Madison Bumgarner not worried about hurting himself in Home Run Derby

Madison Bumgarner says he is not too concerned about hurting himself in the Home Run Derby, which is the one deterrent that’s been cited as a reason to keep him out of the competition next month.

Most baseball fans seemingly would love to watch Bumgarner become the first pitcher to participate in the Home Run Derby. In a poll we ran on Twitter, 88 percent of respondents said they want to see him in it, while only 12 percent said no. Bumgarner wants to participate, but the San Francisco Giants are concerned about him hurting himself and missing time as a result.

“That can be a lot of swings,” Giants manager Bruce Bochy said Tuesday via the San Jose Mercury News. “I don’t worry about him losing his swing. But you don’t want him swinging as hard as he can and maybe hurting an oblique or something.”

Bumgarner isn’t too worried about getting hurt, though.

“You see how hard I swing in batting practice,” he said via the Mercury News’ Andrew Baggarly. “I do that all the time.”

The counter to that statement is that Bumgarner may feel pressure to swing even harder than normal because he wants to impress in the Home Run Derby. But it seems to me that Bumgarner tries to impress in his batting practice sessions as well — just watch this for evidence.

The likelihood of Bumgarner getting hurt in the Home Run Derby seems so small that the Giants should let him participate. The fans will absolutely love it.