124 thoughts on “2017 Home Run Derby”

1. Seeded by home run total through early July. The exception is the first seed is reserved for the reigning champion if he wants to do a title defense.

   1. he might be seeded 5th, but he was picked second behind Judge as the most probable to uproot Stanton

2. Didn't see this spot, so I'll say it again:the Spanish broadcast can be found on ESPN2.

   1. No Berman, though!

      1. (I mean: Berman isn't doing the English broadcast)

      2. Oh, really? I just assumed. Ah well, I'd rather listen to SAAANOOOOO-NO-NO-NO-NO-NO-NO than the English option.

         1. I'm as pleasantly surprised as you are.

   2. Is there a way to watch without an ESPN subscription?

      1. Probably not. I may or may not have my dad's cable login.

3. And Sano is hitting some bombs.

4. That was...surprisingly tense.

   1. I'm watching a slowly updating box score equivalent and was feeling mildly tense.

   2. Would have been less tense if not for my extreme dislike of moustakas.

5. Sano won the first round because of the distance time bonus. If he had not had that, Moustakas would have won 10-9.

   1. Twins are good at using technicalities to win these things.

      1. Technically correct is the best kind of correct.

      2. I'm just glad he won one round. I won't be disappointed regardless considering he'll be facing Sanchez in the next round and probably Judge in the final if he gets past Sanchez.

      3. I think Bellinger is going to out-technicality Sano, though.

6. holy moses this Sanchez guy is destroying baseballs.

   1. Yeah, Gary Sanchez is not your typical 8 seed.

7. Anyone know the record for a 4:30 round?

   1. Probably whatever Josh Hamilton got.

      1. It wasn't timed back then. Every swing that wasn't a home run was an out and you had 10 outs in the first round.

         1. Is joke. All home run derby trivia answers are Josh Hamilton.

8. Stanton ran out of gas

   lasershotted two more

9. This is not disappointing so far.

   1. It's living up to the hype so far.

10. Man, Stanton vs. Sanchez was something else.

11. Stanton took his timeout too soon. If he could have taken a timeout with a minute left or so, he probably would have won that round.

    1. I think you're right, but I think he needed to use it to take a breath and get his swing right.

       Sanó in the other hand, used his art a perfect spot.

12. Sano's advantage in the second round could be having a longer break. It may not matter since they'll be waiting around while the third and fourth rounds are going.

    1. Sano doesn't seem to work as hard swinging as the others -- that smooth swing may not tire as much

13. Advantage has gone to the lower seeds that have gone first. If you do well when leading off, you put a lot of pressure on the next guy.

14. I really wish they'd gotten Gallo.

15. I love the MLB.com alerts I'm getting about this "first-round upset," as if a home run derby where each guy has his own pitcher can have heavy favorites.

    1. Upset is probably a good word when referring to Stanton losing in the first round in his own stadium. The fans will definitely be upset with that.

16. For not getting any extra time, 14 is pretty impressive.

    1. Sano would be in huge trouble if they weren't doing brackets.

17. Ha, that last second 440 thing was great.

    Side note: I really like the 440 foot thing.

    1. Yeah, that's 2 rounds decided by the extra bonus. Not every player has done it, so 2 homers at 440 seems like a good threshold.

    2. I like it too!

18. This is ridiculous. Can we make it a sweep of one-homer victories?

    1. In this format, they would be expected since once the second guy gets ahead by one homer, the round is over. However, 2 of the 3 were won by the first guy, so that is definitely a surprise.

19. b-r tells me this Justin Bour guy has played 4 seasons, but I've never heard of him.

    1. What a show!

    2. I think everyone has now.

20. Holy cow, Bour

21. ESPN desperately looking at ways to change seeding so that Judge gets in second round.

    1. Or not.

22. I get the feeling that Bour is going to be worn out for the second and third rounds (if he gets there).

23. I note that Judge is the final batter of the first round despite being the 2 seed.

24. Justin Bour, standout hitter so far. Why the hell not?

    Maybe this is colored by the fact that it's happening now, but this is the most fun I think I've had watching one of these. The format is working for me, for sure. Makes it feel like it's always moving.

    1. It definitely is more exciting. People will complain about Stanton being eliminated and Sano moving on, though.

    2. Can't watch, but I'm guessing unlimited swings makes for players not waiting for that perfect pitch. That was one nice thing about Hamilton's show: he swung at a lot of pitches so there was a lot of action.

    3. Momentum is a good word for it. Beats watching David Ortiz take a billion pitches.

    4. Yeah, I really loved the Cespedes shows, but this one is something else.

25. Did Judge hit one over the amusement park in LFC field?

    1. 501-footer.

