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| These two will NOT be at this year's Home Run Derby |
The MLB All-Star Game and All-Star
festivities are fast-approaching. With the
All-Star rosters being announced and
the fans now encouraged to
determine who gets the final spot in each league, we’re getting a very good picture of who will be
playing in Minneapolis next Tuesday. However, for Monday’s Home Run Derby, its
still a little fuzzy as to which sluggers will be representing their respective
league in this year’s new
bracketed format.
According to CBS Sports’s Mike Axisa, both Mike Trout and
Miguel Cabrera have turned down invitations to participate in the Derby.
This will leave the event without two of baseball’s most potent sluggers.
The article also indicates that Baltimore’s
Nelson Cruz will also consider declining. The White Sox’s Jose Abreu, who
shares the league lead in home runs with Cruz, hasn’t shown much enthusiasm in
participating and is still on the fence as
of this writing.
With the number of big-time hitters turning down
the chance of letting the Twin Cities crowd watch them sock a few dingers,
I see some similarities to another All-Star side-contest in another sport: The
NBA’s Slam Dunk Contest.
Over the years, the amount of star power in the
NBA’s Slam Dunk Contest has waned. Fans have been begging to see stars like
LeBron James and Kevin Durant throw it down on All-Star Saturday Night. The
reasons why these stars declined tend to be the same as why some of the Home
Run Derby participants have bowed down: not wanting to risk injury, preferring
to just watch, or just not caring that much about the contest.
While its debatable if the lack of star power has
an effect on quality, but it does have an effect on interest. When the Slam
Dunk Contest rolls around, people tend to scoff at the idea of Jeremy Evans and
Harrison Barnes dunking in the contest with higher-profile names sitting on the
sidelines. In the case of the Derby, viewership has already
been dropping. Will several missing swingers have a bigger
affect on ratings?
I think it will. The league will come up with
ways to make the All-Star Game and Home Run Derby entertaining, but as the
players continue to make decisions based on their needs and their desire to
focus on the actual season, more stars will chose to sit out the Derby. This in
turn will affect the event’s already stagnant ratings.
This could mean huge trouble for the Derby moving
forward. While the Slam Dunk Contest is based on creativity, the Home Run Derby
is based on power. Coming up with a cool dunk is not quanitified by statistics,
so a bench warmer could dunk as well as a superstar. However, if 6 of the
top-10 home run hitters in baseball are sitting out the Derby, the difference
in talent is much more noticeable.
Luckily, Jose Bautista, Troy Tulowitzki, and
Giancarlo Stanton have been confirmed for the contest. These players should be
big enough to pull in some fans for the 2014 contest. But the question will be
how stars sitting out the contest will affect the 2015 contest and beyond.
