The home run derby is a popularity contest, and there might be no player more popular around the world than the Angels' Shohei Ohtani.
Ohtani's teammates and peers regularly marvel at the show he puts on in batting practice, never more so than Friday, when he hit a ball off the scoreboard high above right field. On Saturday, the Angels measured the distance with the kind of laser rangefinder popularly used in golf.
"You're talking about batting practice?" Scioscia said. "We're not going to talk about batting practice."
Ohtani would be a no-brainer as a contestant, particularly since the criteria for selection includes this: "the player's popularity.