Is the Home Run Derby Becoming the Slam Dunk Contest?

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.