Tonight’s Home Run Derby competition will begin at 7:00 pm central time on ESPN. Here is some pertinent information, provided by Eric Stephen of SBNATION:
For all the degenerate gamblers out there, here are the odds to win the Home Run Derby, courtesy of the folks at Bovada, with the hometown star the favorite in Washington:
Bryce Harper 11/4
Jesus Aguilar 7/2
Max Muncy 5/1
Freddie Freeman 11/2
Rhys Hoskins 11/2
Javier Baez 6/1
Alex Bregman 9/1
Kyle Schwarber 9/1
Format
This is an individual battle and not a league competition, which is why it’s not a huge deal that seven of the eight contestants are National Leaguers, with Alex Bregman of the Astros the only American League player in the Home Run Derby.
Each round is four minutes, starting when the first pitch is thrown. Any home run hit on a pitch thrown before the clock reaches zero will count. If a player hits two home runs longer than 440 feet in that round, he gets an extra 30 seconds of bonus time at the end of the round. Players are allowed one 45-second timeout in the first round and semifinals, and in the finals each player gets two time outs, one 45 seconds long and the other 30 seconds.
My favorite rule of the Home Run Derby is if there is a tie at the end of a round the two contestants will battle in a 60-second swing-off, with no stoppages allowed. If they two are tied even after that, then things get fun: “if a tie remains after the swing-off, batters will engage in successive three-swing swing-offs until there is a winner.