This is good news/bad news.
Generally, I am not a fan of what the home run derby can do to someone's swing, as we witnessed in Bobby Abreu's Home Run Derby championship. Abreu won the 2005 derby hitting an unprecedented 24 home runs in the first round. Abreu had 18 home runs prior to the Home Run Derby. He had just 18 after the All-Star break.
So, we can consider it good news that the Phillies' newest slugger will not risk messing up his swing.
The bad news is a matter of injustice.
I was annoyed at the initial approach to the home run derby: a list of candidates fans could vote for. Despite leading the National League in home runs at the time, Domonic Brown was not among them. They were:
- Carlos Beltran, St. Louis Cardinals
- Ryan Braun, Milwaukee Brewers
- Bryce Harper, Washington Nationals
- Jason Heyward, Atlanta Braves
- Matt Kemp, Los Angeles Dodgers
- Andrew McCutchen, Pittsburgh Pirates
- Buster Posey, San Francisco Giants
- Giancarlo Stanton, Miami Marlins
- Joey Votto, Cincinnati Reds
- David Wright, New York Mets
However, the voting was only intended to encourage each league's captain, and National League captain David Wright was able to pick whoever he wanted, really. Wright gets to be the captain because the Mets are currently a pathetic Major League Baseball franchise and they want New York fans to not feel totally worthless.
Despite Domonic Brown having the second-most home runs in the National League, trailing Carlos Gonzalez by one home run, he was not among those named to the National League Derby squad. And, Todd Zolecki (after having trouble tweeting for a moment) noted that Brown said that he would have participated if he was asked. But he wasn't.
Today, the four National League Home Run Derby contestants were announced. They were:
- David Wright, New York Mets (captain) – 13 home runs
- Michael Cuddyer (Colorado Rockies) – 15 home runs
- Carlos Gonzalez (Colorado Rockies)- 24 home runs
- Bryce Harper (Washington Nationals) – 13 home runs
So 13 home runs got two people in. And for some reason two Colorado Rockies got in, because everyone wants to see Colorado Rockies players. To make this even more laughable, the following players also have 13 home runs:
- Marlon Byrd
- Wilin Rosaro (who?)
- Alfonso Soriano
- Hunter Pence
- Carlos Gomez
- Adam La Roche
- Adrian Gonzalez
Here are some players who have MORE home runs than Wright and Harper:
- Domonic Brown – 23
- Pedro Alvarez – 22
- Paul Goldschmidt – 21
- Carlos Beltran – 19
- Jay Bruce – 18
- Dan Uggla – 16
- Troy Tulowitski – 16
- Joey Votto – 15
- Justin Upton – 15
- Ian Desmond – 15 (PS – Why the heck is he not an All-Star?)
- John Buck – 14
- Evan Gattis – 14
Phillies fans can be happy that nothing will mess with Brown's swing. But boy does it feel like the Phillies got screwed here.
