There is potential for a possible light show every time Giancarlo Stanton steps to the plate. He has some of the hardest hits ever recorded in the Statcast era and this season he’s showing that he can get it done multiple ways in the batter’s box.
This season, Giancarlo Stanton has quieted an entire nation of critics who questioned whether or not he could stay healthy and stand alongside Aaron Judge as the top power tandems in the Majors.
According to Statcast, which is a system that gives specific metrics and numbers in baseball, Stanton has the second-highest average exit velocity at 95.1 MPH — just trailing his outfield mate Aaron Judge who averages 95.4 MPH.
Stanton is the leader of the pack by having the hardest hit baseball this season at 122.2 MPH and has the highest hard hitting percentage at 55%.
Stanton also has eight batted balls that have registered over 119MPH this season, the rest of the league has only one.
He also has the record for the hardest hit ball in 16 Major League ballparks including Dodgers Stadium, Yankee Stadium, Oracle Park, Kauffman Stadium, Fenway Park and Busch Stadium.
Monday night Stanton slipped in the batter’s box after hitting what would become a go-ahead two run double in the 6th inning against the Braves. Despite nearly falling over, he still hit the baseball 119.2 MPH.
Little dude took a 106 MPH Giancarlo Stanton home run right to the head. Cameras showed him laughing about it moments later pic.twitter.com/AQcrgUEulM
Even children are not safe when Stanton has a bat in his hand. Last Thursday he hit a 106 MPH home run that hit a kid in the Yankee Stadium bleachers on the head.
Despite the scare, the kid was seen laughing at it in the end, and was even given a baseball for being a good sport.
The best ability for Stanton this season has been availability as he’s been a consistent part of the lineup through all the ups and downs, injuries and COVID issues the Yankee roster has dealt with.
He along with Aaron Judge are two of the four Yankees to play in 100 games this season.
To put that into perspective, Stanton played in just 23 of the 60 games last season and 18 games out of 162 in 2019.
Giancarlo Stanton hits a HR to right field to put the Yankees on the board first! 💥
This season truly took a turn for the better for the Yankees at the trade deadline and Stanton has been a key piece in helping the lineup reach its full potential.
With the addition of Anthony Rizzo at first base, last season’s home run champion Luke Voit was bumped into the Designated Hitter role.
That caused Stanton to be moved into the outfield for the first time since his 2017 MVP season with the Miami Marlins.
Giancarlo Stanton talks about the mood in the Yankees' clubhouse during this 10-game winning streak
"When we're feeding off each other like that, we just gotta keep pushing and keep this going" pic.twitter.com/nhKPZswbB8
He made his first start in the outfield on July 30th and has seen his numbers at the plate rise while his defense has been solid.
Over the last month he is batting .287 with 19 RBI, 16 runs and five home runs including three in his last seven games.
Stanton has also reached base safely in 22 consecutive games entering Tuesday night’s action.
Stanton and the Yankees will continue their series against the Braves this week before a four-game set against the wild card hopeful Oakland Athletics this weekend.
After all of the undeserved flack he’s taken, Yankees fans owe this man a huge apology.
Giancarlo Stanton continues to rake and on Monday he flicked his wrists, hit a 387-foot homer, collected two hits and three RBI in a 5-1 Yankees win over the ATL Braves. The win was surging New York’s 10th in a row.
And while his bat has been a welcomed addition to an already loaded Yankees’ lineup, it’s what Stanton has done on the other side of the ball that should excite Yankee fans across the country.
Earlier this month, Giancarlo patrolled the outfield for the first time since October 12, 2019.
Stanton has become a regular in the Yankees’ outfield again. Giancarlo has played left or right field for New York seven times in the last 15 games.
Yankees manager Aaron Boone seemed to predict how playing the outfield again would spark his slumping star.
“But there’s no question — he’s been a very good outfielder throughout his career,” said Yankees’ manager Aaron Boone when asked about putting his slugger back in the outfield. “And that’s how he’s played most of his career.
“So hopefully it is something that in the long run serves him well performance-wise, but maybe in the long run, helps him stay a little bit healthier even by being a little bit more athletic a couple times a week.”
