Robinson Cano won’t participate in the Home Run Derby due to a bad back, so bad he’s leading the league in hitting. Neither his hitting coach nor his manager want him to mess up his swing.
I have found the home run derby to be a bit boring lately. It’s too long. I would like to see rounds help to three outs, like in a real game, instead of ten outs. (Almost everything in baseball is done in multiples of threes. Why did they go decimal in the home run derby?) If not that, then maybe ten swings per round. That way, no player is going to take so many swings that he gets in a bad habit. For me personally, I don’t care that much about what the players have to say. Cut the side line interviews and get another batter to the plate. I know this means ESPN makes less money, but I think they do okay otherwise.
This joining and leaving the home run derby is normal. Often times, they don’t know the final eight until right before the tournament starts.
Since the hitter has their own pitcher, I would like to see them get 20 pitches, and count how many HR a batter hits in 20 pitches (if a HR is hit on the 20th pitch he gets additional pitches until he does not hit a HR or does not swing). This should minimize the takes which slows things down at times.
Also, HR’s counted in the first round should count in the 2nd round, and the cumulative number of HR’s be counted as to who gets in the final round. The final round starts clean.