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Due to the thin air in Denver, the Rockies instituted what is effectively a large humidor to keep balls from drying out. Denver remains a great park for hitters, but the “humidor” has helped. However, we will not see it in use for the Derby, which hopefully means we see a boost in home runs. Trevor Story just survived a ferocious comeback by Joey Gallo, and if he keeps hitting dingers like his record-setting second of the first round, he could go far.
The Derby returns this year, and aside from Alonso, the remaining seven participants are all first-timers. The event is taking place at Coors Field on Monday, July 12, with the first batter getting started just after 8 p.m. As with 2019, the prize pool for the contestants totals $2.5 million, with the winner receiving $1 million of that total. The 2021 Major League Baseball Home Run Derby was a home run hitting contest between eight batters from Major League Baseball . The derby was held on July 12, 2021, at Coors Field in Denver, CO, the site of the 2021 MLB All-Star Game. He led off against Royals catcher Salvador Perez with 35 homers in the opening round.
MLB Home Run Derby: Participants, bracket, format, odds
After all, he has just 11 home runs this season and he was the third-longest shot to win the Derby. To me, the derby got a bit old with the previous rules but since rounds have moved timed instead of based on outs, the excitement is greater than ever. There are more than a few marquee matchups for this year's event. The 2015 World Series MVP leads all catchers in home runs through the first half of 2021. He’s looking to become the first backstop to win the competition in its 35-year history.
The participants were seeded and paired off based on their home run totals as of last Tuesday. Ties were broken by awarding the higher seed to the player with a higher home run total in 2020. Trey Mancini did not play in 2020, however, so the tie between him and Pete Alonso was broken using 2019 home run totals.
2021 Home Run Derby rules, format, bracket for All-Star week event at Coors Field
Gallo is a high-strikeout, low-average hitter who seems perfect for this type of competition. He has two seasons with at least 40 home runs, and he’s on pace for another in 2021 for the lowly Rangers. First, no Royals player has won the Derby, with Mike Moustakas the team’s only other entrant in the past 30 years. Second, no catcher has won the Derby, with Ivan Rodriguez in 2005 the last to even finish second. • Mancini has gone for a high degree of difficulty, with nine of his 16 homers (56%) flying to the middle third of the field, one of the highest rates in MLB. • Olson has been a home run machine since the A’s called him up for good on Aug. 8, 2017.
Mancini spent six months last season fighting through a biweekly chemotherapy program. He worked his way back with the Baltimore Orioles, earned his way to the Derby with a 16-homer first half and almost won the whole thing despite facing the second-longest odds to do so. He wanted to honor his longtime friend Ricky Palmer, who died of brain cancer in October -- and he wanted to send a message to cancer survivors. • Soto succeeded Bryce Harper as the Nationals’ superstar, and now he will try to succeed him as a Derby champion.
Everything you need to know for 2021 MLB All-Star week
He owns two career homers that have traveled 490-plus feet, including a 495-footer on July 20, 2018, that is tied for fifth longest in the Statcast era. Since 2017, Gallo’s 51 homers of 110-plus mph rank second in MLB behind the Yankees' Giancarlo Stanton, while his 16 homers of 450-plus feet are tied with Stanton for the most. Gallo is also tied for first with eight moonshots struck with a launch angle of 40-plus degrees.
His 28 career opposite-field homers -- more than one-third of his total -- are tied for fourth most of any player since 2018. Participants are seeded based on the number of home runs they've hit this season at the time the bracket was created on Wednesday. Ties are broken by 2020 home run totals, except in the case of Mancini and Alonso. Since Mancini didn't play in 2020, their 2019 totals were used as a tiebreaker. A year after he beat Stage III colon cancer, Mancini thrilled the crowd, launching 24 homers as the first batter up in the derby. He beat Athletics first baseman Matt Olson and then walked off the hometown hero, Rockies shortstop Trevor Story, with 13 homers to Story's 12.
On Friday, he became the first player since Barry Bonds and Luis Gonzalez in 2001 to go deep at least 33 times in his team's first 87 games. Each batter is allowed to call one 45-second time out in the regulation period of each round . MLB unveiled the rules for the event, and there is one particular to Coors Field. The baseballs used for the Home Run Derby will not be placed in the “humidor” prior to the event.
He just edged out Matt Olson's 23 in the first round, and got props from Russell Wilson to boot. Pete Alonso, leave some home runs for someone else, why don't you? The 2019 Derby winner, who seemed to be practically dancing with joy through his at-bat, broke Vladimir Guerrero Jr.'s first-round Derby record of 29 home runs by launching 35. Seems like his secret weapons are working out pretty well. Juan Soto's out here hitting home runs 520 feet, which is two feet farther. But Ohtani's 33 home runs at the break combined with his pitching prowess might have led many to forget about Soto -- at least a little.
Only three players (Nelson Cruz, J.D. Martinez and Eugenio Suárez) have gone deep more times since that date than Olson . • Somehow, this is Gallo’s first big league Derby, and he has a chance to be the first Ranger to win the event since Juan Gonzalez in 1993. Batter with most home runs hit in each matchup will advance to next round.
That leaves New York Mets first baseman Pete Alonso as the defending champion. In 2019, he hit 57 home runs across three rounds en route to defeating Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. in the finals at Progressive Field. The longest home run, among the total 309 hit by the eight players involved, covered a distance of 520 ft (158.50 m), and was hit by Juan Soto. This broke the record of longest home run hit in the derby, surpassing Aaron Judge's 513 ft (156.36 m) home run from 2017. In a field of baseball's elite sluggers, Angels two-way sensation Shohei Ohtani is the one everyone will be watching when the Home Run Derby begins at Coors Field. He leads the majors with 33 home runs, his batting practice sessions are legendary -- and he throws 100 miles per hour on the mound as well.
The 2021 Home Run Derby field features some of the best sluggers in the game today. We break down the rules for the event and what the bracket looks like. Trey Mancini might have the most inspiring story out of any of the Derby participants, and he wasted no time proving he belonged in the first round, putting up 24 home runs.
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