Yahoo Sports MLB writers Hannah Keyser and Zach Crizer name the two players who they’d most like to see in this year’s exhibition contest — a pair who could flip the script on the traditional thought that the midsummer derby dooms hitters for the rest of the season. Hear the full conversation on “The Bandwagon” podcast — and subscribe on Apple, Spotify, Stitcher or wherever you listen.
Video Transcript
HANNAH KEYSER: Let’s get to a segment we’re calling “Built Different” powered by Ram Trucks. Sometimes you see a guy whose performance is game changing and think, he is just built differently. Who would you like to see amaze you in the Home Run Derby– unconventional addition.
ZACH CRIZER: A Built Different version of the Home Run Derby.
HANNAH KEYSER: So not Pete Alonso, although I hope Pete Alonso defends.
ZACH CRIZER: I feel like he will defend. So I was thinking, you know, what’s a type of player who could be in the Home Run Derby who just isn’t– and I got to thinking about the Home Run Derby curse, where a guy who’s really good goes into the Home Run Derby and then, because law of averages, he’s just not as good in the second half. And everyone blames the Home Run Derby.
So I was trying to think of a guy who really hasn’t had it worked out yet who could go in the Home Run Derby and then we could credit the Home Run Derby for making him great when he shows up in the majors and finally succeeds . So I went with Jo Adell, the Angels former top prospect who has not yet stuck in the major leagues. He is really fun to watch swing and hit the ball.
He doesn’t do that very often in actual game play. But in the Home Run Derby, I feel very confident he would hit the ball and that it would go very far. And I think having kind of a minor league prospect adjacent guy to show the world in a way that doesn’t require him to hit .280 or strikeout less than 30% of the time could be a really fun way to show some talent without the pressure of the majors– and maybe help him launchpad into success.
HANNAH KEYSER: OK. We interpreted this the same way, and yet you thought my pick was a boring one. I thought for sure this was going to be like a, oh– but I went with Christian Yelich. And I know that he has an MVP and I know that in the past, he’s been invited to participate in the Home Run Derby. And he said he was going to, and then eventually had to pull out because of injury.
But the whole thing with Christian Yelich is that he’s not been good lately. And a lot of that, or some of that, is attributable to his launch angle being quite low. And I also thought, like, who is someone for whom we could say, wow, the Home Run Derby fixed their swing?
And I was like, that would be really cool if Christian Yelich, who currently is in the 95th percentile for average exit velocity, the 97th percentile for hard hit percent, but who has an average– or an average launch angle of 5.8 degrees- – I think he should just be put in a situation in which they’re like, keep swinging hard, just aim very differently. Aim up. Aim up.
The balls are pretty juiced, I feel like, in the Home Run Derby. And so he’ll get that kind of positive reinforcement. And then he’ll think, I should do that more often. And then that’ll be good for the Brewers, who have excellent pitching as always and not a lot happening offensively. That was “Built Different” powered by Ram Trucks, built to serve.