What's fascinating about the current period of baseball history, where there's less 500-club guys or less 3000-hit guys, is that you have to find other ways to gauge success, even if they're unconventional. Because there's more injuries, less contact hitting and more career one-dimensional sluggers, it's harder to say 'well that's one of the best guys to ever play' because all you can say is 'they hit a lot of home runs'. David Ortiz hit a lot of home runs, but he also could hit .300. Nelson Cruz hit a lot of home runs...and not much else. And that's most great power hitters right now. It's hard to make a case for enshrining a Kyle Schwarber or an Eugenio Suarez or even a Cody Bellinger, because of so many years where there wasn't much more to them than the power game.
And then you have the case of Giancarlo Stanton. Who is genuinely one of the best power hitters of the last 25 years, and one of the most powerful hitters of all time. When he hits one out, there's rarely a doubt. He led the league in homers twice, and was off to an incredible start in 2015 before an injury shortened his season. Right now Stanton is on pace for 450 home runs by the end of this year, and at 35 he's a shoo-in for the 500-home-run club before his career's done. His 2017 season was one of the all time greats by a hitter, with 59 bombs, 132 RBIs and a well-deserved MVP. Ten of Stanton's 16 seasons have had more than 25 home runs in them, and his career OPS stands at .874.
Now...there's one or two things that have lessened his overall appeal as an all-time player. Firstly, his gameplay has gone down in quality since signing with the Yankees, as we all knew it would. He's a professional DH who usually hits around .225, and strikes out 140 times a year. The other issue is the amount of time lost to injuries, as his fullest season was back in 2018, and since then his most full season was 139 games in 2021. But here's what I will say to that point: Aaron Judge has been all but coronated as a Hall of Famer, and his long injury absences aren't going to hurt that. His age 26 through 28 seasons were all marred by injury, and in 2023 an already-excellent year was hampered by a run-in with an outfield wall. And nobody talks about that as a factor because even in years that he was hurt he still hit 27 or more homers, even going 37 in 2023. Ken Griffey Jr. missed the majority of his Reds years, and you don't see people calling him a 'what could have been'. Same with Mike Trout.
Giancarlo Stanton right now, despite having missed half the year, is making up for lost time by providing one of the most insane hitting stretches he's had in a while. In 46 games, he's hitting .311 with 15 homers and 40 RBIs. The other night in Tampa he had a 2-homer game, which was his first since July 8th of 2023, a game I WAS IN ATTENDANCE FOR. And one of those was the longest hit ball I'd ever seen. Giancarlo still has more to prove, and is still one of the most fearsome power hitters in the game. Even if his injuries define his story, you cannot take that away from him.
The Yankees, meanwhile, are looking a ton better and speeding back towards 1st. Cam Schlittler has looked excellent in his early starts, and took the Rays deep last night without allowing any base-runners. Rodon has been the ace, Fried is slowly beginning to come back around, Warren will likely get ROY votes and Gil, while not 2024 dominant, has had some nice starts himself. The offense is coming alive yet again, and Jose Caballero already seems at home with this team. Ben Rice is also getting hot, which is a very good thing. I'm feeling a lot better about this team, and hopefully Big G leads them to a dignified end to the season.
Coming Tomorrow- Ironically a big-time power hitter for the Marlins.
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