Ultimate Home Run Derby:

The teams for the Home Run Derby have been named, and there was even an episode of the original Home Run Derby on ESPN Classic this morning.  That got me thinking.  We shouldn’t be limited to one Home Run Derby a year.  After all, they once made an entire series out of it.  Why can’t we do that again?

I’d love to see a 32-player tournament.  16 from each league.  Seed them, set up a bracket, and have at it.  That’s 31 episodes, which is perfect for a season of a TV show.  The winner gets prize money for his favorite charity.  They could do it right before the start of Spring Training and use the same format as the old TV series (nine innings, three outs per player).

You know fans would eat it up, and I think it would be easy enough to get 16 players from each league to sign on.  (They could even seed them 1-32 rather than doing it by league if they want.)  I’m sure the owners probably wouldn’t like it that much, but if the Union wants to do it, I don’t really think there’s much they could do to stand in the way.  And think of how much fun it would be!  You could put it on MLB Network (which would give them offseason programming) and let one of their guys be the host.  I don’t see any drawbacks to this idea.

Here’s a sample bracket for the first season of the new Home Run Derby:

AMERICAN LEAGUE
(1) David Ortiz vs. (16) Adrian Beltre
(8) Josh Hamilton vs. (9) Robinson Cano
(4) Chris Davis vs. (13) Adam Dunn
(5) Jose Bautista vs. (12) Evan Longoria
(3) Miguel Cabrera vs. (14) Adam Jones
(6) Albert Pujols vs. (11) Justin Morneau
(7) Alex Rodriguez vs. (10) Nelson Cruz
(2) Prince Fielder vs. (15) Joe Mauer

NATIONAL LEAGUE
(1) Giancarlo Stanton vs. (16) Carlos Beltran
(8) Matt Kemp vs. (9) Ryan Howard
(4) David Wright vs. (13) Matt Holliday
(5) Carlos Gonzalez vs. (12) Bryce Harper
(3) Joey Votto vs. (14) Pedro Alvarez
(6) Pablo Sandoval vs. (11) Adrian Gonzalez
(7) Hanley Ramirez vs. (10) Michael Cuddyer
(2) Ryan Braun vs. (15) Justin Upton

There could easily be five or six other guys in each league that could’ve been included, but these are the 32 I’d most like to see.  I wouldn’t be opposed to a play-in game for the right to face the No. 1 seed in each league, either.