Juan Soto Tops J-Rod in Home Run Derby

The results have been finalized, Juan Soto, a 23 year-old MLB superstar topped rookie Julio Rodríguez, 21, in the 2022 MLB Home Run Derby with nineteen home runs. What an exciting night it was. The eight players, featured in the slideshow below, put on a dazzling show and spectacle, showing off immense power and contact abilities for all of the fans inside L.A.'s Dodger Stadium.

But the two biggest stars shone brightly. The two finalists, J-Rod and Juan Soto, each hit over 15 home runs each round, out hitting the star-studded lineup of sluggers, including 2x Derby champ Pete Alonso and former World Series winner, Kyle Schwarber.

Rookie Rodríguez surprised many fans with his Derby-opening thirty-two homers, the most any player hit in any round this year. However, many of the top seeds (Schwarber, Alonso) did not hit up to the high standards of fans watching all around the globe. The graph below shows the total number of home runs hit by each player in the Derby.

Note the large difference in Rodríguez and Soto's numbers, even though Soto won. In total, there were 291 home runs hit, which, according to MLB, is the third most in any HR Derby. But take Julio Rodríguez out of the equation, you have 210 homers hit, which shows just how

vital J-Rod was in keeping this Derby entertaining. The 21-year-old rookie has got quite a future in the big leagues.

Another amazing stat is how much stronger and better players have grown over the past 37 years of the MLB Home Run Derby. According to Baseball Reference, in the first ever Home Run Derby (1985), Dave Parker of the Cincinnati Reds won the Derby with a grand total of six home runs. The next three years, the winners (Wally Joyner, Darryl Strawberry, Andre Dawson) hit four homers in total to be the Derby champ. Jump ahead ten years (1997), Tino Martinez of the Yankees hit 16 to win. Then in 2005, a number jumps off the page at you, when Bobby Abreu hit, in total, forty-one homers to win. That is when things started ramping up for the derby. Fast forward to 2022, the winner hits 53 home runs and the runner-up hits 81. What a changing baseball world we live in.

To cap off this short read, here are the highlights of the 2022 T-Mobile MLB Home Run Derby in a 30-second recap, created by Major League Baseball.

Who deserved to win the 2022 Home Run Derby most?

• Julio Rodríguez
• Juan Soto
• Pete Alonso
• Albert Pujols

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Images:

Cover Photo - All-Pro Reels

Slideshow - (1) All-Pro Reels, (2) Tom Hagerty, (3) slgckgc, (4) Barbara Moore, (5) apardavila, (6-7) Ian D'Andrea, (8) apardavila, (9) Ken Lund

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