MLB Needs to Change Home Run Derby Rules to Handicap for Rest After Vlad Jr Was Gassed

The updated Home Run Derby format is great. It provides anticipation with every swing of the bat, it has fans on the edges of their seats as crunch time approaches, and it gives us the closest thing to a buzzer beater that we have in baseball. As exhibited Monday night, though, it also has its flaws, as seemingly for the umpteenth time, someone lost the title by being too good at hitting dingers.

To be clear, Pete Alonso won the Home Run Derby. There are people claiming that Vladdy was the real winner due to his far superior home run total, but that's only because Vlad used all of his time. He hit first every round and was able to use up every second, while all Alonso had to do was get past a threshold, which he did with ease.

The issue with the current format is that, though Vladdy clearly had the best first two rounds of anyone there, he wasn't put on a level playing field with Alonso when they went head-to-head in the final.

Rewards for impressive rounds actually used to be in place with the "10 outs" model -- your home runs from the first round carried over, and if you had hit enough, you were even allowed to sit out the second round.

Because the current format is a bracket featuring total resets, Vladdy didn't have that luxury. And that's what led to his downfall.