Marlins right fielder Giancarlo Stanton continued marching toward the 60-home run mark on Saturday when he slugged his 54th long ball of the year, a 456-foot shot off Braves left-hander Max Fried. While the 68-74 Marlins lost the game and have dropped 11 of their past 13 to plummet from playoff contention, Stanton still seems likely to garner serious NL MVP consideration even if he doesn’t reach 60. The 27-year-old currently leads every other NL player by at least 17 homers, after all, and has slashed an incredible .282/.377/.646 in 604 plate appearances.
The excellence Stanton has exhibited could be difficult for MVP voters to ignore, particularly if he does reach the celebrated 60 figure by season’s end. In doing so, the 27-year-old would follow Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire, Sammy Sosa, Roger Maris and Babe Ruth as the sixth player to accomplish the feat (McGwire and Sosa each did it multiple times) and the first since 2001. That was the year Bonds smashed a record 73. Remarkably, Stanton may have outdone his former hitting coach had he been as otherworldly in the season’s first half as he has been since the All-Star break.
While Stanton racked up a “mere” 26 long balls in 369 PAs between Opening Day and mid-July, he’s already at 28 through 235 attempts over the nearly two months since the Yankees’ Aaron Judge upstaged him at the Home Run Derby on Stanton’s turf in Miami. Stanton has gone yard every 8.39 trips to the plate in the second half, which would translate to 83 over a 700-PA season (Stanton’s on track for 698). Should Stanton continue to stay healthy and hammer HRs at his second-half pace, he’d finish the year with around 65 – a number only Bonds, McGwire (twice) and Sosa (twice) have matched or exceeded.
As superb as Stanton has been, it goes without saying that it will be immensely difficult for him to keep raking at his current clip over the Marlins’ final 20 games of the season. But both the slate of mostly unspectacular starting pitchers scheduled to face Stanton over the next couple weeks and the Marlins’ three-game set at Colorado’s Coors Field thereafter should aid him in his quest to go deep at least six more times this year. Clearly, Stanton’s on the verge of posting one of the most awe-inspiring offensive seasons in the history of the sport. The question is: Will he pull it off?
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
He can still go on another run. I believe he will get to 60 no doubt. 65 is a stretch but it depends on what type of “run” he goes on lol. He could get to 65.
Now if he passes 61, will the “old fashioned” fans still keep saying “Roger Maris still holds the HR record” because they refuse to accept that a modern player can cleanly beat the record? Not saying Stanton is indisputably clean, but I still bet some fans will refuse to accept it.
hell yeah id accept stanton if he gets 60 or more. Bonds, hell no
If a player is clean, it counts. If the player is a cheater like McGwire, Sosa or Bonds, it doesn’t. Simple.
And Stanton is all natural too.. lol
It’s not that plain and simple because people have been accusing players of using steroids without merit since the early 2000s.
I would gladly call Staton the new king! He is exciting and earned it with a clean reputation to this point.
“Some Fans” will always be haters…..nature of sports, I guess.
Some fans hate Mike Trout…..Why?……..Because he’s “so good”……that’s why. Dumb, but true.
The “Hot Streak” was because of a change in his stance, in the middle of this season….. not because he just got hot.
It’s a sustainable change.
Watch what he does next year.
A true baseball fan always recognizes talent no matter what team he is on
I don’t accept Bonds, McGwire, or Sosa. Players today get tested so often that you have to accept Stanton. He’d be the 3rd to reach the mark of 60, if he does.
There are plenty ways around a test. Don’t kid yourself
Name 10.
You said there were plenty so this should be no problem
Russian doping scandal??
He’ll be the 6th player not the 3rd. Not condoning roids or any PED’s but you can’t discount the numbers those guys put up. Big Mac and Sosa brought baseball back from a bad place with all those homers. Show me one fan who can honestly say they weren’t excited by what those guys were doing. Most fans were glued to sports center or the news paper every day in hopes to see another dinger tallied up. Bonds in my opinion was the one with a vengeance because his in his big head he had to be the best. And let’s face it at the time those numbers were put up none of it was against the rules of MLB. To me cheating is playing outside the rules.
Steroids were against the rules since 1991.
LOL, why the hell did my question get 4 thumbs down? It was a legitimate question that contained no accusations.
Gonna go out on a limb and predict Giancarlo will have more dingers than the entire double A roster of the SF Giants the rest of the year
Did someone in a Giants hat abuse u as a kid? We get it, u don’t like SF
You Mad?
