Yankee All Star happenings: Rivera Hurt and withdraws, Cano in HR derby

Today the home run derby contestants were announced, one of those participants will be the Yanks own Robinson Cano. While if this was 10 years ago i would have been delighted that a Yankee was part of the derby. But nowadays I want the Yanks to have nothing to do with the derby, the home run derby is know to have messed with the swing of many of the participants. Two past HR derby participants that struggled to regain there swing following the home run hitting contest, is Bobby Abreu and David Wright. Both batters are similar to Cano, they would hit for power but at the same time they were both more of  line drive hitters.

When Bobby Abreu was part of the home run derby in 2005, he put on a show hitting a record 24 homers in his first round. Abreu would win the event by hitting a total of 41 dingers, that season before he took part, he had hit 18 home runs and was hitting .307. Following his 41 exhibition homers he hit just .260 and only six home runs. Prior to 2005 Abreu's lowest home run output in an entire season was 20, since then his highest total has been 20.

The other example is cross town rival David Wright, in 2006 he was having an MVP caliber first half and was named to the All Star team. Wright also participated in the derby that season and in the first round hit 16 home runs. Wright would hit a grand total of 22 and would lose to Ryan Howard. That season before the derby Wright hit 20 home runs and drive in 74 runs, after the derby he hit just 6 home runs and drove in only 42 runs.

So as you can tell I am not a fan of Cano taking part in the HR derby, especially since i would consider Wright and Abreu hitters who are similar to Cano. All three are more of the line drive, gap hitting type. Cano is having such a good season and such a smooth swing that the Yankees could not afford for him to slow down and have his swing tinkered with. Cano in the past was known for getting into bad habits such as chasing pitches out of the zone, he has since taken a more pitches and doesn't chase as often.

The other news of the evening is that Mariano Rivera has pulled out of the All Star game due to injuries. Rivera had said prior to Tuesdays game against the A's in Oakland that he would not take part in the mid summer classic due to a left side injury and a knee injury. Mo will be available to pitch for the Yankees before the break, but is limited to one inning. This is a mature move by Mo to rest and help his team rather then aggravate the injuries worse.