Home Run Derby: First round results and bracket

The first round of the Home Run Derby is in the books and we saw a lot of long-ball and a few duds mixed in the action.

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Here’s a breakdown of how the new rules of the first round will work. The player with the highest total in each league will get a bye to the third round. The players who hit the second and third-most home runs in each league will advance to second round which will will be a head-to-head matchup the same as the first round was. The winner of the second round will advance to play the player who earned the bye and that matchup will produce a head-to-head final with the player from the other side of the bracket.

One bummer of the first round was that Yasiel Puig failed to hit a single home run and barely even seemed to have had an at-bat. But there was plenty of long to be had in the first round as the likes of Giancarlo Stanton and Jose Bautista made up for Puig’s dud of an at-bat with plenty of deep shots all over Target Field.

Here’s a look at the second round bracket and who clinched the first-round byes.

The second and third rounds should go a little faster but so far the new system of doing things seems to be working pretty well. Had we not endured a near hour-long rain delay, the derby might actually be over by now — but who really wants that to happen?