What the Hell's the Matter with Stanton?

With apologies to Thomas Frank for the headline...

The feeling here has turned notably against our Giancarlo, and I include myself in that, even though I was originally a big booster of the trade for him.  It seemed like a classic salary dump by the Marlins, and one that we really couldn't lose on.

Well, shows how much I know—and how much more foresight into the potential pitfalls Alphonso had.  Turns out, just by being here, Stanton has the potential to jam us up for years to come.

I feel a little bad about this, in that Giancarlo seems like a stand-up guy.  He took all the usual, premature vituperation at the beginning of last year very well—this seems to have become a Bronx rite of passage—and has never complained, or disappeared into the Florida Everglades like Jacoby Ellsbury, subject of a forthcoming Carl Hiaasen novel.

And let's be fair:  he all but carried the team for a few weeks last summer, during another injury plague and general slump.

The trouble is, I think, that he NEVER seems to adjust his all-or-nothing style of hitting.

I know, I know:  the Sabermetricians have proved beyond all reasonable doubt that "The strikeout or the second deck" is the way to produce the maximum number of runs.  That is undoubtedly true, and we all believe in it, except for those of us who actually watch major-league baseball games.

The problem is not that Stanton is streaky, I think—all hitters are streaky—or that he is a slugger with a yen for the far pavilions.

The problem is that, if all hitters are streaky, all great or every very good hitters make adjustments.

Case in point:  Reggie Jackson trying and failing to knock Bob Welch's fastball out of the park in Game 2 of the 1978 World Series.

Skip to a critical Game 4, tied in extra innings, Yanks scrambling to try to tie the Series.  With a man on first and one out, Reggie shortened his swing, stayed within himself, and singled, sending the runner (I think it was Roy White) to third.

Moments later, Piniella hit another single to drive in the game-winner, and we were off to the races.  Reggie could belay his revenge until a massive home run against Welch to ice the clinching Game 6.

By contrast...there you had Giancarlo against the BoSox last year, unable or unwilling to change his game at all against a Craig Kimbrel who could not find the plate with a radar dish.  There was no ability to settle in and wait for his pitch, only guess-and-swing, guess-and-swing.

Hey, maybe we should get over it.  There was no guarantee that if we won that game we were going to win anything else—most likely not, considering last year's squad.

But that can't help but rankle, it can't help but stay with us.  To accept Stanton back in the fold, we need him to mature—especially as he ages.  There is little indication that he will.