Every season, Baseball has its half of the season break: the All Star Break. In the All Star Break, the Home Run Derby is taken place. As well as the All Star Game, and the Futures All Star Game (Minor League all star) On Monday, July 12th, my favorite time of the whole 2021 season, the Home Run Derby will take place in Denver, Colorado! The Home Run Derby is basically this: Hit as many home runs as you can in 3 mins. You get 2 breaks during that time. If you hit 2 (and only 2) 450+ feet home runs, you get a bonus 30 seconds. Hit more home runs then your opponent. MLB’s ‘Statcast AI’ launched in 2015 (basically an AI that tracks home runs) and has predicted 3/5 home run derby winners. 2015 - Joc Pederson (Finalist) 2016 - Giancarlo Stanton (Winner) 2017 - Aaron Judge (Winner) 2018 - Kyle Schwarber (Finalist) 2019 - Pete Alonso (Winner) 2020 - Not hosted due to COVID-19 And this year statcast predicts Shohei Ohtani. Don’t be fooled by his name; he is a HOME RUN MACHINE!! The first player since Babe Ruth to hit 40+ home runs at the all star break AND to have 10+ wins. Yes, as a PITCHER. Shohei is the first ever hitter-pitcher in the home run derby! And yes, the first great hitter and great pitcher since Babe. Obviously, you can probably tell that Ohtani is not from America. He grew up in Japan and won 2 KBO (Japanese league) home run derby’s! So, he is definitely a great pick to win it all. The matchups are: (1) Ohtani vs (8) Juan Soto (4) Salvador Perez vs (5) Pete Alonso (defending champ) (2) Joey Gallo vs (7) Trevor Story (3) Matt Olson vs (6) Trey Mancini Trey Mancini was diagnosed with leukemia in 2018. He missed part of 2019 and all of 2020. He has beaten it, so I’m sure many, MANY people will be cheering him on!
Credit to: MLB.com for the bracket
