It was announced last night that Pirates All Star center fielder Andrew McCutchen will join the 2012 Home Run Derby.
McCutchen will replace Giancarlo Stanton, who will have to miss due to injury.
It's certainly a nice gesture for McCutchen, who has 16 home runs so far in the first half and leads Major League Baseball with a .359 batting average.
If I know Pirates fans like I think I do, I'll bet half of them are excited (little kids and teenagers who are more or less the prime audience for any home run derby). And I'll bet the other half are pessimistic (more the adult crowd/sabermetrics-types who are probably worried that the derby will ruin Cutch's swing).
I fall somewhere in the middle. It's kind of nice that Cutch gets to be a participant, but I'm not as excited about it as I used to be because I think the All Star Home Run Derby has a novelty shelf-life similar to the NBA All-Star Slam Dunk Contest. And I'm not really worried about McCutchen ruining his swing. People have been using that theory for years, but if that was really the case, wouldn't your typical pre-game batting practice session hurt any player's swing?
You always hear baseball announcers mention the massive home runs that certain players hit in bp, players that you wouldn't really consider home run hitters. People often talk about the bombs that Ichiro Suzuki hits in batting practice. The dude had 200-plus hits in 10 straight seasons, and he's one of the greatest hitters of our generation. With only 99 career home runs, he's obviously not a power guy, so swinging for the fences in bp sure hasn't hurt his game one bit.
I find it hard to believe that a couple dozen batting practice swings can really throw a hitter's timing off once he sees live pitching again.
Anyway, I think it's cool that Cutch will be in the Derby. I just think it would be an even nicer gesture if he got the start in center field.
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