How to Improve The Home Run Derby

By Howard Fooksman (@bbhrusty) on July 6th, 2012

It’s All Star Game time, which is baseball’s midseason celebration of it’s best and breakout players. While the game itself is the focus of the break, the week includes a number of events to highlight its greatest players — past, present and future. On the schedule for 2012 are the Futures Game, the Celebrity Softball Game and, our focus, the Home Run Derby. The Futures and Celebrity events are popular, but the Home Run Derby is what generates the most interest, even if it has grown stale.

The fact is, nothing new ever really happens at the Home Run Derby. Each year has exciting moments, like Josh Hamilton’s first round in 2008, but there is nothing that will get new fans to watch in the current format. In the past few years baseball has experimented with a number of changes to generate more interest in the competition, to varying degrees of success. From 2000-2003 they used a match-play setup (players faced off in a single elimination tournament); in 2005 they dropped the AL/NL split and instead had players representing eight home countries; and in 2011 they began to allow the captains (named by MLB) to pick their own squads.

Here is how we would change and reinvigorate the Home Run Derby.

Bring back the teams:

From 1985 — the first year it was included as part of the All Star break — to 1994, the Home Run Derby was primarily a team event. While individual winners were recognized each year, the goal was to establish a victor between the American and National League squads. We think baseball should bring back the team concept, but with a major change from the old American League vs. National League format. Instead, baseball should exploit fan interest in the young crop of talent by splitting the teams by experience.

While seeing the same group of established sluggers year after year can get old quickly, we feel it would be more exciting to match up a team of four veterans with a team of four youngsters. By placing the dividing line at five years of experience MLB can ensure they will have two exciting teams and a steady crop of new players. We could also potentially see matchups where players from the same organization wind up on opposite teams.

Add prospects:

While the youth vs. experience dynamic is enough to increase fan interest, we don’t think it goes far enough. We want to take advantage of the increased interest in the minor leagues by adding a team of four from the prospects in town for the Futures Game. They might not have the same name recognition as the current All Stars, but MLB would benefit from giving additional exposure to the next class of rookie sensations and increase fan interest in minor league baseball. Expanding the player pool would also give baseball a chance to ensure that a player from the host organization is able to participate. Fans do travel to the All-Star Game and Home Run Derby, although the majority of the crowd is local, and giving them one of their own to root for will only increase the fan response, which will make for better television.

Old timers squad:

No, we don’t want to see baseball trot out Frank Robinson or Hank Aaron, but there are always plenty of recently retired sluggers who fans would clamor to see. Bringing back fan favorites who left the game in the last few years would generate interest and ratings while allowing fans one last chance to show their appreciation. Adding this squad can also benefit MLB Network or ESPN as they have a roster of retired players who serve as analysts.

Shorten the rounds:

One thing we like about the current Home Run Derby is the three-round format, though with double the number of players in our derby we would need to shorten the first two rounds. We suggest giving each player five outs (pitches swung on that don’t result in home runs) in each of the three rounds. We would eliminate the lowest scoring team each round and have title sponsor State Farm Insurance award a prize to the team that wins each round, along with the overall team champion.

Our 2012 Rosters

While this system would force some players from the current Home Run Derby, we will fill our major league teams exclusively from the current All-Star roster, thus giving preference to players already entered in the derby. Sadly for Major League Baseball, this means that Bryce Harper, who lost the fan vote for the last spot on the 2012 National League roster, can’t be included.

Veterans:

Robinson Cano, New York Yankees

Matt Kemp, L.A. Dodgers

Jose Bautista, Toronto Blue Jays

Carlos Beltran, St. Louis Cardinals

Cano, the Yankees 2B, is the defending champion and current AL Captain. Kemp started the season on a torrid home run pace before missing much of the first-half with injuries. Bautista is a traditional slugger who led baseball in home runs in 2010 and 2011; Beltran is a well-traveled veteran with over 300 career dingers. Other options include the Tigers Prince Fielder and Paul Konerko of the White Sox, who has more career HRs than any other player in this year’s game.

Youngsters:

Giancarlo Stanton, Miami Marlins

Mike Trout, Los Angeles Angels

Mark Trumbo, Los Angeles Angels

Andrew McCutchen, Pittsburgh Pirates

Trout is the headliner on this roster, enjoying a sensational rookie season in which he made the AL All-Star team with only about 100 games under his belt. His teammate Trumbo is already in the derby after hitting 20 first-half homers. Stanton is arguably the most powerful hitter in baseball while McCutchen is putting together a possible MVP season in the obscurity of Pittsburgh. Possible reserves include Orioles backstop Matt Wieters and Ian Desmond, who is having a breakout season for the exciting Washington Nationals.

Prospects:

Wil Myers, Kansas City Royals (AAA)

Mike Olt, Texas Rangers (AA)

Oscar Taveras, St. Louis Cardinals (AA)

Manny Machado, Baltimore Orioles (AA)

The list of potential players from the Futures Game has to start with future Royals outfielder Wil Myers, the current minor league home run leader and a member of the host organization. Olt and Taveras are having outstanding minor league seasons and should be in the big leagues next season, while Machado is a top ten prospect and one of the youngest players in AA. Other potential candidates include top rated prospects Xander Bogaerts from Boston and Detroit’s Nick Castellanos.

Old timers:

Ken Griffey, Jr., Retired in 2010 (630 career HRs)

Iván Rodríguez, Retired in 2011 (311 career HRs)

Carlos Delgado, Retired in 2009 (473 career HRs)

Mike Piazza, Retired in 2008 (427 career HRs)

Our roster includes three first ballot Hall of Fame players, including two of the top slugging catchers of all time and one of the best all around players in baseball history. We gave baseball the benefit of not including players with steroid accusations hanging over their head, but could have included Barry Bonds, Mark McGuire or, our personal preference, Jose Canseco. If MLB wanted to include a former player from their network roster Mike Sweeney spent 12 years playing in Kansas City and would make a fine addition to the team.

In the next few years the old-timer squad might included sluggers like Jim Thome, Manny Ramirez, Chipper Jones and Scott Rolen.

Analysis:

Even though the veteran squad would be a heavy favorite, both the youngsters and prospects have deep squads capable of catching fire in the controlled environment of the Home Run Derby. The retired players would be a longshot due to their age and inactivity, but would easily be the fan favorites. Baseball would include players from more than half the teams in baseball and most of the major media markets.

With an expansion and reorganization of the Home Run Derby, MLB can give their fans a unique chance to see four generations of players competing for the same prize. It’s too late for baseball to make these changes for 2012, but we urge Bud Selig to institute our format for 2013.

Oh, and ban ESPN’s Chris Berman.