The MLB home derby is tonight, so let's look back at the first half of this year's home runs in the greatest league on earth.
I could tell you that Josh Hamilton and Jose Bautista lead the league with 27 homers a piece, but you probably already knew that and it's frankly just not a fun statistic. What I'm interested in is who hits the longest home runs. Also, I'd like to see a video of every home run this year that has hit a foul pole, because those are straight up my favorite kind. Someone hook me up.
The longest home run of this year was hit by Cameron Maybin of the San Diego Padres. I drafted Maybin in fantasy baseball this year and unfortunately a 485 foot homer counts just the same as a 330 foot homer. Maybin only has four homers this year and has a batting average just above what this skinny, 5'9'' basement blogger weighs, so I finally got around to dropping him a few weeks ago. Anyways, you can see the blast here. That home run traveled just one foot further than this Nelson Cruz tater, which was hit so far that the camera man couldn't even track it down. Interestingly enough, bot of those home runs were hit in three ball counts.
Another thing I'd like to find out is how the hell they get the distance of these home runs down to an exact foot of true distance traveled. Do they do it with math, knowing the speed and angle off the bat? You'd have to factor in distance above sea level and wind resistance at the time of the hit though, which makes me think that's not how they do it. It just seems like that would be impossible to get down to the exact foot. Anyways, Maybin and Cruz own the first half in terms of single furthest home runs.
The guy that has been bombing them the longest on average this year is a guy that you'll see in the derby tonight. He is Mark Trumbo and his 22 home runs have averaged 419.5 feet of true distance. I'm glad that Robinson Cano selected the guy, because in my eyes, the home run derby shouldn't be about who can hit the most, it should be about who can hit it the furthest.
I wrote about this last year. If it were up to me, I would let each guy have like 20 swings, taking them five at a time for fatigue's sake, and whoever averages the greatest distance on there home runs (with a minimum home runs hit of 7) wins it. I'm tired of seeing skinny guys in the derby barely clear the fence. Last year, Prince Fielder picked his teammate Rickie Weeks to join him in the derby, which really pissed me off. We were rewarded by seeing Weeks have the first swing and miss in derby history and connect for just three home runs. The National League team this year is much of the same. Carlos Beltran, Carlos Gonzalez, Andrew McCutchen, and Matt Kemp aren't exactly the biggest guys around, in fact I'm sure some of you reading this could wrangle up a few friends and beat these guys in a game of Red Rover pretty easily. Kemp did have it right at first picking Giancarlo Stanton, who would be the first guy I'd select, but unfortunately he has a knee injury and can't participate.
Here's the number of home runs and the averages distances for this year's competitors:
| Name | HRs | Avg Distance |
| Mark Trumbo | 22 | 419.5 |
| Carlos Gonzalez | 17 | 412.4 |
| Prince Fielder | 15 | 411.7 |
| Carlos Beltran | 20 | 408.9 |
| Robinson Cano | 20 | 406.8 |
| Jose Bautista | 27 | 403.3 |
| Matt Kemp | 12 | 400.2 |
| Andrew McCutchen | 18 | 398.9 |
Despite having the longest name of the contestants, McCutchen hits the shortest home runs. They're all worth the same in a game, but barely cleaning the fence isn't going to impress many people in the derby.
My pick to win it is Prince Fielder. I'd also give Trumbo and Bautista a pretty good shot. Carlos Gonzalez is my bust. Does that matter to you? It shouldn't.