26. Judge had to take a timeout with more than 2:00 left. Also has the 30 second bonus.

27. Holy cow, Aaron Judge is hitting as many opposite field as most people do in an entire derby.

28. Judge is one of a kind, that's for sure.

29. I think they've brought out increasingly juiced balls each bracket.

30. Yankee guaranteed to be in the final.

    1. Are we counting future Yankees or something?

       1. Unless I'm not reading the bracket right, it's Judge v Sanchez, both Yankees. One of them will win and be in the final.

          1. It's Sano-Sanchez.

             1. It's alternating between showing that and showing Sanchez v Judge. It showed that, I went here to refresh, went back and it updated to be the correct Sanchez v Sanó. It's still there right now. This makes it a lot harder to follow...

                1. Updated to be Sanchez v Bellinger and now it's showing Sanó v Bellinger. Have to admit the nerves aren't really there when I can't figure out the bracket.

          2. And it refreshed and the brackets look completely different. So much for that.

31. The Stanton/Bour close losses seem to have gassed the crowd to some extent.

32. Cmon Sanó. You can take this.

33. It's entirely silly how nervous I am about this.

    Tatis's control could use work.

34. In the can: Arrogant Bastard Ale

    1. Moo Joos here.

    2. Vodka lemonade for me.

    3. H2O. On the rocks.

    4. Surly in support.

35. SANO NO NO NO NO

36. Another 11-10 victory. Good times.

    1. Yeah, but he made THOSE 11 look very, very easy.

       1. Didn't he, though? Let's have Bellinger and Judge tie and have to swing 7 or 8 times to wear themselves out.

          Then we can have another Minnesota Twin win the HRD that nobody wants to talk about.

          1. Jason Sanó!

    2. And he didn't need to wear himself out

       1. Anyone feeling Morneau-ish?

37. Sano has hit so many home runs, he has as many as first-round elimination Justin Bour!

38. Twins finally beat the Yankees in the playoffs!

    1. Well, they won game 1 a couple of times, what with Santana. It's the second Twins-Yankees tilt that worries me.

       1. To make myself feel better, I'm going to consider a guy getting eliminated a series win. As a Minnesota sports fan, I feel it is acceptable to twist an analogy as far as possible.

39. I would like to have seen Vargas is something one this, too.

40. Again with the massive opposite field bombs. Crazy.

    1. He's a big, strong dude.

41. !!!!!!!!!!!! back to back 500+ footers

42. Follows up a 505 with a 513.

43. I'm rooting for Sanó obviously, but I want him to force Judge to hit some more of those bombs, because that's amazing.

    1. I was just on the MLB site. It showed Bellinger beating Sano. So that's not what happened?

       1. See above.

          1. So apparently they just don't want people following online. Makes sense, what with ESPN's revenue loss and all... this is one of their premiere baseball events, so why provide the content other places?

44. Judge looks pretty damned unbeatable.

    1. Let's make him work, eh?

    2. Why oh why do thenYankees end up with a Judge? Stupid good drafting...

    3. So did Josh Hamilton before Jason Morneau won it all.

45. Tatis is a mess.

46. Fernando Tatis not helping out here

47. Can we get Kyle Gibson to relieve?

48. Sano finished second-to-last in each of the first two rounds. Was hoping this might continue.

    1. Heh. Nice formulation.

49. Good lord, Tatis. Throw the ball over the plate.

50. Good comeback.

51. didn't realize he'd picked up the bonus

    1. On the last ball.

       1. no, HE didn't realize

52. The fawning over Judge is Jeterian. Listen to Sano's round and tell me Judge isn't the media-approved golden boy.

53. poor announcers having to up the hype

    1. I'm glad Sano found his way to ten. I was worried for a minute that Judge was going to have to hit two or three to put a cap on this thing.

54. I should have gone back to the Spanish broadcast.

55. Wow.

    That was the most impressive performance I've seen since Hamilton.

    1. It's too bad he was always hitting after his opponent. We could have seen some stupid numbers.

56. OMG, yeah, got to get Jeter into it somehow

57. Nice of Valentie to throw him strikes, right? If Tatis had over a 30% strike rate, who knows?

58. These announcers talk up Judge's humility, but Jeter was humble at the beginning, too. If these idiots deify him for a couple more years, he'll have his head in the clouds.

59. My one hope for Sano was he was first to hit in the first round and Judge was last to hit in the first round, and then Sano hit second in the second round and Judge last in the second round, so was hoping he wouldn't have anything left. Problem was Bellinger was the one that got tired so didn't force Judge to a long round. Still, Sano had the advantage of rest and Judge didn't even use one of his two timeouts in the final. He's so humble that he had to show how easy it was to win.

60. Still, great job by Sano. He was very consistent throughout, so showed good endurance.

61. Livan Hernandez with a grand slam in the Legends game. And now Christina Milian is on my screen. I guess I'm glad I stuck around.

62. I enjoyed this year's HR Derby.

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