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Alonso emerged victorious, and that’s when the the fans in attendance finally gave him the cheers he deserved. This wasn’t the Vladito Home Run Derby, though MLB should strongly consider doing that in 2020. Joc Pederson hammered 21 in round one, which was more than enough to beat Alex Bregman’s 16. Ronald Acuña Jr. had an excellent showing with 25 first round homers, and squeezed out Josh Bell and his 18 homers.
That was enough to overcome a respectable output of 18 from the Pittsburgh Pirates' Josh Bell. And even though British fans don’t seem fully up on how this whole rooting for baseball thing works—given the preponderance of split Yankees/Red Sox attire and this terrifying level of joy over a ball—they did get one thing completely right. The Year of the Rabbit Ball has made it that much harder to build a Derby field, if only because you have more good candidates than open spots. When everyone’s hitting for power, it’s hard not to feel like a deserving name is going to get left out. But alas, only two spots remain, and I don’t envy those who have to narrow down the field. Alonso hit another walk-off homer in the semifinals, launching his 20th of the round over the trees behind the center-field fence as the four-minute clock expired to give him one more than Acuna's 19.
National League
Now he has an indelible moment to attach to his name and pedigree, which is the very sort of thing the Derby should serve to do. The 23-year-old participated in the 2019 Home Run Derby, finishing as the runner-up to New York Mets slugger Pete Alonso. Guerrero didn't participate when the derby returned from a one-year hiatus in 2021 but did win All-Star MVP honors. Toronto Blue Jays first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. will not partake in July's Home Run Derby so that he can preserve his wrist health and focus on the second half of the season, according to Shi Davidi. Guerrero had previously suffered wrist soreness in May, and said that he views abstaining from the Derby as a precautionary measure.
It was a tough task and Guerrero was clearly drained, but he hit 22 homers anyway to bring his total for the entire Derby to an absurd 91. Some fans were surprised that baseball's mega prospect was asked to be in the Home Run Derby. He might be an elite prospect, but he's only hit eight homers since being called up. Here's the thing, though -- he has both the family genes for this kind of event, and he put in the work to crank out a special performance. Guerrero and Pederson’s multiple ties were the highlights of the night, but that’s what almost certainly sunk him and sapped him of his energy in the final round.
Metropolitan
Alonso turned out to be too tough a challenge after all those previous homers. It took a second swing-off for Guerrero to finally send Pederson home. The 29 homers were enough to take down Matt Chapman in the first round, but Guerrero met his match in the second round with Joc Pederson. Once more, Guerrero blew everyone away with 29 bombs ... Regardless of who gets chosen, the Derby will be a fun time. Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go light a candle for Big Dan.
Earlier this week, his wife filled out a Derby bracket and picked Vlad Jr. Bryce Harper won the previous year with 45, so, Schneider said, probably 55. Whereas Schneider previously fed him pitches over the heart of the plate, in the final round Guerrero asked him to leave the ball slightly inside so he could cheat to his pull side. Schneider tried to elevate pitches to keep Guerrero from needing to use his tiring legs. "It's pretty standard for him," said Marcus Stroman, Guerrero's Blue Jays teammate. "It's easy. It's very easy. Didn't surprise me in the slightest."
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Just your standard data entry, and I only had to come in three days a week. But -- shockingly -- I can't say it went as well as the summer of 20-year-old Vladimir Guerrero Jr. From 1990 through the turn of the millennium, Palmeiro was one of the best hitters in the majors.
While Guerrero didn't win the 2019 derby, he certainly stole the show in Cleveland, hitting 91 home runs, the most of any player. Unfortunately for Toronto, New York Mets' first baseman Pete Alonso eeked by Guerrero with 23 home runs in the final round of the derby to claim the crown. Pederson, who lost in the final as a rookie in 2015, now has the most combined home runs at the Derby all time, with 99, while Guerrero -- in his first appearance -- tied the previous record of 91 held by Todd Frazier, who also competed twice. With the win came a cool $1 million bonus to supplement Alonso's base salary of $555,000. He said he would donate 10% of his winnings between two charities, the Wounded Warriors Project and the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation. Guerrero broke the Derby's single-round record in each of the first two rounds, but after surviving an exhausting duel with Joc Pederson of the Los Angeles Dodgers in the semifinal round, Guerrero didn't have enough to beat Alonso in the final.
Alonso, unique in the competition in sending most of his hits toward center field, then followed with 23 to end it with plenty of time to spare. He became the first Met to win the event since Darryl Strawberry was a co-champion in 1986. He felt like he scored a piece of history when he caught one of Vlad Jr’s second-round homers. As did Tom Zackasee, whose season tickets in the front row of Section 180 paid off on Monday night. This was the night one of baseball’s most hyped young prospects became one of the game’s biggest stars.
Ninety-one homers dwarfed Alonso’s three-round total of 56, but that’s the trade-off for the Derby’s exciting bracket-style setup that has reinvigorated this event in the past five years. Palmeiro hit 569 career homers and finished with more career Wins Above Replacement than Eddie Murray, Hank Greenberg, and Harmon Killebrew. Yet he faded into the ether once the steroid accusations began and has remained in a kind of limbo ever since. In the world of baseball cards, Palmeiro’s barely worth a dollar.
It's unclear who else MLB has reached out to about populating this year's field. Our own Matt Snyder provided his dream bracket on Monday. Of the 29 home runs hit in the first round, Vlad Jr. finished with five home runs over 450 feet and eight over 440 feet.
In his last 30 seconds, just before he topped out at 13 total homers, he looked defeated yet accepting of his fate. Javy Baez on third presumably was going on contact and simply got hung out to dry when Adzolay missed the bunt. Regardless of who screwed up worse, though, this multi-player TOOTBLAN is a deserving winner of This Week’s Worst Play of the Week.
Vladimir Guerrero Jr. hit 91 home runs -- more than seven miles' worth -- in his unforgettable Home Run Derby debut.Gregory Shamus/Getty Images"That was elite hitting," Alonso said. Guerrero Jr., however, was matched by his opponent, Dodgers slugger Joc Pederson, who hit a last-second home run to send the matchup into a tiebreaker round. Vlad Jr. added eight more home runs to his total, giving him a total of 66 home runs, surpassing Stanton’s single-Derby record of 61 from ‘16. At 20 years and 114 days, Guerrero Jr. became the youngest participant in the history of the Home Run Derby. But it didn’t take Vlad Jr. much time to set more records with his bat. In the finals, Guerrero faced Pete Alonso, who had turned in a terrific evening of his own against Ronald Acuna Jr. and Carlos Santana.
But how much of that was aided by chemical supplements is an open question, and one that ultimately stained his career. With two on and a one-run Dodgers lead, he cranked a pinch-hit homer off Wade Davis and capped his trip around the bases with some aggressive blowing of kisses to the dudes who had been riding him. He told reporters afterward that he was simply irked at wearing one for no reason. Strop, though, thinks it’s because Puig is a few crayons short of a full set.
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