The former Cal-Hi Sports State Athlete of the Year, who went by Mike Stanton in those days, is leading the major leagues in home runs and is launching bombs that are setting records for distance in some stadiums.
Former California high school phenom Giancarlo Stanton has done it again. The Miami Marlins’ superstar simply doesn’t like having baseballs near him, as he crushed another monster home run off Carlos Martinez on Tuesday, a shot that is being called the longest home run in Marlins Park history.
Stanton’s stat line is already rather gaudy through nearly a full season. His 26 homeruns and 66 RBIs both lead the major leagues, and the rest of his numbers don’t hurt, either: his working with a .261 average, a .343 OBP and a .604 SLG.
And all this while playing for the Marlins, one of the worst clubs in the league that also has undergone a managerial change. Currently, their MLB odds to win the NL Pennant are +6,000, a distant shot that many have given up on at this point despite significant preseason hype that this might be a bounce back year for the club.
As of Wednesday, Miami had lost six of its last 10 games.
With the tides of the season starting to shift under their feet in 2015, the Marlins’ brass has started to make public statements that they will not be trading pieces they control beyond this season. That is a good sign for a team that is looking to start making significant strides up the standings, building from their strong core around Stanton.
Stanton, for his part, is in for the very long haul. The slugger signed a mega 13-year, $325 million contract last year that backloads his salary hit so that Miami can sign and trade for pieces around him to build a team that can win while he is in his prime. A staggering $218 million of his deal has been deferred to its final seven seasons, during which he will be paid over $30 million a year while also enjoying a complete no-trade clause.
Earlier this season, Stanton also launched one of the longest home runs at Dodger Stadium, which isn’t far from where he was a standout three-sport athlete at Notre Dame of Sherman Oaks. In his senior year, Stanton caught 29 passes for 754 yards in football, averaged 19.7 points per game in basketball and was all-state in baseball. He was the 2006-07 Cal-Hi Sports State Boys’ Athlete of the Year.
