Brent Rooker's Controversial Home Run Derby Exit Hits Different After Manfred Comment

Athletics slugger Brent Rooker put on a show in Monday's Home Run Derby, slugging 17 home runs as the second participant and being the one that had to set the bar for the six batters that would swing after him.

Three would clear his bar, two would fall short, and Cal Raleigh would end up with 17 of his own.

Typically, that would lead to a swing-off in the Home Run Derby for added fun for the event, but instead they went to a projection of how far the furthest home run traveled for both Rooker and Raleigh and announced a winner based on math .

We love launch angles and projected stats as much as anyone, but the results on the field are what matter at the end of the day.

Decimal points should not be determining a winner.

Turns out they were separated by less that 0.1 feet, according to MLB.

When it's this close, make a judgement call and go for the swing-off anyway.

It's what the fans want.

Baseball is supposed to be providing entertainment, but instead what they typically end up doing is watering down their own sport for no reason.

Sure, they have a hard out on ESPN, but for this to be how one of your esteemed All Stars is eliminated is ridiculous.

It also doesn't help that Rooker says that he was told he'd get two warm-up throws before he had to start swinging, and those balls never ended up coming back to the bucket, so he ended up with 38 swings and five seconds remaining.

On a home run per swing basis, Rooker was actually the better competitor.

The broadcast also seemed unsure of the rules, as they were discussing a swing-off heading into Matt Olson's swings, and then when he was done it was suddenly changed to Raleigh being the one that would advance.

Sure, there are new rules involved, but it doesn't seem as though the broadcast nor the participants knew what the rules were, which is a problem.

What makes this all comical is that A's fans are used to this sort of thing happening, where it's obvious the league would prefer a different player to be featured instead of one in green and gold, and suddenly there is something that means the the favorite or more well-known player is featured.

This all comes after Rob Manfred appeared on the Pat McAfee Show before the Derby and talked about how MLB needs to fix the system so that every fan base feels that they have a fair shot against the bigger clubs.

While the Mariners aren't necessarily a big market club, Raleigh is the home run leader in baseball and was the favorite to win the Derby.

He was easily the star of the show.

It's not hard to believe that something may have changed with the rules to give him the edge--especially since the rules that had been communicated ended up being false.

Manfred can talk about needing the system to be better and more equitable, but when nobody has trust in what he's saying, given that he's there to serve the owners at the end of the day, then how is he supposed to be able to fix the system in a way that will make the owners spend more that doesn't also include putting a salary cap on the sport--something that the MLBPA feels would limit earning power for players.

Rob Manfred is not a dummy.

He can work his talking point about the salary cap--something he's been speaking about more of late--into a conversation about making the Pittsburgh Pirates more competitive.

He didn't say that his goal was the salary cap in that conversation, but this seems like a very similar tactic to the one he's giving to the players about the salary cap, as reported in The Athletic .

In that piece, Manfred says that he will start off with a point (in our circumstance that would be the system being unfair), and then lead them to believe what you want them to believe.

It's easy for fans to agree that the system is unfair, because even big market fans will say it's not fair that their team has to supplement the owners that are unwilling to spend.

It's a general statement that can work on everyone.

He's also hoping that it builds trust that he's the guy that will make the game fair, and fans will end up being in support of his salary cap.

He can make those arguments all he wants, but his track record of mistakes and losing the public's trust is fairly long.

From allowing John Fisher to rip the A's out of Oakland, to how he handled the Houston Astros cheating scandal, to things as minute as player jerseys, see-through pants and the seams on baseballs.

He's dropped the ball a lot.

But he keeps bringing in profits for the owners, which is his main job.

It's just getting too expensive to watch a baseball game these days, which is also hurting the sport, but that's not something that they'll do anything about..

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