Home Run Derby

Every year – some Home Run hitters are always knocking on the door of immortality. This year we’ve got a number of HomerDerby players who could join some very exclusive names. Let’s kick off a new category which we’ll track throughout the season…

300 Home Run Club

• Todd Helton (286 Career HR)
• Craig Biggio (281 HR)
• Ivan Rodriguez (277 HR)
• Richie Sexson (273 HR)

Helton’s a shoo-in. He’s looked good in March and could be primed for a comback. Biggio can probably do just enough to make 300. Pudge doesn’t have enough since he lost that weight. Sexson is a mortal lock unless he gets injured.

400 Home Run Club

• Chipper Jones (357 Career HR)
• Jim Edmonds (350 HR)
• Jason Giambi (350 HR)

Not this season gentlemen. Jones is battling little injuries and the season hasn’t even started. Edmonds isn’t going to be 100% until sometime in the season and Giambi won’t hit 50 with the Yankees.

500 Home Run Club

• Frank Thomas (487 Career HR)
• Jim Thome (472 HR)
• Manny Ramirez (470 HR)
• Alex Rodriguez (464 HR)

And we will have a minimum of three new members to the 500 Club. The Big Hurt and Thome might hit enough HR if they didn’t play a single road game. Ramirez has been good for 30-plus HR the last decade. A-Rod should hit 40 in his last season in the Bronx.

600 Home Run Club

• Sammy Sosa (588 Career HR)
• Ken Griffey, Jr. (563 HR)

This is why Slammin’ Sammy came back folks – for a shot at being only the fifth player in MLB history to swat 600 HR. He’s not only on the 40-man in Texas – he’s on the opening day roster. Junior on the other hand, might be on the DL come April and for who knows how many months after that …

Baseball Immortality – 756 Home Runs

• Barry Bonds (734 Career Home Runs)

It’s a record that has stood for nearly my entire life and all of my baseball life. I have a hard time imagining anyone being the all-time Home Run Champ than the man my father cheered for in Wisconsin when he was a member of the Milwaukee Braves. The Hammer. Hank Aaron.

But I think it’s going to happen.

… and the HomerDerby Home Run Derby contest deadline (April 2, 12PM CDT). Less than two weeks before the entry form is due! Entry forms are rolling in.

We’re getting record site traffic lately, so I wanted to issue a big welcome to new visitors from Desipio, The Baseball Zealot, Baseball Musings, and 411 Fantasy Football – thanks for stopping by! Join the Derby!

Some quick links for everyone …

• Official Rules
• Player Groups
• Player Profiles for Groups A, B, C, D
• Ballpark Profiles (more coming soon)
• The Entry Form
• Comment registration

If you have a Website and are interested in hyping HomerDerby … please use the jpg below or contact me .

I’m not a big believer in any correlation between Spring Training stats and Regular Season stats, but in the past two seasons the player who hit the most Home Runs in Spring Training went on to wear the MLB Home Run Crown after camp broke …

• 2005 – Andruw Jones (10 Spring HR; 51 MLB HR)
• 2006 – Ryan Howard (11 Spring HR; 58 MLB HR)

Let’s look at our early candidates to see who will have extra pressure on them to keep that streak alive …

• R Braun, MIL – 5 HR, 6.8 AB/HR
• J Lane, HOU - 5 HR, 8.4 AB/HR
• B Bonds, SF – 4 HR, 5.8 AB/HR
• V Wells, TOR – 4 HR, 7.8 AB/HR
• K Greene, SD – 4 HR, 9.0 AB/HR
• B Eldred, PIT – 4 HR, 9.3 AB/HR
• B Hawpe, COL – 4 HR, 9.3 AB/HR
• T Sledge, SD – 4 HR, 10.3 AB/HR
• B Hall, MIL – 4 HR, 10.5 AB/HR
• B Phillips, CIN – 4 HR, 11.3 AB/HR
• J Reyes, NYM – 4 HR, 11.8 AB/HR
• C Duncan, STL – 4 HR, 12.8 AB/HR

Nobody’s exactly separating themselves from the pack … I look at the early HR leaders and I don’t think there’s any way one of these guys is your 2007 HR Champ.  Braun just got sent to the minors - improve your defense, kid.  Lane has to get his job back (and keep it) first.  Bonds gets pitched around too much, doesn’t have the protection in the lineup he once did, and might only want 22 HR anyway.  Vernon Wells has the skill and protection, but he just signed a big contract, and there might be too many big bats in the Jays’ lineup.  You can scratch any PIT and SD players because of their low-HR homes.  Hawpe, Phillips, Hall, and Reyes – it’s not gonna happen.

Last Spring, Jim Thome and Ryan Howard got hot late.  Let’s see if someone of their caliber steps up over the next 10 days.

One of my favorite things about St. Patrick’s Day is that it falls smack in the middle of Spring Training – which leads to a number of MLB clubs celebrating the day with special caps or uniforms.

