Did the MLB fix the Home Run Derby
One of the most entertaining traditions during MLB All Star week is the Home Run Derby. Baseball's best hitters going toe to toe, seeing who is the best home run hitter that year. However, there's been some changes over the last few seasons to the format of the derby itself.
Up until 2015, the derby followed a simple 10 out format. Any swing that did not result in a home run was an out, and you could keep swinging as long as you kept hitting home runs. Then the MLB switched to timed rounds, starting at 5 minutes then lowering to 3 minutes to help player fatigue. The championship round would be lowered to 2 minutes, with batters trying to take as many swings as possible in the allotted time.
The unfortunate part of this format is there was much less suspense in the later rounds. If a batter had a sizable deficit, and got off to a slow start in their round, their chances of winning dropped almost immediately.
The new format this year went to a swing based approach. Each batter would have 20 swings, to use however quickly they choose. In the second and third rounds ,each batter has 15 swings. The cool part about this concept is a round cannot end on a home run, so theoretically even on your last swing you can keep your round going as long as possible if you keep hitting home runs.
We watched this on full display in this year's derby. St Louis Cardinal's standout Jordan Walker entered the final round needing 11 home runs to tie the hometown favorite Kyle Schwarber. Walker went on to hit 6 straight home runs to end his round, leading to a walk off 12th home run in front of his family.
The suspense of this final round is something that hasn't been felt in the derby since moving to timed rounds. Which made this year's derby an absolute home run.