2012 MLB Home Run Derby Results: 5 Things MLB Should Do to Make It Mean More

The 27^th MLB Home Run Derby has come and gone. Detroit Tigers first baseman Prince Fielder won his second career Home Run Derby in 2012. What, though, does this mean?

If baseball is entertainment, then the Home Run Derby is baseball entertainment. People watch the Home Run Derby to marvel at other people who do what most cannot: hit a baseball over 400 feet with a wood bat. There is no other purpose for staging the event.

I like the Home Run Derby as much as the next guy, but I think the derby needs meaning. The Home Run Derby should be more than just glorified batting practice. Batting practice is not baseball; batting practice is preparation for baseball.

In this slideshow, I have listed five ways Major League Baseball should increase the significance of the event. Feel free to add any ideas you might have in the comments section.

Batter up.

Machine Pitch

Currently, each Home Run Derby participant picks his own “pitcher.” This creates a competitive imbalance, though, as some players have better chemistry with their “pitchers” than do others. So, participants might not only be competing against each other, but against their “pitchers” too.

Sure, the “pitchers” listen to the participant’s demands to pitch lower or higher in the strike zone and more inside or more outside. However, a poor performance could be blamed on the “pitcher” more easily than on the hitter. Is that fair? Who knows?

To erase the “pitcher” variable, MLB should replace humans with a pitching machine. The consistent speed and location of a baseball delivered from a machine would allow participants to more fairly judge home run power.

The machine’s operator can more accurately control—and change, if he so chooses—speeds with the machine than by throwing.

Team Jerseys

I have never understood why All-Stars wear the official All-Star jerseys for the Home Run Derby, but they wear their team jerseys for the All-Star Game.

Since the Home Run Derby is strictly an individual event, participants should represent themselves, not their leagues. Wearing their team jerseys would allow them to show their individuality.

Especially now that the All-Star Game means something between the NL and the AL, players should wear the official All-Star jerseys for that game. I understand that fans want to identify the players representing their favorite teams, but the players are competing on behalf of their league for home-field advantage in the World Series.

Why be bound to the team for which you are under contract for an exhibition game when you are playing with people from other teams?

The NBA has it right. For All-Star Saturday night, which includes the Slam Dunk Contest and the Three-Point Contest, players wear their team jerseys. For the All-Star Game itself, they wear their All-Star jerseys.

I nearly wrote a letter to Major League Baseball about this very topic a few years ago, but I never followed through with it. Maybe somebody important in MLB will read this instead and consider changing the look.

No Captains

If you enjoy politics, maybe you thought the idea of captains picking Home Run Derby teams was great. I enjoy politics somewhat—I took a class on US government and politics in high school—but I thought the captain idea was bad, even before what happened at the derby.

Here is how Cliff Corcoran of SI.com described it:

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“AL captain [Robinson] Cano was booed viciously by the Kansas City crowd, which was furious that hometown All-Star Billy Butler wasn’t included on the team hand-picked by Cano. The crowd loudly cheered each of Cano’s outs…I wonder if that reaction will prompt Major League Baseball to rethink the concept of having a Derby captain.”

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The argument about whether Butler should have participated in the Home Run Derby is not the point; instead, we should try to think about the pros of making a Home Run Derby captain. Maybe you can think of some justifiable arguments, but I cannot.

The captains were Cano of the New York Yankees and Matt Kemp of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Kemp represented the National League.

Why were they picked? Maybe because New York and Los Angeles are the nation’s two most populated cities? I would find this a poor reason.

Picking the captains, coupled with the captains picking the other participants, creates too much bias in an event that should celebrate baseball, not divide it.

Fan Vote

I am a big opponent of having fans pick All-Stars. Fans pick largely based on player names, not player performances.

Ethan Norof wrote an article for this very website about NBA center Yao Ming’s selection to the 2011 Western Conference All-Star team without having played a game to that point. Ming was even voted a starter. Norof said:

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“If the league is serious about creating the best, most positive illustration of the NBA through the events of All-Star Weekend, then it needs to get serious about the players that represent the league. Year after year, there continue to be exasperating All-Star snubs. I just don’t get it.”

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This sounds like a problem in MLB as well. Although I try not to look too much into All-Star snubs, Toronto Blue Jay Edwin Encarnacion should have made the AL All-Star Team. Encarnacion’s .295/.382/.565 slash line trumps the .244/.360/.540 slash line of teammate and 2012 AL All-Star Jose Bautista in every way. Encarnacion has also hit 23 home runs in 2012, not far behind Bautista’s 27.

Now I return my focus to the Home Run Derby. The derby, unlike the All-Star Game, should have a fan vote. Why?

Fans need to only look at one statistic when selecting Home Run Derby participants: home runs. This should be simple enough.

Fans can also give out lifetime achievement awards in a Home Run Derby without making sacrifices for arguably “more deserving” players. For example, Jim Thome has 609 career home runs. Thome can still take Home Run Derby-esque pitches out of the ballpark. Only Alex Rodriguez has more career home runs amongst active players than Thome, but Rodriguez admitting past steroid use would probably not go over well with voters.

So, yay for a Home Run Derby fan vote, but nay for an All-Star Game fan vote.

Exemptions

In sports like golf, players are exempt from having to qualify for events by meeting certain criteria. This should happen in the Home Run Derby.

In my proposed idea, MLB would have to move the number of participants from eight up to 10. This gives fans more of a say.

The winner of the previous Home Run Derby would get an exemption. So would the NL and AL home run kings from the previous season. So would the NL and AL home run leaders heading into the derby. If multiple players tie for one of the categories, they all get in.

At most, five players would get exemptions. Fans would then vote for the final five participants.

In the event that one such player holds all three spots (Home Run Derby champion, previous and current season home run leader), and another player holds the two remaining spots, then fans get to vote for eight participants.

As long as the NL lacks a designated hitter, then both leagues must send at least one hitter.

If my idea was applied to the 2012 Home Run Derby, the lineup would have looked something like this:

 

Robinson Cano (2011 Home Run Derby champion), Jose Bautista (2011 AL home run king and 2012 AL home run leader), Matt Kemp (2011 NL home run king), Josh Hamilton (2012 AL home run leader), Ryan Braun (2012 NL home run leader)

Fan voting would have filled the final five spots.