Tonight inside the air-conditioned confines of Chase Field, Robinson Cano of the New York Yankees won the 2011 Home Run Derby.  Cano edged out Adrian Gonzalez of the Boston Red Sox by one home run in the final round to win it all.  I must admit, the final rounds between Gonzalez and Cano were pretty exciting.  Two sweet-swinging lefties launching baseballs into pools and hoards of fans in every jersey imaginable is always exciting to any red-blooded American.  Cano also stole the spotlight by having his father pitch to him.  It was a very cool sight to see this.  As long as i can remember, it has always been coaches or other players that have thrown to the derby competitors.  Cano's father, Jose, was beaming with joy to see his son win the derby, although at points didn't show it.  The love the two share for the game was evident when Cano was hitting bombs over 400 ft and even when his father was feeding him balls doing some tee work in between rounds.  Now to be honest I'm not the first person to give credit to someone in yankee pinstripes, but Cano put on a great show.

The problem I had with this year's format of the Home Run Derby.  First of all, I did not like the team captain format.  Now don't get me wrong, Prince Fielder is a best player to ever hit a home run in his pajamas night after night, but he picked a terrible team.  I understand the idea of picking a teammate, but hearing that I'm going to watch Rickie Weeks compete just doesn't do it for me.  If Ryan Braun was healthy, he would have obviously made a much better pick, but that was up to Fielder to pick him as well.  Also, people in Arizona wanted a hometown guy to be out there.  Now the leaders for home runs on the Diamondbacks are Kelly Johnson and Chris Young, both with 16.  Kelly Johnson is hitting .218, so forget that, and Young was in the derby just last year and hit as many home runs in that derby as Cliff Lee has hit this season (that's 1 for those keeping score at home).  But Justin Upton sits at 15 on the year and would have probably put on a better show in his home stadium than Matt Kemp and Rickie Weeks, but that's always hard to say.  Also, why not a Philadelphia Phillie, Ryan Howard.  I understand he has won before and been in the derby twice, but Sammy Sosa was in 6 different derbys.  So there is no precedent for limiting players to only a few derbys.  Howard has proved that he can slug with the best of them, winning in Pittsburgh in 2006.  Howard has 18 home runs this year, more than both Holliday and Weeks.

Biggest Disappointment: Jose Bautista.  The guy has 31 homers at the break.  Hes already on pace to break his total from last year of 54.  He certainly had the most hype coming into the derby and it almost looked as if he was trying too hard.  If you watch tape of him absolutely destroying balls in Toronto, his swing is very calm and relaxed, but last night it looked as if he was nervous and never got a chance to get into a groove.  He'll get another chance in a future derby if he keeps his regular season numbers up like he has been doing lately.

-Tristan Tschoepe