The 2014 Home Run Derby is live on Monday from ESPN at Target Field in Minneapolis to kick off All-Star game activities and the Gillette HR derby coverage has a live stream from WatchESPN online starting up at 8 pm and comes with a new format as names like Giancarlo Stanton, Troy Tulowitzki, Yoenis Cespedes, Jose Bautista, Josh Donaldson, Brian Dozier, Adam Jones, Todd Frazier, Justin Morneau and Yasiel Puig slug it out for the American League and National League.
The new format should make things interesting and since the contest is at the cavernous Target Field, it should also be a factor and could make it very exciting as well. The home run derby is usually the favorite thing for many of the players and the fans and the Midsummer Classic weekend during the week kicks off with this contest and this year there are a ton of young sluggers getting in on the action. Stanton and Bautista are the favorites and Cespedes is looking to win the title two years in a row after taking it last season at Citi Field, another pitchers park.
Joey Bats is the captain of the AL side and Josh Donaldson is the HR leader for the American League team with 20 in front of Bautista, while Adam Jones and Dozier have 16 each. The NL team has Tulo second with 20 and he is the leader of the team while Stanton has the lead with 21 home runs and he is the favored player, which means he probably won't win. Puig is having Robinson Cano's father toss him balls and Cano memorably did that when he participated in this contest. Cano is fine to watch along with his three, count ‘em three Mariners teammates in Minnesota, including All-Star game starter Felix Hernandez as well as Fernando Rodney and third baseman Kyle Seager.
The new format should make things fun as well and perhaps it actually will get people into the thing for once. This time they will try and make it more exciting and also the pace better and now each player will have seven outs per round down from 10 and it also will be in bracket form this time around and five players from each side will get their chances in the first round and the top hitters will get a bye after that. The next two players then will face off in the second round and then the winners from each side will advance. After that, the AL and NL leaders will face off in the finals for the championship in the contest and that makes it much more interesting than the usual straight way they used to do it.
The Gillette 2014 Home Run Derby starts up from Target Field at 8 pm ET on WatchESPN and MLB.TV and it will be on TV from ESPN and of course has Mr. "Back, back back, back gone" Chris Berman announcing and while he is terrible, it almost feels wrong not to have him there.
Check here for the home run derby live coverage from ESPN from All-Star Weekend.