Yesterday the Red Sox, Cubs, White Sox, Dodgers, Royals, Pirates, Phillies, Mets, Mariners, Braves, Tigers, Blue Jays (Green Jays?), and Cardinals (and probably some others) all wore some form of Green.

Of course, the real reason MLB teams wear the Green is so they can make more Green when you go out and buy the hat or jersey. 

Not just because they look cool or anything.

And later this season, the Boston Red Sox will wear Green Caps and Jerseys again during the regular season to honor the late Celtics coaching legend Red Auerbach. 

A baseball team honoring a basketball legend?  Well, I guess the White Sox did it for Michael Jordan – and he wasn’t even dead. 

The Chicago White Sox and KC Royals both have special “Halfway to St Patrick’s Day” games Sept 13 and 17, respectively.

Interesting that the White Sox will wear fully Green Pinstriped uniforms for that home game but only a Green Cap for the Spring games.

Guess they don’t want to give the guys who won’t make the team a free green pinstriped jersey.

One of HomerDerby’s founding members, Martin, will be getting married this afternoon to the lovely Maureen. I worked with both Martin and Maureen in my time at Kraft Foods and really – who couldn’t see this coming?

Martin and Maureen, both fervent devotees of St. Patrick’s Day (as you can see below), will be blessing this fine day with their nuptials this afternoon. Let the Green Beer flow! A more festive St. Paddy’s Day there never was before and there shall likely never be again!

Martin has described himself “always the bridesmaid, never the Bride” in reference to his never having won the HomerDerby crown. Well guys, HomerDerby is only a game … there are bigger and better things to hang your kelly green derby on … like Life and Love.

And besides Martin, as a Cub fan, you know there’s always next year!

Please help me congratulate Martin and Maureen on their wedding and wish them the best in their life together!!

Over the past three seasons, no Ballpark has been more of a launching pad than US Cellular Field, the home of the Chicago White Sox.  And the Southsiders take full advantage of it – no matter how many times Ozzie Guillen will try to sell you that small-ball snake oil he keeps peddling to anyone with a microphone. 

When it opened in 1991, the ballpark became the last bland cookie-cutter stadium in the major leagues as the White Sox missed the upcoming trend of retro ballparks with modern amenities.  And as Home Runs go, it was nothing special, posting a modest AB/HR ratio from 1991-99, even with the Big Hurt regularly depositing balls into the outfield bullpens.  In 2000, the Sox began renovating the park to give it some life – updating the exterior and significantly changing the interior.  The most impressive renovation was in 2004 with the removal of the last eight rows of the stadium (6,600 seats the Sox weren’t selling anyway) and the addition of a roof which covered almost the entire upper deck.  The roof and other adjustments have made the park both more aesthetic and much more potent … 

US Cellular HR Numbers

• 1991-1999:  150.9 HR/YR, 34.85 AB/HR
• 2000-2006:  232.3 HR/YR, 23.92 AB/HR 

Holy Schniekes!!  An eleven point drop in AB/HR!!  They must have moved the fences in or something (they did).  From 1999 to 2000 alone the AB/HR ratio dropped 6.6 frickin points.  I don’t think it’s purely a coincidence that the park suddenly turned into a bandbox simultaneously with the renovations. But wait … let’s do our standard dive into the last three seasons at the Cell and compare them to the other MLB park averages

• Sox        – 397 HR, 20.66 AB/HR  MLB Home –     260.2 HR, 31.34 AB/HR
• Visitors– 340 HR, 25.75 AB/HR  MLB Visitors– 261.2 HR, 32.70 AB/HR

Good God.  Nearly a ten point AB/HR drop for the Sox and a six point drop for visitors.  No wonder the Sox had four 30-HR guys last season.  Someone thought the Sox would be just as good on the road as they were at the Cell …

• Home – 397 HR, 20.66 AB/HR
• Away – 282 HR, 30.28 AB/HR

Uh-oh.  They hit road HR just a bit better than the MLB average … but nothing like they hit them at 35^th and Shields. What about the Sox’ big boppers?  Surely they hit Home Runs at nearly the same pace in both locales … 

I’m surprised by the 8-point swing for Konerko.  Only Dye (2 yrs) has had nearly equal numbers both home/away.  Thome has a small sample size of one season.  I threw in Big Frank’s limited numbers just to show how much it seemed to affect his swing in limited duty his last two years (04-05) he was with the White Sox. 

A word to pitchers taking the bump at US Cellular.  You don’t want flyballs in this park.  Keep the ball down.

I was going to start the Ballpark deep dives with US Cellular Field, but my early-bird commenters (the only people who I’m sure are reading the site) seemed to spark the conversation otherwise.  Let’s start with Pittsburgh’s PNC Park and the lowest HR numbers in the majors … is it the Pirates or PNC? 

