I’d like to see a fielding challenge, no matter how difficult that may be to orchestrate. I’m sick of Baseball Tonight saying “Oh, he’s an outstanding fielder!” when every defensive metric disagrees with their statements.

How about a drinking game to make tonight’s Home Run Derby tolerable:

1) Every time Boomer says “Back, back, back, back…GONE,” drink.
If you’re not passed out yet, continue:
2) When Boomer references a different Missouri city – I.E. “He hit that one to Columbia!” – drink.
3) A Prince nervous cough. Drink
4) When they flash to Ozzie Smith, drink.
5) Drink when they show an All-Star pitcher right after a huge bomb and say “(Fill in pitcher here) hopes he doesn’t see (fill in batter) hit the ball like that tomorrow night, ha ha ha.”
6) If they throw in a Lewis and Clark reference, drink double.

Think about it guys.

For one, it just wouldn’t be fair. Whether they pick their own guys or not, if a pitcher goes in a funk for a 5-6 pitches that guy is going to lose. No one wants a home run contest determined by how good the BP pitcher was. It’s about the hitters.

Second, if hitters aren’t allowed to be as selective they’re not going to put on as great of a show. You allow them to wait for a perfect pitch and they’re going to give you a 470 foot homer. You don’t and you’re going to see a bunch of 370 homers, and that’s hardly an event worth watching (and I should know, because that’s what the AAA derby amounted to).

Third, the guys need to take pitches to catch their breath. Swinging at max effort takes a lot out of you. If you’re going to force them to be on a time limit they’re going to get worn out quicker, and the level of performance is going to drop. Maybe it would be less frustrating if they just stepped out for a few seconds instead of taking pitches? It would cut the wasted anticipation, at very least.

As far as a skills competition.. the type of stuff SABR Matt mentioned. I want to find out who’s the fastest runner, strongest and most accurate arm, most powerful hitter and who has the best bat control.. stuff like that.

I’m not saying I want a skills competition– just throwing the idea out there. I’m not sure it could be pulled off without being a bore-fest or too cheezy.

I also love the idea of bringing up a beast from the minor leagues to take a hack at beating the big dogs.

@ Jon, What kind of stuff would be in the skills competition?

Speaking of which, how would the MLB do with an NFL/NBA style skills competition?

Sheeeesh…if we need a staged batting practice to enjoy the Mid-Summer Classic…then we’re not MLB fans anyway.

I agree on hating Rick Berman’s call of the Derby. I’m not what announcer could spice it up though…the repetitive act of trying to hit home runs is a little hard to make thrilling without adding a game context. In other words, I really think we need to switch from 10-out style to half-inning style and keep score like it’s a game. I also think it would be cool if the pitching difficulty steadily increased either from round to round or from inning to inning within each round. Start with BP speed and gradually rev it up so they have to hit some guy throwing 95. Now that would be interesting.

ESPN has horrible broadcasters, how about letting the broadcasters of the home park commentate the derby, or even cycle in some Hall of Fame Broadcasters. I just can’t listen to the guys they have announcing this thing anymore. It’s old it’s stale and it needs to change.

I also agree that we need to encourage long-time power hitters to play, not just this season’s HR leaders. No one in their right mind thinks of Brandon Inge as a power hitter. Qualification to get into the derby should not be limited to the ASG rosters and should not be based on half a season worth of stats…the invites should go to players with the most HRs in the last 1.5 seasons (last year’s HR champs should count for something).

The Brandon Inge’s and Joe Mauer’s of the world aren’t Home Run Derby material. Fine hitters, moreso Mauer than Inge, but neither have that light-tower power that it’s fun to see.