JTP: The Derby Rocked, Hunter Pence, Prospect Deep Dive & Darrian Gerrard
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How did the 2026 Home Run Derby format changes improve the show and pacing?
Well, that was a lot of fun. It was a terrific home run derby. I know that sometimes with things like the derby and the slam dunk contest and these spectacles that are kind of killing time or just something to throw on, have a TV product, well, there's a little bit of a break during All-Star. They're not always the most well-received. Sometimes the constant format tweaking to try to find something that works feels like just that, like constant format tweaking to try to find something that works. Yesterday's home run derby was great. It was a lot of fun. The format tweaks, in my opinion, worked out well. My main criticism would be if it starts at 8 o'clock, we should probably see someone swing a bat before 825.
Once they got swinging the bat, It was like a nice two hours of very fun home run derby competition. Philadelphia crowd was amazing. Jordan Walker was amazing. Kyle Schwarber was cool. Even Doug Philadelphia really leaning into the less of the America 250 stuff, but the boxing history and, of course, the the. American history as part of Philadelphia. I thought the way that they integrated all that stuff was fun enough, including Michael Buffer doing the boxing-style intros for Schwarber and Jordan Walker off the top. So a lot of stuff there to get to. It is the all-star game tonight. Dylan Cease will take on Christopher Sanchez. I pointed this out yesterday, but it's really fun. And shout out to Lachlan March for pointing it on.
But the last Blue Jays pitcher to start an All-Star game was Roy Halladay. The last Phillies pitcher to start an All-Star game was Roy Halladay. And today it'll be ceased against Christopher Sanchez. So that'll be fun. We've got a pretty loaded show today. We'll talk to Hunter Pence a little later. He was on the broadcast for Netflix last night of the Home Run Derby. We will talk to Keith Law of The Athletic and break down the Jays at the draft over the weekend. He was very high on two of the Blue Jays' first day picks. He is... higher than most in the industry on a couple of Blue Jays prospects that were already in the system. So we'll talk about all that. We will have Darian Gerrard on a little later.
She is a musician based out of BC and a former softball player who played at UBC. We just missed each other there. But fun to chat with her about some baseball and music stuff. Although, heads up, she's a Padres fan. So coming off of that series last weekend, maybe not the best timing. Right now, though, we are joined by Davey Andrews of Fangraphs. Davey, how we doing, buddy? I'm doing great. I'm a little tired.
The Home Run Derby runs long.
Yeah, it runs. I think it would have been fine had they not done 25 minutes first before we got to anything. I think that that product should be a two-hour product, right?
And I thought they actually did a better job. It was shorter than it had been. And, you know, I wrote a preview for Fangraphs yesterday, and I was sort of saying they change the format every year because they can't figure out what's bothering them. And I think what's bothering them is that it often runs three hours. I thought this one was really great. I disagreed with you. I didn't love the Michael Buffett of it all. It totally derailed all the excitement of the event for me. I understand he has a fun voice, but I just wanted to get to the end.
Yeah, I mean, I understand it. I am a combat sports guy. Michael Buffer is from Philadelphia. There's a rich boxing history there in the city. So I got what they were going for. You know, it was cool to me. It doesn't have to be cool to everyone. But the upshot here is that the new format worked pretty well. So the new format, whether you want to call it the new format or the old format, going back to a number of swings instead of a timer, resolved some of the things, kept it moving. Thumbs up for the new format?
Yeah, there was a lot of stuff that I loved about it. I think I preferred, before the timer, they had the outs rather than swings, which I thought was a lot of fun because people could really go off and put up huge numbers and really put on a show.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
How did the 2026 Home Run Derby format changes improve the show and pacing?
0:09–16:20
2
Why did the T‑Mobile magenta ball confuse hitters and influence outcomes?
16:20–22:49
3
What made Jordan Walker’s Home Run Derby performance stand out?
22:49–57:57
4
How did Davey Andrews and Blake Murphy assess MLB midseason home‑run leaders and weird homer trends?
57:57–1:39:51
Speakers
6 identifiedMore from Blue Jays Talk
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