Could the derby spark Julio Rodríguez?

The Home Run Derby has often been portrayed as a death sentence for hitters, dooming their second halves with poor performance. We know this isn't true, but could the derby be the boost Julio needs?

Participating in the Home Run Derby wasn’t always something that was celebrated. While the event has always been beloved, old wives’ tales told us they would ruin the swing of a player and hurt his second-half production. 

By now we know this isn’t true, but Julio Rodríguez experienced some of this Derby curse last season with the wrist injury he sustained as a result of his participation. His performance didn’t suffer, however, posting a 169 wRC+ in the second half. This figure was 33 points higher than his first-half number. 

Now let me be clear, I am not drawing any conclusions between the derby and Rodríguez’s second half. However, his derby performance shows us a big-time key that could spark a second-half run for Julio. Pull the baseball.