As I do every year during All Star week, I made sure to get home to watch the Home Run Derby. Every year that I've watched it, it is generally entertaining and fun to watch, though 2005 was the best one as Bobby Abreu put on a frickin' clinic for anyone who cared to watch. This year, I had relatively high hopes because of the crop of new and upcoming stars participating like Prince Fielder and Alex Rios but also because I was under the misconception that AT&T Park was a hitters park. Apparently not.
The first round was a total bust with not one hitter going deep more than 5 times. I had all of my money (figuratively speaking) on Milwaukee's Prince Fielder and let me tell you, he let me down in a HUGE way. However, I will partially blame the idiot who pitched to him, throwing a plethora of fastballs tailing away when Fielder repeatedly requested his pitches to be on the inside part of the zone. He did hit one shot to right-center that was a monumentous bomb but beyond that, he kept trying to pull stuff that was off the plate and away. This is supposed to be a frickin' derby, not Stump The Power Hitter. Lame. Even Albert Puhols was only able to advance to Round 2 via a 5 swing playoff against Justin Morneau. Lame-r.
Round 2 was a nice change of pace. All I am saying is that the White Sox NEED to trade Jermaine Dye, Juan Uribe and Brian Anderson to Colorado NOW for Matt Holliday. This guy is a beast with a beautiful right-handed power stroke of ballet-esque proportions. I'm all for the messy and ungraceful pummeling that someone like Prince Fielder can put on a ball but Matt Holliday......it was a thing to behold. Same goes for Alexis Rios. If the White Sox could trade the aforementioned trio for Holliday and Jon Garland for Alex Rios, they would be back in contention by next season for sure.
Overall though, it was Vlad Guerrero that just mashed the ball with authority in Round 2. I hate the Anaheim Angels (or whatever) but that man is so hard to dislike because he's got such a presence in the batters box and a cannon for an arm. He can even run fairly well for such a lanky human. Watching him tee off was the highlight of my viewing last night, though I missed his 503 footer due to much needed urination (like you needed to know that). All in all, the worst home run derby I've seen yet and still featuring some of the best shots I can remember, even though no one really went deep into McCovey Cove (dumb kayakers).
david ortiz
