The Home Run Derby is annually one of the more popular events in Major League Baseball, taking place on All-Star Monday. The event also draws complaints on an annual basis because, well, it's a national event and people complain. I will say that it has been way too long the past several years and the changes here seem aimed to shorten things up.

First of all, there are eight players in a single-elimination head-to-head bracket, which is a departure from the AL vs. NL team format. The players will be seeded based upon regular season home runs through July 7 (this doesn't seem to necessarily mean the top eight players in home runs will be picked).

Instead of getting five or 10 "outs," now the players will be on the clock. Each batter will have five minutes to hit as many home runs as he can. The time starts with the release of the first pitch. In the last minute, however, the timer will stop on a home run and not start again until the batter swings and doesn't hit a home run. So if he gets real hot, there's still a chance at, in theory, unlimited homers.

Got it? Good, because it's about to get more complicated from here.

Batters can earn bonus time for tape measure shots. For every two homers of over 420 feet, a batter will earn an extra minute. For each home run of over 475 feet, the batter gets an extra 30 seconds. Players can earn both, too, but 90 seconds is the maximum in bonuses.

If there's a tie in any round, there will be a 90-second swing off with no clock stoppage of bonuses awarded.

Finally, each hitter gets one timeout per round, which will last 45 seconds.

As with anything, it's hard to judge how this will work until we actually see it play out, but I think this will make it much more exciting and keep everyone interested into the finals, something that had been a problem in the last few years.

Can Yoenis Cespedes win the Derby again with the new format?
Can Yoenis Cespedes win the Derby again with the new format? (USATSI)