
17. Giancarlo Stanton, Miami Marlins ā 25 years old
For the first two years of his career, the 25-year-old slugger for the Miami Marlins went by another name. In the franchiseās last two years as the Florida Marlins, he was known as Mike Stanton. When the Marlins officially changed their name to the Miami Marlins, Mike Stanton evolved into Giancarlo Stanton.
A name change was the only difference for Stanton. He continued to mash baseballs on a regular basis for the Marlins. The 56 home runs he posted as āMikeā were followed up with 37 home runs in his first year as Giancarlo in 2012.
Injuries have been an issue for Stanton. Heās missed 264 games in his six years in the big leagues. Knowing that the Marlins gave him a 13-year mega deal worth $325 million means that he should probably be seeing the field more, but injuries are a part of the game. To be fair, in spite of the time heās missed, Stanton has over-performed whenever heās been on the field.
Stanton averages a home run for every 14 at-bats in his career. When you think about the fact that heās missed that many games and still has 181 home runs, your jaw should drop. If Stanton had stayed even relatively more healthy than heās been, heād be well over 200 home runs by now. In fact, if he averaged 500 at-bats a year for those six years, heād be at approximately 214 home runs.
That would land him at around 500 home runs by the time heād be 32. And of course, itās fun to think about whether or not he could keep up those numbers for another six years and get to 700.
But the āwhat ifā game can be trouble. Regardless of what Stantonās numbers should be, heās still been one of the gameās best hitters and an athletic right fielder with a cannon attached to his shoulder.
He should win at least one MVP award by the time itās all said and done.
Next: No. 16 A.J. Green