Giancarlo Stanton Broke His Bat And Still Hit A Ball To The Fence
Watching Big Dick Stanton crack stick with such force and such power is honestly one of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen. Also, it was no coincidence that this ball traveled 369 feet. Pretty #nice distance if you ask me.
This season has been split up in three parts for BDS. His 2016 season started off as most other Stanton seasons typically would, as the 26-year-old was hitting .274 with a 1.023 OPS through May 6. That night, he hit a 475-foot home run, which was his 10th of the year, and then he went through the worst slump of his entire career. From May 7 through June 15, Stanton hit .118 with a .426 OPS over 29 games. Out of 177 players with at least 115 plate appearances over that span, Stanton was last in batting average, last in on-base percentage (.211), last in slugging percentage (.216), and first in strikeout percentage (41.7%). It was that bad.
But that was then, and this is now. BDS is back, and he’s back big. In the 45 games he’s played since June 17, Stanton’s hitting .299 with a .945 OPS, 11 doubles, 12 home runs, 38 RBI, and he’s cut his strikeout percentage down to 25.5% over this stretch. During this period of resurgence for BDS, he’s 14th in the majors in isolated power (.282), and tied for 16th in home runs per plate appearance (6.3%), which is about double what the league average has been over that span.