Last night’s Home Run Derby had to have been the worst television viewing experience in the last couple years. In the past, we had Josh Hamilton’s surge, Mark McGwire’s Boston bombs, and countless other enthralling duels including names like Ryan Howard, David Wright, Vladimir Guerrero, Lance Berkman, etc.
Last night sucked. Albert Pujols was a disappointment. Brandon Inge didn’t hit a home run. Joe Mauer should have never been in the Derby and Nelson Cruz, of all people, was in the finals.
My main gripe with the Derby was due to a few factors, but, succinctly, it was the lack of drama—there was no consistency to the Derby. Hitters didn’t seem like they could get into grooves, as many of the pitchers weren’t getting the ball over the plate. Guys were taking six, seven, eight pitches in a row. Moonshots were few and far between.
It took almost two hours to get through the first round!
Moreover, Adrian Gonzalez was a huge disappointment, as was Carlos Pena.
I expected Ryan Howard, Prince Fielder, or hometown hero Pujols to win the crown, so I was indeed happy Fielder won it. But he beat Cruz. C’mon, no offense to Nelson Cruz… but who the hell is Nelson Cruz?
I don’t know if something needs to be tweaked for the next year’s Home Run Derby (I actually think the format is great), but something does need to be different. Perhaps it was just the field this year: Mauer and Inge were out of their league, and we could have used bigger names like Teixeira, Ramirez, and Rodriguez.
Maybe get rid of the rule that says you must be an All Star in order to participate in the Derby? I don’t know.
All I know is that I could not wait for last night’s event to end. And I was blogging the whole thing… Some night.
Filed under: Uncategorized Tagged: | Adrian Gonzalez, Albert Pujols, Alex Rodriguez, Brandon Inge, Carlos Pena, David Wright, Joe Mauer, Josh Hamilton, Lance Berkman, Manny Ramirez, Mark McGwire, Mark Teixeira, Nelson Cruz, Prince Fielder, Ryan Howard, Vladimir Guerrero
[...] lot of people are whining about the Home Run Derby. Chris Berman is annoying. It’s boring. Steroids are ruining [...]
I would like some kind of rule stipulating that every certain amount of pitches taken is an out. For example, after you take your first swing, every 5 pitches you take is an out. The event was excrutiatingly long largely in part because the guys were not swining the bat.
They definitely need to change something. I don’t know about that idea though… that may penalize the hitter for the pitcher’s mistakes. But I agree: something must be changed.
They can’t punish hitters for taking pitches unless they have an Ump calling strikes. For ex., when watching I texted a friend if I were Carlos Pena I’d have killed the pitcher. Everything was low and away. HELLO, lefty hitter, inside half of plate! They needed bigger stars, for one, and as for changes, maybe go to fewer outs allowed? But the AL def needed some star power, no reason y Tex couldn’t be in, or what about Ichiro? He hits bombs in BP every night I hear.
Pena’s pitcher was ridiculous, you are absolutely right. I think this year was really just a lack of star power.