The arrival of two great hitters as manager (Don Mattingly) and hitting coach (Barry Bonds) has had a generally positive impact on the Marlins lineup.
Marcell Ozuna, demoted to the minors during a poor 2015, is among the majors’ most productive center fielders. Derek Dietrich is making the PED suspension of Dee Gordon tolerable. Christian Yelich is making the jump from star of the future to star. Justin Bour is showing last year’s breakout was no fluke. And J.T. Realmuto is emerging in his sophomore season.
The most worrisome player is Giancarlo Stanton, who goes into Monday night with just one hit and 17 strikeouts in his previous 21 at-bats. In his past 15 games, Stanton had whiffed in 28 of 52 at-bats with just five hits and one homer. He has looked in this period as if he never has seen a slider before.
“Fortunately or unfortunately, we’ve been through these types of struggles with G in the past,” Marlins president of Baseball Operations Mike Hill said in an email. “This one is getting more attention because of the strikeouts. Since we have seen it before, there is concern, but not panic.”
Stanton is too young (26) and too talented not to work his way back to being among the most feared sluggers in the game. Hill said Stanton is “too rotational,” which has led to him pulling off the ball, and said Stanton has pressed to fix it quickly.
Stanton is in just season two of his 12-year, $325 million (the most ever guaranteed a player) contract. He has 10 years at $309.5 million left after this season.
The Marlins actually could play one of the game’s hottest hitters in right next to Yelich and Ozuna if they wanted to give Stanton a mental break. Who is that? Ichiro Suzuki had eight hits in his past 11 at-bats to raise his average to .382 (only Daniel Murphy had a higher mark among those with at least 60 plate appearances). The 42-year-old is just 44 hits from 3,000.
MLB’s strike zone: Think about the children
Walks are up for the second straight season, including a rise of 10.3 percent just from last year. More dramatically, strikeouts are up for the 11th straight season and en route to break the mark for strikeouts-per-game, as has happened every year since 2008. The persistent lack of the ball in play has led to – at minimum – the perception that baseball has too much inactivity during the game.
That is why major league officials plan to raise the strike zone from the hollows below the knees to the top of the knees — either next year with the union’s approval as part of ongoing collective bargaining talks, or for 2018, unilaterally. The hope is that raising the strike zone will generate more balls in play.
Whether or not it works, that major league officials continue to focus on increasing the action and lessening the dead spots in games is important, especially when it comes to drawing a younger demographic.