{"id":16408,"date":"2011-07-11T08:44:11","date_gmt":"2011-07-11T13:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=16408"},"modified":"2011-07-11T08:45:37","modified_gmt":"2011-07-11T13:45:37","slug":"mlb-home-run-derby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/mlb-home-run-derby-16408\/","title":{"rendered":"MLB Home Run Derby"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Prince Fielder has the home run swing, which can make a difference in these competitions<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tomorrow night, the home run derby will be held.\u00a0 Long considered the “slam dunk contest” of the Baseball all-star weekend, it features the best power hitters (supposedly), as they square off to see who can hammer the most 60 mile per hour pitches over the wall.\u00a0 Odds are taken from Bodog.<\/p>\n

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Jose Bautista, 6’0″ 195<\/strong><\/p>\n

Last year: 54 HR
\nThis year:\u00a0 31 HR<\/p>\n

Odds to win:\u00a0 3\/1<\/p>\n

It’s hard to go against Bautista in this competition.\u00a0 He’s drawn comparisons to Barry Bonds with his compact yet powerful body and the way he is able to connect with both inside and outside pitches with equally ferocious power.\u00a0 All that aside, the home run competition is quite different, and while Bautista has the perfect home run swing, sometimes batters get too caught in trying to hammer the ball and lose sight of their natural swing in overcompensation for a “home run swing…”\u00a0 Which is why you will see that I favor Prince Fielder in this competition.<\/p>\n

Prince Fielder, 5’11” 275<\/strong><\/p>\n

Prince Fielder has the most raw power of these hitters in the competition, and that bodes well when they are connecting on 60 mile per hour slowballs.\u00a0 Fielder has the power to come around and pull the slow pitches deep, aided by the fact that he is so accustomed to swinging for the fences to begin with.\u00a0 While he may be a bit underwhelming compared to his father Cecil, he did inherit his father’s power and in time may have equally as imposing stats.\u00a0 I like Fielder for this competition, though, as the most powerful tend to prevail in these things.<\/p>\n

Last year:\u00a0 32 HR
\nThis year:\u00a0 22 HR<\/p>\n

Odds to win:\u00a0 15\/4<\/p>\n

David Ortiz, 6’4″ 230<\/strong><\/p>\n

Last year:\u00a0 32 HR
\nThis year:\u00a0 19 HR<\/p>\n

Big Papi is one of those sentimental picks.\u00a0 Much like Ken Griffey Jr, people are continuing to think Big Papi has more left in the tank than he actually does.\u00a0 He’s not as powerful, with much of his upper body mass having become fat, and his swing is a good bit slower than it was when he was in his heyday, even if that was only a couple years ago.\u00a0 Of course, any of these hitters can get hot and if Ortiz did there is a plausible chance he could win this competition, but the same can also be said of the slight of frame Rickie Weeks, who is the odds on underdog.<\/p>\n

Odds to win:\u00a0 9\/2<\/p>\n

Matt Holliday, 6’4″ 235<\/strong><\/p>\n

Last year: 28
\nThis year:\u00a0 14<\/p>\n

It’s weird that people consider Holiday to be a power hitter.\u00a0 He’s never hit more than 40 home runs in a season and hasn’t hit over 30 since 2007.\u00a0 He does consistently have a high slugging percentage, but he isn’t the most powerful.\u00a0 Every once in a while, Holiday really connects on one and makes the top plays, but for the most part he is an extra base hitter, having recorded 45 doubles last season and 19 already this year.<\/p>\n

Odds to win: 9\/2<\/p>\n

Adrian Gonzalez, 6’2″ 225<\/strong><\/p>\n

Last year: 31
\nThis year:\u00a0 17<\/p>\n

In 2009, Adrian Gonzalez hit 40 home runs, but fell off to 31 last season.\u00a0 He’s kept his slugging percentage above .500 every year he’s been in the league and has consistently put in about 600 at bats every year, with his high season in RBIs having been 119 in 2008.\u00a0\u00a0 While he has a lot of power, he still isn’t comparable to Fielder.\u00a0 He is a good dark horse candidate though, due to his upper body strength, which as I said, bodes well in these competitions.<\/p>\n

Odds to win:\u00a0 11\/2<\/p>\n

Matt Kemp, 6’3″ 220<\/strong><\/p>\n

Last year: 28
\nThis year:\u00a0 22<\/p>\n

Like Holiday, Kemp isn’t really a power hitter.\u00a0 Sure, he hits over 20 homers a season, but in baseball’s prime power era (otherwise known as the steroid era), Kemp wouldn’t have even been in this competition.\u00a0 While he is listed at 220, he finds a way to weigh that much with minimal strength in his arms and pectorals.\u00a0 What I am saying, essentially, is that Kemp doesn’t have what it takes to win one of these, even if he is a plausible so-called power hitter.<\/p>\n

Odds to win:\u00a0 15\/2<\/p>\n

Robinson Cano, 6’0″ 205<\/strong><\/p>\n

Last year: 29
\nThis year: 15<\/p>\n

Cano and Weeks are both power packed…but only for their size.\u00a0 They don’t have the strength to hang with the real sluggers in this competition and are home run hitters only because of the high percentage of pitches they connect on; some are bound to go yard.\u00a0 The problem for Cano, however, is that this year he is under .300 at the plate for the first time since 2008.<\/p>\n

Odds to win:\u00a0 15\/2<\/p>\n

Rickie Weeks, 5’10” 217<\/strong><\/p>\n

Last year: 29
\nThis year:\u00a0 17<\/p>\n

I don’t think it’s logical to expect Weeks to have a chance in this competition.\u00a0 He’s not particularly powerful, he just has a way of getting ahold of pitches ocassionally due to his quick swing.\u00a0 He’s not really that great at the plate, anyway, with a batting average under .280 every season.\u00a0 His best contributions are in the field.<\/p>\n

Odds to win: 12\/1<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tomorrow night, the home run derby will be held.\u00a0 Long considered the “slam dunk contest” of the Baseball all-star weekend, it features the best power hitters (supposedly), as they square off to see who can hammer the most 60 mile per hour pitches over the wall.\u00a0 Odds are taken from Bodog.     Jose Bautista, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40250,"featured_media":5037,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444],"tags":[998,326,2401,533,4868,997,5055,4889],"class_list":["post-16408","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","tag-adrian-gonzalez","tag-david-ortiz","tag-jose-bautista","tag-matt-holliday","tag-matt-kemp","tag-prince-fielder","tag-rickie-weeks","tag-robinson-cano"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16408","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/40250"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16408"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16408\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16410,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16408\/revisions\/16410"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5037"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16408"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16408"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16408"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}