Home Run Derby participants aren’t bringing power in second half

There’s a reason that teams aren’t excited about their players participating in the Home Run Derby. Entering the weekend, the eight hitters who participated in the All-Star weekend event had batted.266 in the second half, with terrible power numbers (six home runs in 368 at-bats). Robinson Cano, Adrian Gonzalez, Jose Bautista and Matt Holliday hadn’t homered in a combined 187 at-bats. … Executives with other teams are puzzled by the Reds’ unwillingness to deal Ramon Hernandez, who has been at the top of the Giants’ wish list since the Carlos Beltran trade. He is a free agent after the season and prospect Devin Mesoraco is ready to replace him in a tandem with backup Ryan Hanigan, who has also been the subject of trade inquiries. … Jim Crane is expected to be approved as the Astros’ owner at a quarterly meeting in Cooperstown, N.Y., next month. He’s said to prefer the scorched earth theory of rebuilding, which is why GM Ed Wade was listening to offers for 24 players on the big league roster, the exception being 20-year-old right-hander Jordan Lyles. … As impressive as Vance Worley has been during Roy Oswalt’s absence, he has been discussed in trades. He entered this season having gone 20-21 with a 4.00 earned-run average in 67 minor league starts after being drafted in the third round from Long Beach State. … What’s a .140 average in 20 big league games worth? Backup catcher Wil Nieves, who put up those totals with Milwaukee this year, was sold to the Braves for $1 after Brian McCann went on the DL. … Prolific author Curt Smith, whose new book is “A Talk in the Park,” asserts that: A) Hawk Harrelson should win the Ford Frick Award for broadcasting, and B) that Bob Costas would be the ideal candidate to replace Bud Selig. His reasoning on Costas is that he would find ways to make baseball more appealing on television, which he says is the sport’s biggest challenge. … After Sunday, the Cardinals play the Brewers in 12 of 35 games. They were targeting Prince Fielder when they added Marc Rzepczynski, who is holding left-handed batters to a .157 average. … The Rays haven’t started a pitcher in his 30s since Jae Seo started May 24, 2007, which was his 30th birthday. It’s the longest such streak in history, replacing one of 704 straight games by the 1913-17 Senators. … Jeff Conine, a special assistant in Florida, made a splash by saying he would trade the Marlins’ star, Hanley Ramirez. He said it during a stretch when speedy third baseman Emilio Bonifacio was locked in a hitting streak that had helped Florida go 19-7 after being 3-23 in the stretch before his streak began. Ramirez, who was given a $70-million contract before his 25th birthday, seems indifferent to criticism.

— Phil Rogers