Teoscar Hernandez Claims 2024 Home Run Derby Crown
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00:00The 2024 Home Run Derby. Last night in Arlington, Texas to kick off the All-Star Festivities
00:10this weekend in the Lone Star State. I said weekend, I mean week. It is a Tuesday live
00:15right here on the Early Line on Sports Grid. The unlikely champion. The first in a history
00:21of the Dodgers organization in his first season at Chavez Ravine. Teoscar Hernandez outlast
00:28Bobby Witt Jr. last night of the Kansas City Royals to win the 2024 Home Run Derby crown
00:34in Arlington. 14 long balls in that final round. Bobby Witt Jr. only able to muster
00:41up 13. His final pitch of the night for Bobby Witt Jr. was a deep and sky high fly off the
00:48base of the wall in center. He shrugged in disappointment. Teoscar Hernandez immediately
00:54celebrating. 49 total home runs for Hernandez last night in DRS. He entered the Home Run Derby
01:02in a field of eight with the sixth best price. That's third longest at 12 to 1. Cash a big plus
01:09money price on the underdog last night for Teoscar Hernandez who had the longest price of the four
01:15into the second and semifinal round and was the underdog against Bobby Witt Jr.
01:20in that championship round as well. Plus money across the board for Teoscar Hernandez.
01:26Yeah and also yesterday from a handicapping perspective we talked about this extensively.
01:30You know how do you actually approach the Home Run Derby and sometimes it comes down to its
01:34simplest form. You take a look and say well I don't know if I want to lay minus what 250,
01:38280 whatever it was on Pete Alonso to advance into the semifinals. So I went Jose Ramirez
01:43and not basically because I thought he was a great hitter. It's like okay there's eight guys
01:46they can all do it equally basically and as it turned out there were a lot of upsets there. Plus
01:51198 gets into the next round. I thought that was a possibility and also from a guy that's been in
01:56the actual tournament before. Didn't have a great appearance in his first time around. Had a better
02:00appearance yesterday. That worked out certainly in the favor. But also if you were just looking
02:04and the joke was yesterday too was why don't you just take like Alec Boehm at 20 to 1, 22 to 1
02:09wherever he closed that because like hey maybe he can do something. He looked like he was damn
02:12near right to steal that thing and he advances with a nice money price into the semifinals but
02:17upended by Fernandez. But it did come down to that final hit for Bobby Witt which hit the bottom of
02:22the wall. So he did have a little bit of intrigue there at that point. But from from my angle of it
02:26it was okay. Maybe it should be Pete Alonso. The guy doesn't make it there. But number two
02:30how about we talked about this yesterday. Like this is an arena or should I say a huge stadium
02:35that is enclosed with a dome with the air conditioning on. There was no real handicap
02:40going into it. But just looking at the total distance of the longest home run by going it's
02:44not great conditions to hit. And it easily then stayed under that total. Now granted I gave that
02:48information yesterday. Didn't bet it myself. Only had a small piece on the best bet of the day as
02:52it worked out. But it wasn't a bad home run derby. But there are changes that I would like to see.
02:56But certainly a worthy winner in Teoscar Hernandez to perform in front of all of those players
03:01and those fans where you are the spotlight to win it. That's a pretty big deal. There weren't as many
03:06long balls yesterday. We'll get to some of the results for the overall home run derby in just a
03:11moment. But virtually everything stayed under what a home run total was. 273 and a hook up from 296
03:19and a half for the total amount of home runs. Hit over all three rounds by all eight contestants.
03:25Tom Vecchio shared the trend trends yesterday. The home run prop king. We saw more than 340
03:31two years ago. Even last year out in the northwest in Seattle. T-Mobile Park as we all know a
03:37pitcher's friendly ballpark. Even we got over 290 last year. Not really the case yesterday. Just 225
03:45in total. There weren't the fireworks that maybe we expected. But Teoscar Hernandez cashes a big
03:52plus money price. You mentioned Alec Boehm. He tied for the most in the opening round alongside
03:57J-Ram Jose Ramirez. Five of the eight were debutants including Hernandez. That was a minus
04:04168 price for a first time appearance to be a first time winner. Entering the home run derby
04:11DRS. Pete Alonzo a three to one number to win his third home run derby crown. Only four players in
04:17the history of Major League Baseball's home run derby have won multiple titles. Ken Griffey Jr.
