Major League Baseball announced today a revamped formatting to the Home Run Derby which takes place at the mid-season point each year during All-Star weekend, according to Paul Casella of MLB.com .
Instead of the traditional ten “outs,” any struck ball that is not a home run, batters will now compete against a five minute timer that will pause only after a home run ball reaches the seats. The clock will start again when the next non-home run struck ball lands.
In addition, distance bonuses will figure in with batters who swat two home runs 420 feet or further receiving an extra minute of swing time, and home runs balls hit further than 475 feet earning them an extra 30 seconds.
As for the formatting itself, long gone is the traditional National versus American league rivalry. Now, seeds 1-8 will be determined by their respective home run totals as of July 7. In the event that two participants have the exact same number of home runs at that time, the seeding will be determined by those contestants home run totals as of July 5. If, at that point, there is still a tie in the number of home runs for the season, the seeding will be determined by a coin flip.
MLB has tweaked the event in recent years in an attempt to shorten the time frame of the Home Run Derby and provide a more reliable out for television timing purposes. As Sports Illustrated reminds us, last year’s Home Run Derby saw the number of “outs” for each batter reduced from 10 to 6.
Cincinnati Reds third baseman Todd Frazier told MLB.com about his excitement at the changes, especially in light that the Derby will take place this year on his home field, Great American Ballpark, home of the Reds.
“I’m up for change, so we’ll see how it goes. It’s in a good park for home runs and I’ll be ready.”
Yoenis Cespedes, who has won the previous two Home Run Derbys as a member of the Oakland Athletics, and is now with the Detroit Tigers, will vie to become the first participant in the history of the event to go back-to-back-to-back as home run champion. Cespedes became the first MLB player to win the event in consecutive years since Ken Griffey, Jr. accomplished the feat in 1999.
The 2015 MLB Home Run Derby takes place Monday, July 13 at Great American Ballpark in Cincinnati and will be broadcast live on ESPN.
[Image via Getty]
