Rays 1B Logan Morrison yesterday clarified his comments around MLB's Home Run Derby, making it "clear that his beef wasn't with" Yankees C Gary Sanchez, but instead MLB's "invitation process," according to Marc Topkin of the TAMPA BAY TIMES. Morrison said his initial comments were "not about Gary Sanchez whatsoever," but rather a "flawed system." Morrison pointed out Brewers 1B Eric Thames, who has 23 home runs this season, one less than Morrison, "got slighted too." Morrison: "How is that guy not in the home run derby for the National League. It's a flawed system. That's it.'' Topkin notes popularity would "seem to be the key there in explaining why MLB chose two Yankees -- Sanchez and overall leader Aaron Judge -- among the four AL players." Asked if he felt playing for a small-market team such as the Rays led to a player getting slighted, Morrison said, "That's the most obvious answer to a question in the history of the world" (TAMPA BAY TIMES, 7/6). In DC, Matt Bonesteel notes Sanchez only has 13 home runs, but he "plays for the Yankees." Morrison "plays for the down-market Rays." Bonesteel sarcastically writes, "Wonder if that has anything to do with it?" The derby is, "at its heart, simply a way for MLB and ESPN to get people to pay attention on a night in which the sports schedule is otherwise mostly empty." MLB also "wants to make sure the home run derby is well attended, which means two players" from the host Marlins in RF Giancarlo Stanton and 1B Justin Bour (WASHINGTON POST, 7/6). But in Tampa. Martin Fennelly writes Morrison is "right to be irked at not being invited." He "richly deserved a spot in the Derby, in his old stomping ground of Miami, where he played for the Marlins" from '10-13 (TAMPA BAY TIMES, 7/6).
