Sixty-one. It’s a huge number in most cases, but Miami Marlins outfielder Giancarlo Stanton didn’t seem to have many issues reaching it Monday night in San Diego when he blew away the competition in the 2016 MLB Home Run Derby.
Stanton was the slugger in a silly-deep field able to take advantage of the event’s new-look rules, not just crushing 61 homers, but sending them eye-popping distances that kept him at the plate longer and the competition at bay.
As the round recaps show below, Stanton only really got a major test in the second round:
The first round was more of a warm-up than anything for Stanton, as Robinson Cano simply didn’t have the juice to keep up.
Mark Trumbo of the Baltimore Orioles was one of the heavy favorites going into the event, so the second round was trickier. The outfielder entered with 28 homers to his name but couldn’t match Stanton in the distance game.
Ditto for defending champion Todd Frazier in the finale, who won with the Cincinnati Reds last year and represented the Chicago White Sox on Monday. Frazier had survived the first two rounds by one home run apiece but also couldn’t match Stanton in the power department.
It’s not a knock—nobody could. Stanton belted a mind-boggling set of numbers and did so more consistently than anyone else, as ESPN Stats & Info broke down:
Look at a chart ESPN.com provided, detailing how many swings went yard:
Stanton took the second-most swings on the day, and half of them turned into homers. Insanity.
In charted form—it fits nicely—per MLB.com’s Daren Willman:
Oh, one needs wicked velocity to create these distances, right? Take a look at some details provided by #Statcast:
No, it wouldn’t be any fun to play infield against Stanton, folks.
Indeed, even someone like Oakland catcher Stephen Vogt made a comment after the contest about the folks in the field while Stanton was at the plate, according to ESPN.com’s Jayson Stark:
I don’t think anybody understands what he just did. That’s superhuman. He was hitting every single ball well over 400 feet. I was actually scared for the kids in the field on some of the low line drives he was hitting. It’s not normal to be able to create that much bat speed and hit the ball that far. It was very impressive and incredible. The first three rows in the stands were not safe.
For Stanton, Tuesday was another career milestone and something he won’t soon forget, as Baseball Tonight captured:
The next step for Stanton is simple—repeat. Nobody expected Stanton to do much of anything in the first place. Folks knew he had power, but he had entered the event with just 19 homers, slotting him as a fifth seed. Even worse, he had put up a quiet performance in his only other appearance back in 2014.
How times have changed. Stanton is now the face of the Derby, the type of slugger who can excel under the new format even more so than Frazier. Interestingly enough, the man isn’t even part of the All-Star Game while much of this competition was.
It’s not meant to discredit the other participants, but Stanton was the highlight of Tuesday, an unexpected, record-breaking highlight who now personifies what the event is about and how batters can find success in it.
MLB isn’t changing the format anytime soon. And by the looks of it, Stanton has the distance and consistency in his swing to sit on this new throne for a quite a long time.
That’s an open challenge to the rest of the MLB.
All stats and info via ESPN.com unless otherwise specified.
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