Home Run Derby 2023: Fan and Expert Hot Takes for Top Participants

The 2023 Home Run Derby continues MLB's All-Star festivities Monday night and two-time champion Pete Alonso and the rest of the eight-man field will hope to captivate the baseball world by launching home runs into the atmosphere in Seattle.

Ahead of the fan-favorite event, both fans and analysts have had plenty to say about Polar Bear Pete and the underdogs that will hope to knock off this year's favorite.

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Pete Alonso Shouldn't Even Be Here

The idea of "New York Mets" and "World Series" belonging in the same sentence at the midway point of this 2023 season is laughable, at best, but All-Star first baseman Pete Alonso is ready to perform on his own personal grand stage Monday night.

It really is.

Though Alonso has the opportunity to etch his name in the history books alongside Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr. as the only other player to be a three-time derby winner, and he is making good on his promise to youth coach Mike Freidlien by having him throw for him, the fact that the Mets are six games under .500 and Alonso is not playing up to expectations mean his appearance the derby is to the dismay of his club's fans.

So disappointing have the Mets and their stars been that one fan suggested Alonso turn to a teammate to be his pitcher because he might fare better hitting off of him, like everyone else has, as opposed to Freidlien.

Alonso has been disappointing offensively this season. Sure, he is tied for third in the majors with 26 home runs, but he has struck out 74 times while tallying just 64 hits in 304 at-bats. Through 82 games, his slugging percentage is just .497, the lowest of his big league career sans the pandemic-shortened 2020 season.

He hits dingers or little else, earning unfavorable comparisons to former Met Dave Kingman.

That Alonso missed 11 days after being hit on the wrist by a 96 mph fastball from Charlie Morton of the Atlanta Braves, has not looked the same since speedily returning from injury and could definitely use some added, has not gone unnoticed.

That might be a bit of hyperbole on the part of ol' Frank The Tank, if only because the idea of Alonso hitting less than 10 home runs over the entire second half of the season is far-fetched barring major injury.

While the frustration on the part of Mets fans is valid and there is reason to believe Polar Bear Pete would have been better served to take the rest and focus on bettering himself and the team in the second part of the 2023 season, he is a bona fide star of the Derby and a guy MLB can market the entire event around.

Especially given his success in two of his previous three performances and his pursuit of history.

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Rutschman and Betts: The Underdogs

ESPN's Buster Olney laughed off producers Taylor Schwink and Sara Abbott on the July 7 edition of the Baseball Tonight podcast for picking Adley Rutschman and Mookie Betts, respectively, to win the Derby.

It is not difficult to see why. They have the longest odds of winning the event and even Betts, himself, thinks so.

"Let's be real, I'm not a power guy. Do I have some home runs? Sure," he said in a piece for ESPN by Alden Gonzalez. He cited his height as part of the reason for doubting his ability to win the fan-favorite extravaganza.

He was not the only one.

Entering the Derby, though, Betts is tied with the favored Alonso for third in MLB with 26 home runs, including two in the July 7 game against the Angels.

Rutschman enters the event with the lowest number of home runs of all eight competitors (12) and amid questions as to why he is in the Derby at all.

All he did Sunday, just over 24 hours before the start of the competition, was launch the longest home run of his young career against the Minnesota Twins, a 461-foot bomb, that the great Sarah Langs was all too excited to point out.

Betts and Rutschman may not be the favorites to win, especially with long-ball hitters Alonso, Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Adolis Garcia and Luis Robert Jr. at the top and hometown hero Julio Rodriguez coming off a second-place finish a year ago, but Betts is hitting home runs at a clip that has to make him a dark horse candidate to win the thing while Rutschman proved Sunday that he has no intentions of laying down and rolling over for the big boys in the contest.