Blengino: Giancarlo Stanton, ball-striking, and the future
From SABR member Tony Blengino at FanGraphs on November 18, 2014:
After a few days of heightened speculation, word finally came down on Monday that the Miami Marlins and Giancarlo Stanton had come to an agreement on a historic 13-year, $325M deal. Terms have not been fully disclosed, but it seems clear that Stanton will have the ability to opt out of the deal at some point, most likely after the 2019 season. This is massive news on many levels – it’s the largest dollar guarantee to a single player in the history of the sport, and a huge departure in operating procedure on the part of the club.
It furthers the ongoing industry trend toward diminished free agent pools, as teams continue to lock up their best and brightest in advance of the exhaustion of their six years of team control. Today, let’s take a quick and dirty look at the potential outcomes for player and club by examining Stanton’s foremost attribute – his peerless ball-striking ability.
I’ve gone into fairly significant detail regarding Stanton’s offensive game in previous articles; today I’m going to take a slightly different path. In 2014, he played in 19 different MLB ballparks, including his own. They are listed below, alongside the names of the players who hit the hardest fly ball, line drive and ground ball in each.
Read the full article here: http://www.fangraphs.com/blogs/giancarlo-stanton-ball-striking-and-the-future/
Originally published: November 18, 2014. Last Updated: November 18, 2014.