Chicago Cubs Jake Arrieta Wants In Home Run Derby
Madison Bumgarner recently stated that he wanted in when it comes to the Home Run Derby. Now, Chicago Cubs starter Jake Arrieta wants to join him in the competition.
Chicago Cubs ace Jake Arrieta made news yesterday afternoon, but it had nothing to do with the seven inning, two run performance that earned him his tenth win of the season. Instead, the breaking news was that Arrieta is following in the footsteps of Madison Bumgarner in suggesting that maybe a few pitchers ought to break out the lumber at this year’s home run derby. When asked about Bumgarner’s interest in participating Arietta responded by saying, “If he’s in it, I need to be in it….he can hit the ball a long way, but I can, too.” The level of seriousness in his comments is suspect, but even if Arrieta only meant to be facetious, he may have inadvertently landed on a very valid point.
The home run derby is, at its core, designed purely for entertainment value. While the league continues with the charade of making the All-Star game itself determine home field advantage in the World Series, the home run derby presents a far less controversial opening for vastly improved ratings. If batting practice for position players were really that exciting then the stands would be packed two hours before every first pitch, and your local cable affiliate would begin broadcasting at that early hour. Those stands are not filled, and it is not on TV because the interest is simply lacking.
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There’s no reason to believe that an anecdotal Monday night in July will prove any different. The excitement and drama factor in watching Mike Trout, Robinson Cano, Kris Bryant, or any other slugger attempting to crush 55mph lobs from an upper middle aged man is negligible at best. The solution is simple: make the home run derby more unique and, well, fun. There are a number of ways to accomplish this, and allowing a few of the more athletic ace pitchers to swing for the fences is certainly one of them.
Of course, the novelty of watching pitchers demonstrate that there was a reason they also hit .700 in high school would be reason enough to green light this spectacle, but beyond that there would also be the increased “compete factor” taking place in the batter’s box. Arrieta’s comments may have been made largely in good fun, but make no mistake, pitchers, especially those made in the mold of Arrieta and Bumgarner, would be more than eager to prove they are athletes, shedding the passive aggressive negative connotations that come with the distinction.
According to Jessie Rodgers of ESPN.com, Arrieta claimed participating in the derby would give him a bigger adrenaline rush than his Dodger Stadium no hitter.
“If he’s in it, I need to be in it….he can hit the ball a long way, but I can, too.” -Jake Arrieta when asked about Madison Bumgarner‘s desire to participate in the home run derby
The contrarians will bring forth two main arguments against pitchers in the derby. They’ll suggest it makes a mockery of the event to have the worst hitters in the league participating in a hitting contest. To this, we need merely to point out that the whole event whose sanctity they seek to preserve is already all for shear fun. The other objection is perhaps more valid. There is concern that pitchers would hurt themselves by participating.
Nobody wants to see such great talents injure themselves for such a meaningless event, but then again, couldn’t hitters throw out their backs or strain an oblique during the course of swinging unnaturally hard at a solid seventy pitches or so? I’d also put good money on the idea that hyper fit workout-dietary freaks such as Arietta and Bumgarner are a little less likely to strain a muscle than, say, Big Papi.
There’s also the small matter of the logic in play. If pitchers are meant only to pitch and may risk rendering themselves needlessly injured and unable to perform their designed task by taking part in the act of hitting, then why do we continue to let NL pitchers occupy the bottom of lineup cards?
The bottom line is that Jake Arrieta in the home run derby would be fun. So would Madison Bumgarner. So would a number of other pitchers (looking at you Adam Wainwright, Noah Syndergaard, and yea, Bartolo Colon). Maybe we ought to help Arrieta get his unprecedented adrenaline rush.
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This doesn’t mean we have to take actual hitters out of the competition, though. There are a number of ways Rob Manfred’s office could spice things up. We could have pitchers going up against DH’s; coed teams that include female softball stars; minor league all-stars competing with aluminum bats against big leaguers; three person teams with a hitter, pitcher, and celebrity swinging for a short wall set up in the outfield. The possibilities are endless. All the purists and gatekeepers at the league offices just need to recognize these possibilities and then run with one of them.