Donaldson vs. (6) Anthony Rizzo; (4) Joc Pederson vs. (5) Manny Machado.
The first matchup of the night was Rizzo against Donaldson. Rizzo was up first, and struggled a little bit because he was somewhat like the “guinea pig” of this new format. Rizzo, like the other competitors, was unsure of how to attack his round, but ended with a good score of eight home runs. Unfortunately for Rizzo, Donaldson ended his night rather quickly as he knocked nine balls out of the park and moved on to the next round.
The second matchup was Fielder against Frazier. Having plenty of experience with the Home Run Derby, Prince Fielder knew exactly what he was doing. Fielder took his time and had an amazing round of 13 home runs. It looked to be enough but Frazier had other ideas. The Cincinnati third baseman started his round off slow, but the crowd got behind him and gave him the energy he needed. Frazier had an unbelievable final two minutes to his round as he finished with 14 home runs, which would be just enough to move on to the second round.
Next up was Machado against Pederson. Like Frazier, Machado started off slow as well, but really picked it up towards the end. Machado finished his round with a solid number of 12 home runs and looked to be in a pretty good spot. Little did we know that Joc Pederson would make Great American Ball Park look like a Little League field. Pederson wasted little time and smacked 13 home runs in less than three minutes, putting himself into the semifinals.
The last first round matchup was Kris Bryant against the savvy veteran Albert Pujols. Bryant really struggled at the beginning of his round, but picked it up a little as it went on. He found a little groove at one point hitting four out of the five balls over the fence, but his swing was getting too much top spin on the ball leading to nothing more than towering fly balls. The top spin hurts because the baseball doesn’t get any lift on it, and doesn’t go as far. Bryant finished with nine home runs knowing that wouldn’t be enough against the veteran. Pujols was able to take his time knowing the situation, and he finished his round with 10 home runs.
First up in the semifinals was Frazier against Donaldson. Donaldson would leadoff and had another solid round. Donaldson crushed nine home runs, but based on what was going Monday night that number may not be good enough. Like he did in the first round, Frazier started off slow. He only hit four home runs in the first two minutes and his night looked to be coming to an end. But then Frazier took his timeout and everything changed. Frazier caught fire quickly, and yet again, the Cincinnati faithful propelled him to another victory. Frazier would finish with 10 home runs, beating Donaldson and moving on to the finals.
The second semifinal matchup was just as exciting as it was the battle of Los Angeles between the young Joc Pederson and the elder statesman of the derby Albert Pujols. Pederson was up first and continued to show off his power. The Los Angeles Dodgers rookie outfielder blasted 12 home runs and gave himself a great opportunity to move on to the finals. However, Pujols wasn’t going down easy. The Los Angeles Angels first baseman started his round off great, hitting home runs on the first three pitches. Pujols continued to swing the bat well, but ran into some difficulty towards the end as he couldn’t get a good grip on his bat. Pujols was down three going into bonus time, but it was too much as he only hit two home runs, falling just short of Pederson.
So with the semifinals in the books, the finals were set. The young gun Joc Pederson would go up against the hometown favorite Todd Frazier. Pederson led off showing some fatigue early in the round, as he didn’t hit a home run in his first seven swings. But he found his stroke quickly, hitting six home runs in his next seven swings. Pederson ended up finishing with his best round of the night knocking 14 balls out of the park, putting the pressure on Frazier.
Unfortunately for Pederson, Frazier wasn’t phased one bit. Like his two previous rounds Frazier did start off slow, but he did find that home run swing quickly. Frazier put on an absolute show, in what was one of the most entertaining and most drama filled home run derbies we have seen in years. The Reds third baseman came all the way back and smacked 14 home runs, with the Derby-winner coming on the first pitch of his extra time.
Todd Frazier ended what was a great night for himself, his family, and his home crowd with a Home Run Derby title. Not only was it Frazier, but each participant put on an amazing show and it was a great job by Major League Baseball with all of their rule changes. It ended up being the best Home Run Derby in years as there were 159 total home runs hit, compared to just 79 last year. All in all, it was a great night and there should be plenty of good Home Run Derbies ahead.