Alec Bohm is officially the underdog of the Home Run Derby field
The MLB doubles leader has his work cut out for him if he hopes to take home some hardware on Monday, but his approach is a simple one.
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The Philadelphia Phillies are sending a franchise-record eight players to Texas for the All-Star Game set for Tuesday night, but on Monday, fans will be tuned in to see if third baseman Alec Bohm can do something a Phillie hasn't done since 2006 — bring the Home Run Derby title back to the city.
The 27-year-old is joining a stacked list of competitors in this year's derby:
The pool is set. Who do you have winning the 2024 @TMobile #HRDerby? pic.twitter.com/Hfkh0iBltp
— MLB Network (@MLBNetwork) July 10, 2024
Alec Bohm is officially the underdog of the Home Run Derby field
Bohm will be facing two NL East rivals in the New York Mets' Pete Alonso and the Atlanta Braves' Marcell Ozuna. Joining them from the National League will be Teoscar Hernández of the Los Angeles Dodgers. Representing the American League will be Gunnar Henderson of the Baltimore Orioles, Adolis García of the Texas Rangers, José Ramírez of the Cleveland Guardians and Bobby Witt Jr. of the Kansas City Royals.
Will Leitch of MLB.com did a power ranking for all eight contestants. Not surprisingly, Alonso — a two-time winner and five-time participant — is his favorite to win the title. He's followed by Henderson, Ramírez, hometown hero García, Ozuna, electric youngster Witt, and Hernández.
You have to scroll to the last slot to see Bohm, with Leitch noting: "Bohm is definitely the least likely to win, but that doesn't mean it won't be fun to see him try."
That's likely because Bohm, who is in his fifth MLB season, has never been a typical home run slugger.
Entering play Sunday, Bohm was bringing up the rear in terms of the number of home runs he has hit this season with 11. Henderson (27), Ozuna (26), Ramírez (23), Hernández (19), Alonso (18), García (17) and Witt (16) are all well ahead of Bohm in the home run race during the regular season.
Last year, Bohm's 20 long balls for the full year were a career high. The infielder, who is making his first start in an All-Star Game, is more focused on contact when at the plate. To that end, he is leading all of MLB with 31 doubles, five more than the nearest competitor. Globe Life Field in Arlington is a hitter-friendly park, though. According to Baseball Savant, in all of MLB, only three other stadiums have seen more homers hit this season.
Either way, it seems Bohm — who is fourth on the Phillies in homers this year behind Bryce Harper (20), Kyle Schwarber (19) and Nick Castellanos (12) — is just happy to be a part of the festivities.
After Wednesday's win over the Dodgers, Bohm was asked during the ESPN broadcast about signing up for the event. Luke Arcaini of Fox Sports PHL Gambler relayed what he said: "If they ask me, I'm not gonna say no. The guy's not throwing 98. Let's see how many I can hit."
Bohm's Home Run Derby approach is to keep things simple
Bohm is aware this might be his one shot at being invited to participate in the event. Throwing to him will be his old summer ball coach, Scott Wingo, who also threw to Bohm when he competed and won the Home Run Derby in the Coastal Plains League in college.
The man, the myth, the legend. Alec Bohm set to make his MLB debut for the @Phillies.
— Coastal Plain League (@CPLBaseball) August 13, 2020
Here’s Bohm on his way to winning the 2016 CPL home run derby while playing for the @ILMSharks.pic.twitter.com/Qvk4AnRujF
His approach is a simple one. "I'm just gonna see how many I can hit over the left-field fence, basically," he said, according to Corey Seidman of NBC Sports Philadelphia.
He added: "I'm trying to hit the ball on the middle of the barrel and essentially whatever happens after that happens, and hopefully, the swing is good enough to hit the ball in the air into the gap and do damage. But in a BP scenario, I feel comfortable with — I'm not gonna say it's a different swing, but it's probably not the game swing."
Bohm will be looking to join Bobby Abreu and Ryan Howard, who won the titles back-to-back in 2005 and 2006, as the third Phillies player to ever win the event.
Fans can tune in for the action Monday at 8 p.m. ET to see if Bohm is able to carry some of that underdog energy into the Home Run Derby and do what he and the team have excelled at the past few years — go on an improbable run when all odds are against him.
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