Major League Baseball presents the 2014 Home Run Derby Monday night live from Target Field in Minnesota, and this year the event has several rule changes that will be implemented.
2014 Home Run Derby Preview And Predictions
For starters, each league will now have five players slugging it out to be the next MLB home run king instead of the usual four making the total field 10 instead of eight.
In the American League, Toronto Blue Jays outfielder Jose Bautista (17 homers this season) is the captain of a group that includes Oakland Athletics outfielder Yoenis Cespedes (14) and third baseman Josh Donaldson (20), hometown hero Minnesota Twins second baseman Brian Dozier (18) and Baltimore Orioles outfielder Adam Jones (16).
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On the National League side, captain and Colorado Rockies shortstop Troy Tulowitzki (21 homers this season) guides his group of sluggers which includes Miami Marlins outfielder Giancarlo Stanton (21), Dodgers outfielder Yasiel Puig (12), Colorado Rockies first baseman Justin Morneau (13) and Cincinnati Reds third baseman Todd Frazier (19).
Sports World News will explain the rule changes using the home team American League squad as a mock example.
In the first round, all five hitters from each league bat and receive seven outs each instead of the usual 10 throughout each round. The player with the most amount of homers from each league advances to the third round automatically while the two players with the second and third-highest totals go head-to-head in Round 2 and the two players with the lowest amount of homers are eliminated.
Using the AL, if hometown hero Dozier slugs seven homers, defending champion Cespedes knocks six out of the yard, captain Bautista knocks five out and Jones and Donaldson hit four apiece, Dozier gets a bye into the third round, Cespedes and Bautista slug it out in Round 2 and Jones and Donaldson are eliminated.
The National League uses the same format and follows the AL with their own bracket..
In Round 2, the homers from Round 1 are not carried over as they have been in recent years. For the AL in our scenario, if Cespedes knocks out six more homers and Bautista slugs five, Cespedes moves onto the AL Finals to face Dozier.
The NL follows the same format for Round 2 and weeds the field down to two NL All-Stars.
In Round 3, once again there is no carryover of home run totals. If, for example, Dozier hits out another seven homers and Cespedes can only muster six, Dozier moves on to the finals to play the NL Finals winner.
In the fourth and final round, Dozier would play the NL representative and the winner of that would be the 2014 Home Run Derby champion. For the sake of the example, we'll say Dozier wins and sends the Minnesota crowd home happy.
The MLB Home Run Derby takes place live Monday night from Target Field in Minnesota.
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