{"id":18125,"date":"2023-07-06T10:02:03","date_gmt":"2023-07-06T14:02:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=18125"},"modified":"2023-07-13T12:00:23","modified_gmt":"2023-07-13T16:00:23","slug":"2023-hr-derby-who-is-in-and-who-should-be","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/?p=18125","title":{"rendered":"2023 HR Derby &#8211; Who is in and who should be"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>So, the participants for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mlbtraderumors.com\/2023\/07\/mlb-finalizes-home-run-derby-participants.html\">2023 Home run Derby<\/a> have been named.  We get:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>White Sox OF&nbsp;<strong><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/r\/roberlu01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-07-05_br\" target=\"_blank\">Luis Robert Jr.<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Mets 1B&nbsp;<strong><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/a\/alonspe01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-07-05_br\" target=\"_blank\">Pete Alonso<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Dodgers OF\/INF&nbsp;<strong><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/b\/bettsmo01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-07-05_br\" target=\"_blank\">Mookie Betts<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Rangers OF&nbsp;<strong><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/g\/garciad02.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-07-05_br\" target=\"_blank\">Adolis Garc\u00eda<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Rays OF&nbsp;<strong><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/a\/arozara01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-07-05_br\" target=\"_blank\">Randy Arozarena<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Blue Jays 1B&nbsp;<strong><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/g\/guerrvl02.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-07-05_br\" target=\"_blank\">Vladimir Guerrero Jr.<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Mariners OF&nbsp;<strong><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/search\/search.fcgi?pid=rodriju01,rodrig014jul,rodrig010jul&amp;search=Julio+Rodr%C3%ADguez&amp;utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-07-05_br\" target=\"_blank\">Julio Rodr\u00edguez<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Orioles C&nbsp;<strong><a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/players\/r\/rutscad01.shtml?utm_medium=linker&amp;utm_source=www.mlbtraderumors.com&amp;utm_campaign=2023-07-05_br\" target=\"_blank\">Adley Rutschman<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>So, who SHOULD we have in the derby?  Lets look at this a few different ways.  Here&#8217;s your <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/leagues\/majors\/2023-batting-leaders.shtml\">current top 10 MLB home run leaders<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Shohei Ohtani<\/strong> (with 31 before the break, better than Judge&#8217;s 60+ pace last year)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Matt Olsen<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Luis Robert Jr<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Pete Alonso<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Mookie Betts<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Ozzie Albies<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Jorge Soler<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Kyle Schwarber<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Adolis Garcia<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Ronald Acuna<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>So, based on the current leaders, our HR derby field has just 4 of the current top 10 HR leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>Here&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/leagues\/majors\/2022-batting-leaders.shtml\">2022&#8217;s HR leaders<\/a>, since often the ASG is a small sample size of who&#8217;s been hot for a couple months:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Judge<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Schwarber<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Mike Trout<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Alonso<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Austin Riley<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Yordan Alvarez<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Christian Walker<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Betts<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Rowdy Tellez<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Paul Goldschmidt<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>Just two of last year&#8217;s top 10 HR hitters are in the derby.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, since its an All Star game, meant to feature (you know) All Stars, here&#8217;s the current <a href=\"https:\/\/www.baseball-reference.com\/leaders\/HR_active.shtml\">active list of HR leaders<\/a> in the sport:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Miguel Cabrera<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Nelson Cruz<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Giancarlo Stanton<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Mike Trout<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Joey Votto<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Evan Longoria<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Paul Goldschmidt<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Nolan Arenado<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Freddie Freeman<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>JD Martinez<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>Not one of these top 10 active HR hitters is in the derby.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>Here&#8217;s a list of <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Home_Run_Derby\">active HR Derby<\/a> winners:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>2022: Juan Soto<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>2021: Alonso<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>2019: Alonso<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>2018: Bryce Harper<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>2017: Aaron Judge<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>2016: Stanton<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>2015 and before: all now retired<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Soto opted out, Judge is hurt, and neither Stanton or Harper is earning an all-star nod.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n\n\n\n<p>So, if you wanted to put together the absolute best possible HR derby roster, factoring all these lists in, here&#8217;s who you&#8217;d want.  I&#8217;m including players we know are injured right now, but astericking them and then adding on players at the bottom until we get to 10.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Pete Alonso<\/strong>: 2-time winner, top10 in HRs both this year and last year.  Has to be here.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Juan Soto<\/strong>: 2022 champ, really should be defending his title.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Shohei Ohtani<\/strong>: 2023 active leader, defending MVP, well on his way to being 2023 AL MVP, leads majors in ISO.  Its ridiculous he&#8217;s not in the derby this year.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>* <strong>Aaron Judge<\/strong>: 60+ homers last  year, 2017 champ.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Giancarlo Stanton.  <\/strong>Top-10 active HR leader, 2016 champ.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Kyle Schwarber: <\/strong>top10 in HRs both this year and last year, some of best pure power in game.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Mookie Betts<\/strong>: top10 in HRs both this year and last year, perennial MVP candidate.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>* <strong>Mike Trout: <\/strong>future Hall of Famer who sits 4th in active HRs despite being only 31.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Ronald Acuna<\/strong>: The guy is on pace for a 40 hr, 80 steal season and is the likely NL MVP.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>* <strong>Bryce Harper<\/strong>: the only remaining former HR derby champ not yet mentioned, on pace for 500 career homers.  <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Paul Goldschmidt: <\/strong>top 10 both in 2022 and active.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Luis Robert<\/strong>: #3 this season in both active HRs and ISO.  Averaging 32 homers\/162 games as a CF.  <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Matt Olsen<\/strong>: #2 this season in active HRs, #2 in the league in ISO.  Huge power guy.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>Now, if you want some wild-cards, i&#8217;d also accept these players just because:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>Julio Rodriguez<\/strong>: runner-up in 2022&#8217;s derby, last year&#8217;s ROY, one of the best  young players in the game.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Vladimir Guerrero Jr<\/strong>: runner-up in 2019, huge power, big personality.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Randy Arozarena<\/strong>: exploded onto the scene, a showman.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Fernando Tatis Jr<\/strong>: another high-profile young player we need to be showcasing.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Austin Riley<\/strong>: power-first guy who finished top 10 last year.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Corbin Carroll<\/strong>: 18 homers and 24 SBs at all star break, could press for 40\/40.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Elly De La Cruz<\/strong>: Talk about a debut. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>So, the participants for the 2023 Home run Derby have been named. We get: So, who SHOULD we have in the derby? Lets look at this a few different ways. Here&#8217;s your current top 10 MLB home run leaders: So, based on the current leaders, our HR derby field has just 4 of the current [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2667,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-awards","category-nonnatsbaseball"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=18125"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18125\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18164,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18125\/revisions\/18164"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=18125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=18125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nationalsarmrace.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=18125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}