Mike Stanton (outfielder)

Mike Stanton
Stanton manning right field at Sun Life
Miami Marlins — No. 27
Outfielder
Born: November 8, 1989 (1989-11-08) (age 22) Panorama City, California
Bats: Right	Throws: Right
MLB debut
June 8, 2010 for the Florida Marlins
Career statistics (through 2011)
Batting average	.261
Home runs	56
Runs batted in	146
Teams
Florida/Miami Marlins (2010–present)
Career highlights and awards
Topps All-Star Rookie Outfielder (2010)

Giancarlo Cruz Michael "Mike" Stanton (born November 8, 1989 in Panorama City, Los Angeles, California) is an outfielder for the Miami Marlins.

Early life

Stanton attended Verdugo Hills High School in Tujunga before he left and went to Notre Dame High School (Sherman Oaks) in southern California. There he was a three-sport athlete, he had accepted a scholarship to play baseball for USC, and was receiving offers from UCLA and UNLV to play football.^{[citation needed]} However he opted to go pro after being drafted in the second round (76th overall) in the 2007 amateur draft by the Florida Marlins.^[1]

Professional career

Minor league career

Stanton began his career for the Gulf Coast League Marlins, but quickly advanced to the Single-A short season New York - Penn League, playing for the Jamestown Jammers. After nine games for the Jammers, where he batted .067 on 2 for 30 hitting, he was promoted to the Single-A Greensboro Grasshoppers. At Greensboro, Stanton hit 39 home runs, on a .293 batting average with 97 RBIs and a .993 OPS.^[1][2] Stanton received an invitation to the 2009 Marlins spring training.^[3] He won numerous post-season awards for his performance in the 2008 minor league season, and was placed at number 16 on Baseball America's top 100 prospects list.^[4] He began the season in High A with the Jupiter Hammerheads, where he batted .294 with 12 home runs and 39 RBI. This outstanding performance led to a promotion to the AA Jacksonville Suns.^[5][6] He was recently selected to the U.S. All- Star Futures game in the minor leagues, as he was chosen to represent the Florida Marlins.^[7] In the off-season, he was sent to the Arizona Fall League, for the organization's top prospects. Before going down with an injury forcing him to leave, he led the league with a .478 batting average.^[8] Baseball America declared him the number 1 prospect in the Marlins system,^[9] as well as being number 3 on John Manuel's of Baseball America, top 20 prospects in the minors.^[10]

In 52 games with the Jacksonville Suns, Stanton batted .311 with 21 homers, 52 RBI and a 1.167 on-base plus slugging percentage. Perhaps most impressive was that he struck out just nine more times than he walked (44). After a series against the Mississippi Braves in early May, Mississippi manager Phil Wellman told The Florida Times Union: "He looks like a 15-year-old playing on an 8-year-old's Little League team." On May 6, 2010, Stanton blasted a monstrous home run, his 14th, at Montgomery, clearing the scoreboard in center field. Estimates are the ball was anywhere from 500–550 feet.^[11]

Major league career

On June 6, 2010, the Florida Marlins announced that Stanton would be called up to the Major Leagues, making his debut on June 8. At 20 years, 212 days, he became the second youngest player for the Marlins, behind Miguel Cabrera (20 years, 67 days).^[12] Stanton went 3-for-5 with two infield singles and scored twice in the debut.^[13]

Stanton's first big league home run was a grand slam off of Tampa Bay Rays pitcher Matt Garza. He joined Jeff Conine, Chuck Carr, Quilvio Veras, Craig Counsell and Jeremy Hermida on the list of Marlins whose first homer came with the bases loaded. In addition, Stanton became the fourth player in the past 25 years to hit his first career grand slam before his 21st birthday along with Jose Reyes (2003), Andruw Jones (1997) and Alex Rodriguez (1996). On August 11, 2010 against the Washington Nationals Stanton went 5-for-5 with 4 RBIs 2 doubles and a home run. He became the second youngest player to collect five hits and four RBI in a game, and the first to do it since 1935 (Phil Cavarretta, who was 19 years and 33 days old with the Chicago Cubs on August 21, 1935). Stanton also is just the second Marlin with five hits and four RBI in the same game, joining Gary Sheffield, who did it on September 17, 1995 at Colorado.^[14]

For his rookie season, Stanton's home runs averaged a distance of 399.6 feet with average speed off bat clocked at an average of 104.3 MPH.^[15]

He was named an outfielder on Baseball America's 2010 All-Rookie Team.^[16] He was also named an outfielder on the 2010 Topps Major League Rookie All-Star Team.^[17]

Mike Stanton has had a good 2011 campaign. He has battled through leg and eye injuries, which have kept him from being a consistent hitting threat in the Marlins lineup. He hit his first walk-off home run on July 6, 2011 against the Philadelphia Phillies. Stanton finished the 2011 season batting .262 with 34 home runs and 87 RBI in 516 at bats. According to HitTrackerOnline, Stanton belted 15 no-doubt home runs, the most in the National League and second most in the Major Leagues behind Jose Bautista's 18. Stanton hit the longest home runs of the season by any player in 2011 at Citi Field (465 feet), Nationals Park (455 feet), Coors Field (475 feet), and Sun Life Stadium (466 feet).^[18] His average distance (416.6 feet) and off bat speed (107.4 MPH) made significant improvement in his sophomore season.