I love stadia with little nooks and crannies in the outfield wall.  PNC’s nook in left center is 410′ from the plate.  The left field corner is 325′ deep and the right field corner is a mere 320′ deep.  The right field wall however, is 21 feet high (in honor of #21 Roberto Clemente), which puts a damper on that short porch for left-handers.  The wall is only 6 feet tall in left (easy HR-saving grabs for the LF) and 10 feet tall in center. 

Let’s dive first into which team hit those 409 HR the past three seasons. 

• Pirates   – 207 HR, 39.67 AB/HR
• Visitors – 202 HR, 42.00 AB/HR

It seems like PNC is bad for the Pirates as well as the rest of the National League. I would have expected the Visitors power numbers to be higher considering the recent state of the Pirates’ pitching staff.

What are the MLB averages (excluding PNC) over the same timeframe?  

• Home – 266.7 HR, 30.57 AB/HR
• Away – 265.9 HR, 32.15 AB/HR

I think we’re looking at PNC as the culprit here.  AB/HR shifts nearly 25% better away from PNC.

And how have the Pirates done on the road the past three seasons? 

• Home – 207 HR, 39.67 AB/HR
• Away – 215 HR, 39.08 AB/HR

Hardly any better on the road.  I thought this variance would have been bigger.  This puts some blame on the Pirates considering they play in the bandbox friendly NL Central.  And now we know why the Pirates worked so hard to acquire Adam LaRoche from Atlanta.

Speaking of power hitters … let’s just look at the Pirates who we at HomerDerby really care about: Pirate sluggers Jason Bay and Adam LaRoche. 

Whoa.  Jason Bay’s AB/HR is 7 points better away from PNC.  Not much of a home-field advantage.  The road power woes of the Pirates are not Bay’s fault. 

LaRoche’s stats imply that he hits pretty well at PNC, but his sample size is too small to rely on (he’s only got 20 AB in Pittsburgh) … and it’s all against the Pirates’ pitching staff.  I wouldn’t expect that to continue for the lefty in 2007.

The Pirates might not be packing much pop no matter where they play … but their opponents don’t have much pop in PNC either.

In HomerDerby.com’s never-ending quest to have the most informed and competitive Home Run Derby participants around – we’re unveiling our Ballpark Profiles. 

Why?  Because guys who play half their games in Launching Pads are just more valuable in HomerDerby than guys who play in stadia that don’t provide their outfield-dwelling fans with free souvenirs. This week and next we’ll take a closer look at some of the places MLB players call home – and how their stadium can effect their HR production.

To start off, below is a list of all 30 current Major League Ballparks and how they’ve stacked up over the last three seasons (provided they’ve been in use that long).  Keep in mind the data includes pitcher AB, so the NL Park stats shown are probably a little deflated. 

Alyssa Milano is no stranger to Baseball. She’s dated MLB pitchers Barry Zito, Carl Pavano, and Brad Penny, her dad on Who’s the Boss was a former St Louis Cardinals 2^nd Baseman (okay that was a stretch), and she’s seen at Major League games all the time. And now, Alyssa’s teamed up with MLB to market womens’ juniors’ apparel emblazoned with MLB logos.

The line will be sold under the label TOUCH by Alyssa Milano, and will be unlike any ladies MLB apparel currently being offered. The juniors’ targeted product line will consist of sets, fashion tops, denim, and dresses designed utilizing high quality fabrics and body contouring silhouettes.

Milano explains, TOUCH by Alyssa Milano was born out of necessity. When I go to baseball games, I want to wear fan gear to support my team, but I’ve found that the product mix offered in the current marketplace does not address my everyday fashion needs. Women should be able to look stylish while cheering on their favorite team.

The clothes will cost in the range of $40-100 and will be available this spring. I understand there might be a need for women’s MLB apparel that reaches beyond slapping a Cub or Red Sox logo on a pink cap or baby-doll t-shirt, but I don’t see where these Kimonos hit the needs of Ms. Milano’s supposed target market of female baseball fans.

Personally, I think the first one looks like some of Hugh Hefner’s old pajamas which were shrunk in the wash and someone slapped a Yankees logo on them. Mind you - they look good on Alyssa. And unless Jane Doe sits in the Scout Seats like Ms. Milano, what woman in their right mind is going to wear a “body contouring silhouette” made of “high quality fabric” to a baseball game where there’s a one in three chance she’s going to get baptized by 16 ounces of flat, warm light beer anyway?

- Alyssa’s favorite team is the Los Angeles Dodgers.

- She was the guest of Major Leage Baseball at the 2006 All-Star Home Run Derby.

- She’s the namesake of HomerDerby participant The El Guapos first-born daughter (and don’t try to deny it).

- She’s wreaked havoc on the ERA and W/L records of her MLB boyfriends.

- And I don’t think she ever wears a bra. That ain’t a complaint.