There’s nothing quite like a Strat-O-Matic simulation to really get someone excited for the Home Run Derby in San Diego. Using the official matchups of the Derby, Strat-O-Matic simulated tonight’s slugfest, using an analogous format to tonight’s contest. For each head to head matchup, if the second (higher seeded) batter exceeded the totals of the first, he was stopped immediately and advanced to the next round.

 

The matchups and seeds were as follows:

 

 

With the exception of the first matchup, which saw Trumbo quickly surpass Seager’s total of nine to move into the next round, every underdog proved victorious. Frazier could not match Gonzalez’s mark of 11 home runs, falling just short with 10 and unable to convert on his last swing.  Wil Myers took advantage of his home ballpark and blasted 13 home runs, which put him just out of reach of Duvall, who could only manage 12.  Giancarlo Stanton blew Cano out of the water with 17 home runs while Cano could only muster up 11.

 

The second round of head to heads were as follows:

 

This round featured two extremely close matchups. Top-seeded Trumbo prevailed against Stanton with his last swing to hit his 18^th homer and prevent a tiebreaker. Myers and Gonzalez finished deadlocked at 12 home runs, which led to an overtime round where Gonzalez triumphed by a score of 4-3.

 

Thus the final saw Mark Trumbo face off against unlikely finalist Carlos Gonzalez.  Gonzalez started strong by knocking out 11, but Trumbo hit his 12th home run with time to spare to take the crown. His last month has been hot and this contest was no exception, so congratulations to Trumbo and Baltimore!