04:23with the most. He has three. Pete Alonzo still stuck on two. Prince Fielder has two. And Yoanis
04:31Cespedes Alto also multiple home run derby crowns. Pete Alonzo entered yesterday as the favorite at
04:37three to one. Gunnar Henderson of the Baltimore Orioles who has the third most long balls all year
04:42in MLB had the second best price at plus 380. Those two guys Polo Bear with 12 and Gunnar
04:49Henderson with 11 had the least amount of home runs in the opening round. Both staying well under
04:54their first round total. So we didn't really get the theatric or hot off the presses as maybe we
05:00expected last night in Texas. No we didn't and it still turned out to be okay at that point. But
05:05what can you do? And also shout out to Pete Alonzo. He only gets the 12. He doesn't advance
05:09into the semifinals. But you heard what you said there. The fifth time in here trying to win it
05:14again. Knowing that people like myself say give me the big boppers even if it doesn't work out
05:18you're still anticipating there at bats here. You didn't know what you were going to get out of
05:22Teoscar Hernandez. He ends up winning it here. Bobby with you and your young kid we knew would
05:25put on a show. He was fine. Alec Bowen where some people didn't think he'd be able to even hit a
05:29single home run does put on a good show and quite frankly had a legitimate chance to win it once he
05:34advanced here. But in the next segment we'll talk about some of the changes that should be made in
05:38there. It's hard to mess up home run derby Ben and they didn't technically mess it up. It's not the
05:43Major League Baseball's fault. Now they could have changed a few things. It's really on the players
05:47like you're looking around just a quick sample like Shohei Otani. I didn't want to do it this
05:51year but when I get back to pitching and hitting next year I'll go. That doesn't make any sense
05:55what he's talking about. This should be about superstars that people want to see. The anticipation
05:59sometimes Ben worth more than the actual competition itself. We just didn't have the
06:04anticipation. That was the shame of it. It's been a part of the dumb contest not getting the best
06:09high flyers or the biggest names in the NBA out there for All-Star Weekend. The two leading home
06:15run hitters this year Aaron Judge and Shohei Otani two of the biggest names and stars in the sport
06:21not in the home run derby. Only Alec Boehm and Jose Ramirez tying for the most home runs after
06:28the opening round with 21 deep shots. The only two players out of the eight in the field to even go
06:35over their first round total. Boehm the least amount with 18 and a half. Jose Ramirez at 19
06:41and a half. Both going over with 21. We'll get to some of the other results on the other side
06:47of the break. Those prop bets for the field overall. We saw a debutant winner Teoscar Hernandez
06:53minus 168. But Hernandez's number individually 12 to 1. Third longest out of the eight hitters
07:00last night in Arlington. And then commissioner right side puts on his home run derby
07:06commish cap and tells you what the changes to the format he wants to see. Slight changes last
07:12night of course in the three rounds. Still the time limit but the pitch limit as well.
07:17What does DRS have to say? Your guess is good as mine. Up next on the early line.
07:23Maybe you had a ton of wagers last night on the 2024 home run derby to build your own excitement
07:29and hopefully hopefully cashing some bets. Hopefully you had one in a 12 to 1 number
07:34on the champion Teoscar Hernandez who entered with the third longest price out of the field
07:40of eight. If you bet the derby props themselves unless you took a lot of unders last night in
07:46Arlington. Probably not your most profitable evening in Major League Baseball history. The
07:51longest home run hit by Atlanta's Marcel Ozuna. 482 and a half was the number. It stays under by
07:59about 10 feet. Total home runs on the rise. 273 and a half. I thought Tom Vecchio made a great
08:06point about why we could expect an over last night. It stays so far under with only 225. It was part
08:13of the lack of excitement because there just weren't all that many home runs like we had seen
08:18in years previous in this format. Total home runs by the champ. 63 and a half. Teoscar Hernandez
08:24holds on with only 49. A swing off tiebreaker though. That was the most exciting moment of the
08:30night. Bobby Wood Jr. down to his final pitch. He had 13 home runs. Teoscar Hernandez in the
08:35championship round had 14. Deep fly to center. Deepest part of the park at Globe Live Field
08:42off the base of the wall in center field. Bobby Wood Jr. coming oh so close but just a little bit
08:50short. So not a ton of value from the prop perspective which leads into our next conversation.
