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In this era of Major League Baseball, where power is hard to come by, the Home Run Derby takes on a new level of importance. We don't just watch to see balls go over the fence but to see the amazing feats of strength from these incredible athletes. 

The Seattle Mariners enter the All-Star break with a 2.5-game lead in the race for the second American League wild-card spot but still have some clear needs to address at the MLB trading deadline.

Yoenis Cespedes can't be stopped.

Baseball's All-Star Game has many quirks to its credit. The so-called Midsummer Classic actually takes place near the start of summer, which begins only three weeks prior in late June. And despite some pegging it as the midway point of the regular season, most teams will have already played about 60 percent of their schedule.

Yasiel Puig entered the 2014 Home Run Derby with some implicit expectations on his shoulders.

Being 23 years old and built like a brick outhouse, Puig came into the ball-spanking competition with the general assumption that he would wow the crowd, if not win the competition.

So it came as a none-too-tiny surprise when Puig, a decent power hitter by any measure, failed to hit a single home run in the Derby on Monday night.

It's impossible to put together a bad starting lineup at the All-Star game. After all, we are talking about nine of the best players in both the American and National League, but some moves do raise an eyebrow in a good or bad way. 

The job for AL manager John Farrell and NL manager Mike Matheny is to put their best foot forward and give their team a chance to win, thereby securing home-field advantage for their league in the World Series. 

It has become redundant to say, but the Oakland A’s made the biggest assault on a possible 2014 World Series title when they added Jeff Samardzija and Jason Hammel to their already-dominant pitching staff on the Fourth of July.

Miami Marlins slugger Giancarlo Stanton looked like the odds-on favorite to win the 2014 Home Run Derby Monday night after clubbing six homers in the first round. He didn't hit a single one in the semifinals, though, and the new format may have been the culprit.   

The 2014 Home Run Derby was one of the most anticipated sporting events of the summer, but for many fans who watched the event on Monday, the results were very disappointing.

Not that the Oakland Athletics needed more good vibes in 2014, ending the first half with the best record in Major League Baseball and acquiring Jeff Samardzija before the All-Star break, but

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