Nobody thinks that New York Mets 1B Pete Alonso is close to being the best fantasy baseball option in the sport. Then again, since he made his big-league debut in 2019, nobody has hit more regular-season home runs than his 86. Alonso's impressive power was on display Monday night in Denver when he won another Home Run Derby -- and did so with what looked like relative ease because his swing seems built for the challenge of hitting baseballs very far, almost impervious to slumps.
Still, good luck convincing fantasy baseball managers that Alonso (and the others who competed on Monday night) are free from any so-called Home Run Derby jinx. A small handful of participants over the past 20 years have slumped after the break and even blamed the Derby for affecting their swing, but those have actually been quite rare. A jinx is also a bit illogical. My contention is that we tend to focus on contestants who struggle after the Derby and blame the competition as if a silly curse actually exists, and we ignore myriad other factors. Many sluggers do, in fact, continue their power assaults. Some do not. Some would not have anyway. We call it regression to some reasonable mean.