Me?
Obviously you are, and it’s comin off a little obsessive guy…just sayin
Well, geez, sorry I peed in your Wheaties pal 😉
I always thought MVP was he who helped a team to the postseason.
Mike Trout says no.
No, it’s most valuable player in the league.
Team record has nothing to do with it.
Record should have nothing to do with it and Trout should have 4 MVPs by now
Winning is the most valuable stat of all in team sports, and must also be considered in the MVP discussions. If we didn’t keep standings, and decide a champion, I could understand disregarding team records, but that’s not reality.
There’s a difference between MVP and player of the year. The Fish won’t make the playoffs with or without him. Other than at the gate, how valuable is he? Paul Goldschmidt to me is MVP deserving just to name one person I’d vote for over Stanton for MVP. POTY though is a different story…
The MVP criteria states that it is given to the leagues most outstanding player. Nowhere does it say he has to be on a playoff team
Where does it say MOST outstanding? The two sites i just read said “an outstanding” suggesting the criteria is more than just stats. He’s deserving of consideration. Some voters won’t vote a pitcher MVP because they have the Cy Young award. Others don’t consider a closer for Cy Young and look at HOF voting. If I had the decision, PED guys would be out and the Hall would already include players from the 60s, 70s and 80s whose stats look marginal now like Munson, Evans, Tiant, Garvey and Kaat just to name a few. With more recent players, hoping Schilling and Mussina make it. Schilling was as clutch in the playoffs for so many teams and Mussina was consistent like Don Sutton. Never spectacular but very consistent. The eye test needs to become more important again.
Off the top of your head, last MVP on a non-playoff team….
Mike Trout, like last year
Haha touché, I was hoping to go a bit further
Howard in 2006 comes to mind
Cal Ripken, Jr. was named MVP in 1991 and the Orioles went 67-95.
I’m gonna say 890.
Finally we get a post out of you that makes sense. It only took you 890 tries
Giants fans are convinced they’re gonna contend next year because “they have money to spend” hahahaha
Less than 60. The pressure will get to him or he will hurt himself, as usual.
Stanton is not as “injury prone” as some of you make him out to be.
He got Hit In The Face By A PITCH!!!……Not his fault
He broke his hamate bone (many players do)….not an injury that can happen again
He’s missed some time because even though he was healthy, the Marlins were so far out of the race, that they just shut him down for ROS……that happened twice.
In 2015….in just 74 games…He had a season that most other players would have been happy with over 162 games……
.265/.346/.606/.952……….27 HR’s, 67 RBI’s, 31 doubles, and 34 BB’s……..in just 279 AB’s. He’s a lifetime .270 hitter, and changes a lineup just by being in it.
That’s excellent production from a single player.
60+ would be an amazing achievement. McGwire, Sosa, and Bonds are were using performance enhancing drugs. There’s no denying that inflated their totals.
And Maris had an MVP caliber Mickey Mantle hitting behind him. Ruth had Gehrig.
If Stanton gets 62+, it will be one of the greatest single season baseball achievements ever. MVP should be a given.
Sosa never tested positive, did he?
Likewise for Bonds..
The US government found steroids at his house and arrested his “personal trainer” for dealing illegal steroids. Is that not enough evidence for you?
Greg Anderson went to jail and still never implicated Bonds in using steroids. There were never any steroids found at Bonds home,records were found at Andersons home showing calendars with the initials BB and a hand written note labeled Barry..with a list of steroids and planned blood tests,and of other players Jason Giambi included. Bonds won the perjury case against him by the government and this all in the public records. Like it or not the record stands with Bonds.
I don’t get how Bonds is vilified yet David Ortiz is given a pass when he failed a test on the record.
Ortiz never failed a major league test.
The millennial dreamers who still want to worship “their” generation of players and insist that Sosa and Bonds did nothing wrong. The same people who say that Willie Mays, Ty Cobb and Walter Johnson cheated.
The huge increase in size of Bonds, and turning back the forces of aging, are more than enough evidence that PEDS were used.
Yes he did..he was on that survey list and his name was leaked. His excuses are both comical on how evasive they are.
Never said I don’t believe Bonds used..just that it was never proven…
Ortiz was implicated in the Mitchell report. Smarten up
He Sure would look great with the Cardinals birds on the bat Jerseys!!!
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