2022 MLB Home Run Derby Bracket
Here is the seeding and matchups for the 2022 Home Run Derby:
No. 1 Kyle Schwarber vs. No. 8 Albert Pujols
No. 4 Juan Soto vs. No. 5 Jose Ramirez
No. 3 Corey Seager vs. No. 6 Julio Rodriguez
No. 2 Pete Alonso vs. No. 7 Ronald Acuna Jr.
Seeding was determined based on the number of homers each player has on the season as of Thursday.
The winner of Schwarber-Pujols will face the winner of Soto-Ramirez in the semifinals. The other semifinal matchup will be between the winner of Seager-Rodriguez and the winner of Alonso-Acuna.
From there, the two semifinal winners will battle for the Derby crown.
Reader Comments and Retorts
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1. JJ1986 Posted: July 15, 2022 at 11:13 AM (#6086809)shorter version: "Schwarber"
I think Albert volunteering so early for this screwed things up. Once it became public that he offered, MLB had almost no choice other than to include him.
Anyway, a 2022 HR derby without Judge, Stanton and Alvarez is like a slam dunk contest with Jordan, Dr J and Muggsy (or was that Spud?) potentially available but sitting on the sidelines.
Granted, I'm sure Cashman has nightmares about the headlines should Judge or Stanton get hurt doing this.
Walt's dunk contest analogy is spot on, because Jordan stopped showing up at them after 1988.
If you're gonna keep this thing going, let's at least open it up to guys not on the AS team. That's what the NBA did with the slam dunk contest didn't it? Hoping to make stars of anonymous young guys? Patrick Wisdom doesn't hit the ball too often but he hits rockets when he does, let's get him bombing away. What is the point of Jorge Soler or Joey Gallo other than to put on a show in BP? The star power would go down (not a good thing) but the booming HRs would go up.
Anyway, hopefully Albert doesn't embarrass himself.
If I'm a betting man, I would say no, at least not consistently enough to reach 5+ hr in any round.
Maybe it's just time to retire this overhyped dog-and-pony show.
take after take after take, and the damn thing went on for hours and hours (though not on my TV screen).
I think they upgraded it to "terrible," and then they improved it again to "borderline watchable, if you have a soft border."
modest props for recognizing what a dreadful product they had and doing something about it.
I think they can do the actual seeding or contest rules different, but the pace is pretty good and works. I like the concept of a skills competition, but the only real three skills that I think they can show off would be hr derby, bat control (where the get points by calling their shots on where the ball is going to land) and maybe a bunting competition, and I'm not sure that last one is anything that someone would think would make good tv. Beyond that everything else that feels like it could be an interesting skills competition, really does feel like a gateway to a catastrophic injury.
Don't give the NCAA ideas.
The "most watchable" product? How about last year's HR leader in each league, this year's leader in each league. Just 2 rounds. If last year's leader is leading this year, he goes straight to the final. Want to add some COF magic, put in the two top career leaders and add a WC round. All negotiated and part of the CBA of course, replacements allowed only if the player is on the IL (or other legit absences).
Also Ohtani is always in but he gets to pitch and hit which has the added advantage that he's virtually guaranteed to win every year.
EDIT: I suppose this year, Ohtani would get to hit off of fellow 2-way player Albert. :-)
I agree with this. The derby is much more fun than the All-Star game at this point. For one thing, the players are actually trying to win, and they're clearly having a lot of fun. The pacing is good, and there's a lot of action. I had the good fortune to attend in person last year, which was even more entertaining than I expected.
So you want to force players who don't want to be there to show up, and you want an event that lasts about 45 minutes.
They did this last year, with Trevor Story representing the hometown team even though he wasn't on the All-Star team. That seems like a good way to handle it - if Betts doesn't want to participate, let Freddie Freeman or Will Smith or someone be there for the Dodger fans.
(1) I don't want it at all. I have no objection to its existence but I'm sure I haven't watched one since 2004 and maybe not since whatever year Bonds won it. My memory is that whoever he was up against in the final flopped so Bonds didn't need many to win but the 7 (or whatever) that he hit were so perfect that it seemed like he'd probably have hit about 50 if they'd let him keep going.
(2) Did you not see the part about MLBPA agreement? Not "forced" to participate, "agreed" to participate. If players care enough, the union doesn't agree. If the union agrees, who am I to complain? Don't want to be there? Then don't lead the league in HRs. :-) Simply, the point for both MLB and MLBPA is to draw as many eyeballs as possible, provide as much entertainment as possible, provide as many highlights as possible. Therefore you want the "best" HR hitters in a contest you sell as determining who the "best" HR hitter is ... not the 8 guys you could get to agree to it for the sole purpose of filling up TV time. Heck you want a full three rounds, add the (current, last year's) rookie HR leader to help promote the young guys.
If the top sluggers don't care about the HR derby, why would fans want to watch a contest among the 8 guys who care?
(2a) I would "allow" the COFs to decline participation. I have no interest in a 40+ former star embarrassing themself. Let them pick the player to take their place.
(3) Yes, about 45 minutes of "action" ... conceivably 1 hour of TV, more likely added "pre-game" "post-game", "in-game" interviews and "celebrity" cameos to pad it out to 90-120 minutes cuz that's how TV does everything.
(4) I gave up on the NBA slam dunk once guys who were great players and great "innovators" stopped showing up. Once it became "this guy's not a very good player, a bench player maybe but he's got ups and loves to twirl in the air and has been working on this KILLER dunk all year," I'd rather watch world-class figure skating. Along those lines I have no interest in skateboarding or those various snowboarding/skiing events that don't involve avoiding thin poles at high speed. (Except ski jumping of course cuz that's just insane!)
(5) But, y'know, kids these days with their gnarly lingo and their exit velocity.
He announced he wouldn't participate in any more HR derbies unless they were in Yankee Stadium.
Seriously.
The dumb part says that Judge may not be a Yankee the next time the ASG is in NY. Of course he will.
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