5 most memorable Home Run Derby performances since 2000
By Ryan Morik
Because we missed the Home Run Derby this year, let’s look back at the best recent additions to the midsummer bash.
There will be no All-Star break at Dodger Stadium this year. No All-Star Game, no festivities, no Celebrity Softball game with B-list stars and heroes from television eras past.
Who knows what kind of sluggers we would have seen in Los Angeles at the Home Run Derby. We’re already counting down to the 2021 Derby in Atlanta.
But in honor of what likely would have been an all-time Derby this year, let’s take a look at the five most memorable performances of the Home Run Derby.
43. Scouting Report. Pick Analysis. New York Yankees. Aaron Judge. player. 2017 HR Derby. 5
What Aaron Judge did in 2017 is slept on, but it really was incredible.
Judge had ascended quickly as the face of baseball that year, leading all the league with 30 home runs, and owning the third-best OPS at 1.139. He was the second seed of the Derby, going up against seventh-seeded Justin Bour.
Bour went first, and ripped 22 homers, which was the second-most in a single round in the four-minute clock era. Bour had to make up for top-seeded and fellow hometown Miami Marlin Giancarlo Stanton, the top seed, being upset by eight-seeded Gary Sanchez.
That was no match for Judge.
Judge hit bombs sprayed across the entire field, hitting 22 in his original four minutes. In his second swing of bonus time, Judge moved onto the second round. Judge’s 23 bombs were now the second-most in the newest Derby era.
He then took down Cody Bellinger and Miguel Sano with ease.
His 47 homers in the 2017 Derby are the sixth-most in history, and he definitely could have hit more had he not had just stopped at 13 in the semis and 11 in the finals.
Judge went on the unanimously win that year’s AL Rookie of the Year Award and finished second in the MVP voting to Jose Altuve.