The Major League Baseball All-Star break begins on July 13th and ends July 17th. One of the most entertaining events to watch during the All-Star festivities is the Home Run Derby. The Home Run Derby will be on July 13th. The format is going to be a little different this year.
This is the third year in a row MLB changed the design. In 2013, 8 batters participated. The rules include were how many home runs could be hit with ten outs allowed. Any ball hit that wasn’t a home run was counted as an out. Batters were from both leagues with three rounds. The four who hit the least home runs in the first-round were eliminated. In the second-round the top two would advance to the championship. The winner was the one who could hit the most home runs in the final round. Yoenis Cespedes defeated Bryce Harper to win in 2013.
Last year there was another adjustment. MLB announced that five hitters from each league would participate for a total of ten. Batters had seven outs instead of ten. This was in hopes of reducing the amount of time the Derby took. The two athletes who hit the most home runs in round-one automatically qualified for the semifinals. The other two batters who hit the second and third most would also be in the semifinals. The winner of the semifinals would meet in the finals. The champion again was Yoenis Cespedes.
This year there is yet another modification in hopes of reducing the amount of time the Derby takes. There will be eight batters again. They will be determined by the number of home runs they have hit by July 7th and put into a bracket for single elimination. Each slugger will have five minutes to hit as many home runs as they can. The batter can earn bonus time for how far a home run goes. According to CBSsports.com, for every two homers over 420 feet, a batter earns an extra minute. For each home run over 475 feet an extra 30 seconds is added. The participants can call one time-out per round, which will last 45 seconds. If there is a tie, a 90 second swing off will happen.
These changes won’t decrease the amount of time the Derby will take. If they hit 10 or 15 home runs in one round, that could be anywhere between 5 minutes and 22 and half minutes for the extra time depending on the distance. That is just one batter. Doing that for a while, could equal three to four hours of just watching sluggers hit home runs. The only way to make the Home Run Derby shorter is to have fewer players take part. It has worked well in the past to have ten outs, with 8 players, and eliminating half of them in the first-round. It still took a few hours but it might be better than the new format. We’ll need to see how long it will take and decide if the new layout means less time for the Home Run Derby.
What do you think of the new rules for the Home Run Derby?
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