Steve Mitchell-USA TODAY Sports
No, it’s April 26, and Giancarlo Stanton still hasn’t homered yet.
And yes, the Miami Marlins are still terrible, and he’s still stuck in a situation that not too many of his peers would like to be in. That said, talent often endures such things in this game, and it possible that the 23-year-old’s massive power upside is starting to show up.
At least, that’s what the numbers suggest, anyway.
After being mired in what has been a much-publicized (as far as a Marlins player can be) month-long slump, Stanton is finally starting to string a few hits together.
Sure, the No. 3 hitter’s 1-for-5 performance with an RBI single wasn’t exactly fireworks here, but look at the slightly bigger picture, and you’ll see that this was the fourth time in five games that he’s contributed at least a knock in his day of work.
Forget the fact that his lone four RBIs on the season has come in this stretch, the more important thing here is that his discipline has improved (24 percent strikeout rate since April 20 vs. 34.8 percent prior), and that he might be finally coming around as far as getting the bat on the ball.
It hasn’t translated to a whole lot of power yet (just one double in the last five games), but it does say something about the adjustments that the outfielder may be making.
As J.P. Green elaborated in his excellent piece on Fangraphs, this is a batter who has gotten little to nothing to hit all year (MLB-low 34.3 percent of pitches in the zone in 2013, compared to 41.6 in 2012), and that may have hurt his numbers thus far (ie. spike in strikeout rate).
That said, the one thing that stuck out was the fact that Stanton had been swinging less pitches inside the zone (55.2 percent in 2013 vs. 66 percent in 2012), which had confounded Green because “one would think that Stanton would jump on any pitch in the strike zone, considering he sees so few of them.”
The way I look at it, though, that number suggests that he may simply be off-balance when it comes to the mix of pitches that he’s getting at the plate — he’s jumping at less of those pitches precisely because he’s not seeing as many of them.
A sore shoulder probably doesn’t help there, but it appears to have less to do with the fact that he’s not getting very good pitches to see (ie. lack of plate protection), and more that the adjustment hasn’t come thus far when the good ones do cross the plate.
That’s where the Marlins should have a sense of optimism, because while the former is unlikely to change and isn’t something Stanton can fix, the latter is. Lest we forget, he had gotten off to quite a slow start in 2012 as well, and turned out to have a fine season anyway.
By striking out less and finally getting hits in a somewhat consistent fashion, Stanton is at least showing better pitch recognition these days.
It might not seem like a whole lot right now, but baby steps (ie. RBI singles) might just be what it takes to bust him out of this slump.