08:57Commissioner Donny Rightside is here. You mentioned from the very start of the show DRS
09:02the changes you would make to bring back the juice to the home run derby. What are they?
09:08Look it's a couple simple ones here and it doesn't have to be you know ridiculousness because I can
09:13put that commissioner's cap on and I go down that NBA path saying you know what we're going to vote
09:17on who we want to be in the slam dunk competition. Let's just say it's LeBron James uh it's Anthony
09:22Edwards and a couple other superstars that you want to see Giannis and LeBron James goes well
09:26I'm healthy I don't want to play in it and then I go okay what's a 10 game suspension no pay outside
09:30the all-star break because you don't want to compete in it. Now granted I like that train of
09:34thought and I would support that but I know most people wouldn't but it's just simple major league
09:37baseball and sometimes it's not actually the issue as I said from a major league baseball level not
09:43talking about the players itself from upper management ownership and certainly the league
09:46and the commissioner's office. It's a simple fact if I call it like the Mike Trout analogy for
09:51baseball. Baseball has a lot of superstars but it's up to the superstars to market themselves.
09:56Baseball does a terrible job itself and also the players as well. Have you ever checked out like
10:01the feeds from let's just say social media for NBA players compared to major league baseball players?
10:05It's non-existent. Like follow your average superstar he might tweet once a month that says
10:09hey buy a uh protein powder from this place and you never hear from him again. So Mike Trout was
10:14the face of major league baseball. What did he say? You know what that's all fine and good. Don't
10:18put me on commercials. I don't want to speak out about it. I just want to like live my own life and
10:22be fine with it. That's part of the issue but number two would be help the players out as well.
10:26What did we talk about yesterday? Tom Vecchio came on. We're hitting the same highlights here.
10:29Open the roof. It's 100 degrees. That means the baseball is going to travel further which means
10:34more home runs at a bigger distance. Isn't that we want to see? Number two, money is not really
10:39an object anymore in the dunk competition and major league baseball. You're not going to tell
10:43Tony hey if you win this we'll give you two million dollars. Like look I make that on interest
10:46on a day-to-day basis. Why am I going out there? But also number three I'm assuming they're still
10:52quirking the bats and having the juice baseballs at that point but the participation needs to rise
10:57and we need just to have better competition. Now to change the competition you saw it last night.
11:02Hey they're hitting home runs here. They're hitting home runs there. Change the rule altogether.
11:05Do you know who wins the competition Ben? Not who hits the most home runs. Who hits the farthest
11:10home run? That's the winner. One goes 525 feet. Hey he only hit four of them while he was trying
11:15to swing from his heels. People want to see distance out there and absolute bombs. So if
11:20you're going to have guys like Alec Boehm with a sweet swing just making over the fence that's not
11:24fun anymore. Let's do things that were so enjoyable just a few years back when Sanchez and Stanton
11:29and Aaron Judge were knocking baseballs off the back wall in Miami. That's fun. It's a simple
11:35change. Instead of hitting home runs there just give me the distance. The guy with the longest
11:39distance he wins home run derby. People would enjoy that because no longer are you saving
11:45yourself and calling timeouts because you're tired. Your only goal is to hit a baseball as
11:50far as humanly possible. That's fun to watch. If I can add two things Commissioner Rightside as
11:56your deputy regardless of where the all-star game is played let that city host let them get the
12:02economic bump. Home run derby are always at Coors Field in Denver Colorado. Then you see fly balls
12:09go more than 520 feet. If that's not enough if we can't go to Coors then maybe we bring back the
12:15days of McGuire and Sosa and Conseco if you know what I mean. Just a couple of quick you know
12:22bang bang bang let them out there. Don't have an aluminum couple of weeks out aluminum bats out
12:28there. Aluminum bats would be sick or maybe we emphasize small ball like they do in the Korean
12:34Baseball League. A bunch derby. All right.