Home Run Derby 2015: Full Bracket, Format and Predictions for MLB All-Star Event

There are few things in sports more thrilling than watching Major League Baseball players hit home runs. The sensation of seeing those athletes hit a ball deep into the night, far beyond what a normal human being is capable of, draws a huge crowd every year during the All-Star festivities.   

For this year's Home Run Derby, baseball officials have made a wise decision to speed things up. Homers are fun, but past events have eclipsed the three-hour mark. Putting a time limit on the players instead of giving them a set number of outs will force them to use more strategy.   

Before diving into what the rules of the new format are, it's appropriate to start with the eight players matched up in a bracket-style format seeking home run immortality. 

2015 Home Run Derby Bracket (via MLB on Twitter)

In case you are unfamiliar with faces, the matchups are Albert Pujols vs. Kris Bryant, Joc Pederson vs. Manny Machado, Josh Donaldson vs. Anthony Rizzo and Todd Frazier vs. Prince Fielder. 

2015 Home Run Derby Format (via ESPN Stats & Info)

Prediction

Mark J. Terrill/Associated Press

The one drawback to the new format is that since players only have a maximum time of 6.5 minutes to hit, it makes it impossible to put on a show like Josh Hamilton did at Yankee Stadium in 2008 with 28 in the first round. 

Of course, there aren't a lot of players with Hamilton's freakish raw strength who could do something like that in any kind of setting. 

What makes this particular field special is right there in the No. 1 vs. No. 8 matchup involving Pujols and Bryant. There was a time when Pujols was regarded as the best player on the planet, and he remains a very productive hitter into his mid-30s with 26 home runs. 

Bryant, already instrumental to the sport's present, is going to be a big part of baseball's future when he fulfills the promise that comes with being the No. 1 prospect coming into 2015. It's hard to argue with a .375 on-base percentage and .466 slugging percentage to this point. 

Yet it's another rookie also in the field who has put on a power display that hasn't been seen by a first-year player since Pujols—Joc Pederson of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Those two are the only players in NL history with at least 20 homers before the All-Star break, according to ESPN Stats & Info.

In terms of distance on his homers, Pederson has been incredible, as MLB.com's Lyle Spencer noted on July 10:

Distance does matter under the new rules with extra time being added for balls hit at least 420 feet. Pederson has become the go-to source for majestic blasts with Miami Marlins slugger Giancarlo Stanton currently on the disabled list. 

There's an ease with which Pederson seems to hit the ball out of the park. Look at how he waits back on this pitch in a game against the Arizona Diamondbacks and just flicks the end of the bat out to drive the ball over the right field wall, per MLB.com:

That happened in Dodger Stadium, which is a big park and not an easy place to drive the ball, so Pederson (6'1", 215 lbs) has grown-man strength at 23 years old. 

Despite those numbers, Odds Shark has Todd Frazier and Prince Fielder listed as the betting favorites for the event at 4-1. Those two do have different but understandable advantages over Pederson. 

Frazier plays all of his home games at the site of this year's Home Run Derby, Great American Ball Park, and has already hit 25 home runs this season. 

Fielder is a Derby veteran with two titles under his belt (2009, 2012) in three appearances. He's also got the second-longest true home run distance at 413 feet among this year's competitors, trailing only Pederson's 430 ½-foot mark, per ESPN.com. 

Those numbers certainly make Fielder and Frazier interesting contenders, but this event is all about the player who has consistently displayed the most power. That's why Pederson will walk away with the title on Monday night.