A's Brent Rooker Will Win the Home Run Derby

Yesterday we discussed why Brent Rooker was at a disadvantage in the MLB Home Run Derby, since the wall in left field at Truist Park in Atlanta is ten feet further from home plate than the wall in right, and with five of the eight derby participants being left-handers, that could have an impact on Rooker's odds of winning.

Before Sunday's first-half finale against the Toronto Blue Jays, Athletics on SI asked Rooker about that being a potential disadvantage, and he downplayed it, given the format of the event. He believes that since the whole point is to hit grooved batting practice fastballs as far as you can, that those ten feet likely wouldn't have an impact on where he finishes.

Still, MLB.com released their rankings of the derby contenders, and the four lefties plus the switch-hitting Cal Raleigh earned their top five selections, with the righty bats holding the sixth, seventh, and eight slots.

They even said that Rooker "has big Just Happy To Be Here vibes in this Derby."

Those are just his vibes. He's a delightful fella! He also ranks seventh in home runs across all batters since the start of last season with 59. Raleigh is the only player in the derby that ranks higher than Rooker on that leaderboard with 72.

Now, this may not play a factor at all, but something to consider is that Raleigh is doing most of his damage at the dish this season while he's the Mariners' backstop, batting .272 with 31 home runs. As the team's DH, he's hitting just .217 with seven homers in 83 at-bats. That's about one home run per every 12 at-bats, while he's averaging one every nine ABs overall.

He's also a switch hitter that has tremendous pop from both sides, but has had more success pulling the ball to left field than to right this season. So which side of the dish does he swing it from? Right field has the shorter porch, but he may be more effective as a righty.

There's also the fact that Rooker is one of the older bats in this derby, and while that may be seen as a disadvantage, he's also in tremendous shape and is used to coming off the bench to swat home runs--he's the A's DH after all.

Why A's DH Brent Rooker Will Win the Derby

Rooker is also a very cerebral player, and in the media scrum after he was announced for the derby, he mentioned the new rules (three minutes or 40 balls) and made it seem like he's already looking for the best strategy for himself to get the most home run swings. Some of the other contenders may go in and rely more on pure talent.

Both Oneil Cruz and James Wood have average launch angles on the season of less than ten degrees, which puts some question marks surrounding them in this competition, and Junior Caminero is right at ten degrees.

Arguably the biggest point in favor of Rooker winning this whole thing is that he's not going to have any pressure on him to put on a show. Raleigh is the home run king of the first half and the favorite to win it all, but that doesn't necessarily mean he's gonna get it done. Rooker will be able to go up there and just do what he does without any distractions.

Rooker doesn't lead the league in max exit velocity or furthest home run hit or any of those flashy analytic tools. But he does think about hitting quite a bit and has shown over the past three seasons in the green and gold that he's pretty good at it. The only reason he may be looked over is because people don't watch him enough.

Monday's derby will be a terrific opportunity for Rooker to introduce himself and what he can do.