Surprise, Surprise: Robinson Cano Selects Chris Davis For Home Run Derby

Whether you like it or not (and I don’t), Chris Davis will be participating in the 2013 Home Run Derby.

To no one’s surprise, Davis, the league leader in long balls, was selected by American League captain Robinson Cano. He’ll join Prince Fielder and TBA (seriously) on Monday July 15 at Citi Field.

Three weeks ago, I wrote why I’d rather not see Davis participate in my column on MASNSports.com.

I certainly understand that casual fans enjoy watching the game’s best home run hitters gather together and launch balls out of the park on this special night each year. They even put up with Chris Berman’s play-by-play to enjoy the spectacle of baseball greats. Personally, I enjoy watching the event, but hope that Davis doesn’t participate. It’s much more important for me to see him launching homers down the stretch in the September and, hopefully, into the postseason in October, than at Citi Field on July 15.

Davis doesn’t appear worried that participating in the competition would have an adverse effect on his second half. That’s understandable. He’s a professional athlete with almost 2,000 plate appearances under his belt, but I am a concerned about the effects participating in the derby may have on the O’s best power hitter. Ask Bobby Abreu how it worked out for him in 2005 (.307/.428/.526, 18 home runs before the All-Star break, .260/.376/.411, six home runs after).

Too late now.

Truthfully, it’ll be fun to see Davis participate, he’s the first Oriole in the event since Miguel Tejada in 2006. I’m just hoping it doesn’t have an affect on him in the second half.