Now this tone was a complete 180 from the Yankees’ philosophy toward keeping their quarter billion dollar investment healthy.
You see, the guy who was once a Gold Glove finalist had been basically banished from the outfield.
Now, It seems like the Yankees are ready to officially take the bubble wrap off their slugger.
Ironically enough, it was a road series in Miami where Stanton finally found his stride in the oufield.
The move seems to coincide with his increased production at the dish.
Giancarlo Stanton drives in two with a bases-loaded double on the first pitch he sees in the at bat! pic.twitter.com/HtYLOds4nh
Stanton’s ability to play the outfield gives Boone a plethora of options going forward as the Yankees (Wild Card leaders) continue to battle in the AL East.
When Boone decided to give Stanton an opportunity to be a part of the outfield rotation again, he was vague when discussing just how much the former NL MVP would play.
But with the positive response from Stanton’s bat and most importantly, his body, a stable of corner outfielders like the Yankees have will be a scary site for opposing pitchers.
This is the Giancarlo Stanton that New York Yankees fans were expecting when he was traded to the Bronx from the Miami Marlins prior to the 2018 season.
Giancarlo Stanton has homered in three straight games, 8 times in his last 17 games and 15 times in his last 34 games dating back to last postseason. That’s a 71-homer pace over 162 games. pic.twitter.com/gJDwOHQyTL
After winning the 2017 National League MVP award with 59 home runs and 132 runs batted in, Stanton was supposed to join Gary Sanchez and Aaron Judge in creating a Murderer’s Row for the 21st century.
Instead, from 2018 to 2020, the trio played in fewer than 200 regular-season games with a combined 45 home runs.
Giancarlo has been big in the postseason, hitting eight home runs in 17 games. He mashed his way through the Tampa Rays with four knocks in five games in last year’s ALDS.
But without a championship, Stanton can’t become a made man in pinstripes. Suddenly, he’s playing up to that immense potential and carrying the Yankees’ offense.
“The Kraken” hasn’t been cracking in a while, as Sanchez is batting .155 over his last 69 games. Judge has run hot and cold all season but has homered in only five games this season, including just three of his last 17.
Add in the struggles of Aaron Hicks and DJ LeMahieu and you get a New York offense that ranks second in home runs in the American League, but tied for 11th in runs scored, and a 16-15 record for a franchise confident about finally capturing its 28th title.
Stanton was ice cold as the Yankees got off to a 5-10 start, but he has turned it around in a major way to help New York take 11 of its last 15.
Thursday afternoon, Stanton extended his hitting streak to 12 games with a solo home run into the bullpen in a 7-4 loss to the Houston Astros.
That blast left his bat moving faster than a Category 3 hurricane and doing about as much damage.
During this run, Stanton has sent missiles all over the field. He’s hitting .480, with 25 hits in his last 52 at-bats. Six of his nine home runs and 11 of his 23 RBI this season have come over that span as well.
This surge has Stanton now carrying a career-high .314 batting average. His current.953 OPS is his best since that MVP campaign and almost 60 points higher than any of his previous three seasons.
He’s in a groove.
And he’s not just ripping through the ball, he’s seeing it clearly. Stanton hasn’t struck out more than once in his last 13 games after racking up seven games with multiple Ks in his first 15 appearances.
He’s playing the best baseball of his career when his team has needed it the most, keeping New York within 2.5 games of the AL East-leading Boston Red Sox.
If it can stay healthy, the Yankees’ offense is one of the most explosive in all of baseball with power and skill in each third of the lineup.
Stanton was brought to New York to join the legendary sluggers that have called Yankee Stadium home (mostly the old one, of course). Let him lead the way through the playoffs and into another parade through the Canyon of Heroes and he will be a legend.
Meanwhile, there’s no missile defense system that can protect pitchers from the projectiles coming from the player in pinstripes.
Giancarlo Stanton has received his share of flack from Yankees fans, but the former NL MVP has a 10-game hit streak and is pounding the ball to all parts of the field.
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