References

1. ^ ^{a b} "Popular Articles & Stories for August 08, 2008 – Los Angeles Times". Articles.latimes.com. August 8, 2008. http://articles.latimes.com/2008/aug/08/sports/spw-minorspot8. Retrieved June 4, 2010. ^{[dead link]}
2. ^ "Mike Stanton Stats, Bio, Photos, Highlights | MiLB.com Stats | The Official Site of Minor League Baseball". Web.minorleaguebaseball.com. http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?n=Michael%20Stanton&pos=OF&sid=milb&t=p_pbp&pid=519317. Retrieved June 4, 2010. 
3. ^ By Joe Frisaro / MLB.com (January 26, 2009). "Marlins prospects to get their feet wet | marlins.com: News". Florida.marlins.mlb.com. http://florida.marlins.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090126&content_id=3772076&vkey=news_fla&fext=.jsp&c_id=fla. Retrieved June 4, 2010. 
4. ^ "Prospects: Rankings: Top 100 Prospects: Top 100 Prospects: 1–20". BaseballAmerica.com. February 24, 2009. http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/prospects/rankings/top-100-prospects/2009/267698.html. Retrieved June 4, 2010. 
5. ^ "Mike Stanton Stats, Bio, Photos, Highlights | MiLB.com Stats | The Official Site of Minor League Baseball". Web.minorleaguebaseball.com. http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/stats/stats.jsp?n=Mike%20Stanton&pos=OF&sid=milb&t=p_pbp&pid=519317. Retrieved June 4, 2010. 
6. ^ "Florida Marlins news, analysis, commentary – Fish Tank, a PalmBeachPost.com blog » Blog Archive » Marlins promote Michael Stanton to Class AA". Blogs.palmbeachpost.com. June 4, 2009. http://blogs.palmbeachpost.com/marlins/2009/06/04/marlins-promote-michael-stanton-to-class-aa/. Retrieved June 4, 2010. 
7. ^ By Jonathan Mayo / MLB.com (June 25, 2009). "Futures Game a portent of stardom | MLB.com: News". Mlb.mlb.com. http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20090624&content_id=5505980&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb. Retrieved June 4, 2010. 
8. ^ "Florida Marlins news, analysis, commentary – Fish Tank, a PalmBeachPost.com blog » Blog Archive » Michael Stanton, Florida Marlins’ top prospect, shut down from Arizona Fall League with sore back". Blogs.palmbeachpost.com. October 25, 2009. http://blogs.palmbeachpost.com/marlins/2009/10/25/michael-stanton-florida-marlins-top-prospect-shut-down-from-arizona-fall-league-with-sore-back/. Retrieved June 4, 2010. 
9. ^ Berardino, Mike (November 12, 2009). "Prospects: Rankings: Organization Top 10 Prospects: Florida Marlins: Top 10 Prospects". BaseballAmerica.com. http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/prospects/rankings/organization-top-10-prospects/2010/269138.html. Retrieved June 4, 2010. 
10. ^ "Blog | Baseball America Prospects Blog | John Manuel’s Personal Top 20 Prospects List". Baseball America. December 24, 2009. http://www.baseballamerica.com/blog/prospects/?p=7425. Retrieved June 4, 2010. 
11. ^ By Joe Frisaro / MLB.com. "Stanton adds to legend with 500-foot homer | marlins.com: News". Florida.marlins.mlb.com. http://florida.marlins.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20100507&content_id=9870088&notebook_id=9870358&vkey=notebook_fla&fext=.jsp&c_id=fla. Retrieved June 4, 2010. 
12. ^ "Marlins top prospect Stanton gets much anticipated promotion". Sun Sentinel. March 24, 2010. http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/florida-marlins/fl-marlins-notes-0607-20100606,0,1448563.story?page=1. Retrieved September 13, 2010. 
13. ^ By ROB MAADDI, AP Sports Writer Jun 8, 11:25 pm EDT (June 8, 2010). "Francisco's single lifts Phils over Marlins 10–8 – MLB – Yahoo! Sports". Sports.yahoo.com. http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/recap?gid=300608122. Retrieved September 13, 2010. 
14. ^ "Stanton entering record books at early age". Sun Sentinel. August 20, 2010. http://www.sun-sentinel.com/sports/florida-marlins/fl-marlins-notes-0813-20100812,0,1383025.story. Retrieved September 13, 2010. 
15. ^ http://hittrackeronline.com/detail.php?id=2010_4520&type=hitter
16. ^ Eddy, Matt (October 19, 2010). "Future Big League Stars Highlight All-Rookie Team". Baseball America. http://www.baseballamerica.com/today/majors/awards/rookie-of-the-year/2010/2610794.html. Retrieved October 21, 2010. 
17. ^ "Valencia awarded with rookie honor". Mlb.com. November 29, 2010. http://minnesota.twins.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20101129&content_id=16225164&vkey=news_min&c_id=min. Retrieved December 11, 2010. 
18. ^ http://hittrackeronline.com/detail.php?id=2011_3264&type=hitter

External links

• Career statistics and player information from Baseball-Reference, or The Baseball Cube, or Baseball-Reference (Minors)

Persondata
Name	Stanton, Mike
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	1989-11-08
Place of birth	Panorama City, California
Date of death
Place of death