So, I was less than impressed by the Home Run Derby this year. I didn't watch the whole thing because it went really late (#eastcoastprobs) but I was the most bored watching it that I had been in years (well, since I started watching it...) I think that the problem was that the new bracket format put in place this year. Here's why...
First of all, 7 outs vs 10 outs. By lowering the number of outs that the hitters have in each round, MLB is essentially decreasing the chance that any particular player will be able to start a hot streak by 30%. This is clearly evident by the fact that the highest round score was 10 in the first round by Jose Bautista. The main draw of this event is every home run hit, and by implementing a change that lowered the number of home runs substantially, some of the excitement is drained out of the event.
Also, the bracket form itself severely inhibits the flow of the event. Because the league are now separated until the final round, there is a higher chance that the final two, or even the winner, will not be the best home run hitter in the event. When the leagues are pooled together, the two players with the highest numbers of home runs will always advance. Although this usually results in the American League killing the National League, it make for a more entertaining event and thus should be the format followed in future years.
Finally, adding an extra player to each leagues team did absolutely nothing but extend the already tedious first round. If MLB thought that having more players would cause more excitement, they were sorely mistaken, as I was done with the derby by the end of the first round, in part because so many of the hitters failed to hit even 5 home runs.
So those are my thoughts on the new home run derby format. Better luck next year, I guess?
~TBC
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