Jordan Walker Shines in Home Run Derby Amid MLB Streaming Changes

The highlight of the week in baseball, without a doubt, was Jordan Walker winning the Home Run Derby on Monday night. Cool, calm, collected, and smooth with that swing. It looked very early on that he'd be a contender, but I probably, Tom, honestly, would've went three, and I was on the air, but I definitely went three or four deep without even considering that this guy would win the Home Run Derby, but certainly he has come of age this season. He's an all-star. He's had a great year. I think if you point to why the Cardinals are as good this season, I think he's a big reason why. Do you think that Walker, who probably will be back to defend his title, I'm guessing next season at Wrigley Field, do you think that this is a coming-of-age season for him? Are you buying what you're seeing? I am, and I don't want to go as far as to say, oh, this is a super heartwarming story, but it is, because Walker was a highly-touted prospect. He comes up to the Cardinals, immense struggles, and that's putting him lightly. They're sending him up and down, up and down, he can't get his footing. He's supposed to be this cornerstone piece that the Cardinals are going to build around. A part of me always wants to say the path to success for young prospects across all sports is never linear. Some prospects come in and they're amazing, right from the jump, they're going to win Rookie of the Year, and they look great, and they're the franchise player from the start. Walker didn't take that route, so to see him have this success and finally get to somewhat of a national stage and win the Home Run Derby, I think that's just a credit to the Cardinals We're going to believe in him, it's not going to be easy, it's not going to take a short amount of time, it's going to be long, and years of sending him up and down, but he finally figured it out, and that's awesome to see. Yeah, two solid years of Walker just trying to figure it out, and then seemingly has figured it out now. We'll see how the Cardinals do with about 60 or some odd games to go in the season. Walker and J.J. Weatherholt offensively have done a fantastic job carrying them. So that was the Home Run Derby, and now let's talk about the All-Star Game, Tom. If you watched the first five minutes of that Home Run Derby, what you noticed is it looked like it was a great stream, it looked like it was going to be a lot of fun. Then we got the numbers, and the numbers say it was the least-watched derby since 2003. The only reason why I can think that this exists is because it was on Netflix. I can't think of anything else possible, because it was a very exciting start to finish. Here's the thing. First of all, a lot of money is coming into Major League Baseball. So I would ask you, Tom, do they really care what the ratings are, if they're getting all this money? And then the second part of this is that when you hold a streaming event of this magnitude, as opposed to putting it on over-the-air TV, I think you have to recognize that this is going to happen in year one. But I think what happens in year two is that you see the numbers come back up because everyone realizes it is on Netflix. For us, it's very easy. We knew the Home Run Derby was on Netflix. We put it on. But how about 50% of the country who were just casual tuners in trying to find it? They don't have subs, and then they're out. I personally am not worried about this at all. Baseball got paid a lot. They took a shot with Netflix. I could see them doing it again next season and even doing more. Eventually, you have to grow this to streaming options. That's where we're headed. Right. And this always happens. And the same thing happened, if I remember correctly, with Netflix when they first had the Christmas Day NFL games. Oh, lowest viewership. Well, it's not apples to apples. It's apples to oranges. When you have a new platform, essentially, you have a new spot that people need to go to find this. It's not just going to be on Fox, as it has been for however many straight years. So to see that it's the lowest, well, it's the highest that it's ever been on streaming. I can also flip on the other side of the coin, but it's the highest they've ever had on streaming because this is the first year. So it's obviously a bit of click-baity headlines, whatever you want to call it. Next year, I expect it to improve. There will be more promotion. There will be more this, more that. And then it'll be rolling the ball down the hill that much faster. So I see this as essentially a non-issue. If it's low next year, then we can start to have a conversation on, are they promoting it properly? And then go from there. Sure. And by the way, nobody has a contract for next year either, but the Home Run Derby will be at Wrigley Field. I would expect a lot of folks to be tuning into that.