Giancarlo Stanton, OF

[Swifty]

He likes the 'nati

[Beef]

Poor Buster

[nny]

Highest HR/FB% in all of baseball
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4th in ISO behind Bautista (.343), Thome (.310), and Dunn (.302)

Oh so close to passing Ott for highest ISO ever for a 20 year old

[FishFF]

what's his k% last month or so?

[PitchingWinsGames]

19.4 thus far in August, compared to 34.9 in July

[Swifty]

Just a fun footnote, Stanton still leads the Southern League in homers. Hasn't played there since June 5th.

[PitchingWinsGames]

I probably did the numbers wrong, but given his current FB% (38%) and his currently hr/fb (28.6), over the course of 100 ABs, Stanton would hit 10-11 HRs, extrapolate that further to 500 ABs and you're talking 50 HR skills. This, of course, factors sustaining things and such, but still.

[nny]

Another thing of just how amazing it is that he leads MLB in HR/FB%: he's also secind in IFFB% (Behind Jack Wilson, who has 0 HRs). Meaning that he absolutely KILLS everybody in HR/OFFB% (Which is what it really should be, since a IFFB can't go for a HR).

Unfortunately, he always hits a lot of pop ups, so while it should go down some, it'll still be high. Although with his power, I'm waiting for him to hit a pop up for a home run

[emkayseven]

if a pop up just never came down because it went so high, would it be a home run?

[PitchingWinsGames]

if a pop up just never came down because it went so high, would it be a home run?

Mike Stanton brings his own ground rules to parks

[PitchingWinsGames]

I wrote this at another site - not that site - but while it's nothing amazingly conclusive or ground shattering, it is somewhat relevant I guess

In Stanton's case, a HR hitter, Line Drives and Fly Balls are important. Hence the Thome and Dunn comparisons in ISO/power. Therefore, if a guy hits a lot of flyballs, the higher % of those that are home runs are important. So, if Stanton has a 38% fly ball rate, in 100 ABs he will hit 38 fly balls. If of those 38 flyballs, ~10 of them go for HRs, that's his ~28% HR/FB rate. It's a measure of how successful he is at putting the ball over the fence. You can then compare the rates to minor league numbers and see if they translate. If Stanton's HR/FB rate was only like 14% in the minors then we know he's WAY over his head here.

So let's look at AA this year where he had a 40.4% flyball rate, given the fact that MLB pitchers are going to better induce groundballs, we see the regression to 38 as reasonable.

So in 192, subtract the 53 Ks, 139 MiLB ABs with batted balls, ~40% FBs = 56 fly balls. 21 of those were HRs, which gets us 38% HR/FB. So, considering the contact rates are about the same, he's doing the same things with the ball when he makes desired contact, to include the minors to majors regression (10% difference in outcomes).

Long story short, ML pitchers are doing what they're doing but when he does make his contact, he does what he's always done with it. Additionally, he is ONLY 20 years old, so not close to being in his prime.

[Party]

if a pop up just never came down because it went so high, would it be a home run?

It all depends:

A batted ball that hits the catwalk, lights or suspended objects in foul territory will automatically be ruled a dead ball and it shall be called a strike.

A batted ball that hits a catwalk, lights or suspended objects in fair territory shall be judged fair of foul in relation to the striking point on the ground or where it is touched by the fielder. If the ball hits the catwalk, lights or suspended objects in fair territory and lands in the field in fair territory or is touched by a fielder in fair territory, it shall be judged a fair ball. If the ball strikes the catwalk, lights or suspended objects in fair territory and is caught by a fielder in fair or foul territory, then the batter is out and the base runners run at their own risk.

A batted ball that hits the catwalk, lights or suspended objects and remains on or in the catwalk, lights or suspended objects in foul territory is a foul ball and it shall be called a strike.

A batted ball that hits the catwalk, lights or suspended objects and remains on or in the catwalk, lights or suspended objects in fair territory is a fair ball and it shall be called a double.

A batted ball that hits either of the lower two catwalks, lights or suspended objects in fair territory is a home run.

http://mlb.mlb.com/tb/ballpark/ground_rules.jsp

[MiamiHomer]

Dos Equis wanted Mike as the most interesting man in the world but found out he was only 20 years old.
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Mike Stanton connected for two solo home runs in Friday's 7-2 loss to the Reds. At 20 years and 278 days old, he became the youngest player to homer twice in a game since Jose Reyes did it in 2003.

It continued a torrid week for the rookie outfielder, as Stanton is 11-for-16 with four homers, four doubles and eight RBI over the first four games of the team's current road trip. I shudder to think what he could have done if he wasn't battling a cold.

After terrorizing the Southern League to begin the year, Stanton made his major league debut back on June 8. He struggled to a .231/.299/.481 batting line to go along with a scary 61/16 K/BB ratio over his first 160 at-bats in the big leagues. Some thought Stanton just wasn't ready to face major league pitching, but he has quickly made some adjustments this month, batting a ridiculous .444 (16-for-36) with five homers, four doubles, nine RBI and a 7/7 K/BB ratio, improving his overall batting line to .270/.345/.571 on the year.

Stanton now has an incredible 14 homers and 15 doubles through his first 196 at-bats in the majors. Granted, his numbers are a bit inflated by virtue of his recent hot streak, but he'll enter Saturday's action with a .917 OPS.

This struck me as something pretty special, so I tried to track down the all-time single-season OPS leaders among 20 year olds with at least 200 plate appearances (Stanton has 220 plate appearances thus far). Here's what I found:

1) Mel Ott - 1.084 (1929)
2) Alex Rodriguez - 1.045 (1996)
3) Ted Williams - 1.045 (1939)
4) Al Kaline - .967 (1955)
5) Jimmie Foxx - .964 (1928)
6) Frank Robinson - .936 (1956)
7) Mickey Mantle - .924 (1952)
8) Mike Stanton - .917 (2010)
9) Vada Pinson - .880 (1959)
10) Orlando Cepeda - .854 (1958)

We'll see how he finishes the year, but this is some astoundingly impressive company.

While Stanton ranks eighth, it's worth noting that Jason Heyward is 13th (.818) and Starlin Castro is 19th (.812). Just the latest evidence that we're witnessing one of the best rookie classes in recent memory.

Mike Stanton making history at just 20 years old

[FishFF]

NL player of the week.

[Bobbob1313]

He's got a pretty good start on PoTM