Since breaking into the big leagues as a 20-year-old back in 2010, Giancarlo Stanton has slowly built up a reputation as baseball’s resident slugger.
Never once has he hit fewer than the 22 home runs he hit as a rookie – and that was in just 100 games – and last season, he sent 59 long balls over many different fences across the country.
But its never been just about the homers for Stanton. In addition to becoming must-watch TV for dinger-enthusiasts, he also became the first Statcast Darling. Indeed, since MLB started tracking and releasing batted ball data at every Major League game, Giancarlo Stanton has been setting and breaking his own records.
For example, in 2015, Stanton had the highest maximum exit velocity in MLB (120.3 MPH), the highest average exit velocity (95.9 MPH), and the highest number of barrels per plate appearance. In 2016, Stanton had the third highest maximum exit velocity (120.1 MPH), the fourth highest average exit velocity (93.8 MPH), and the furthest home run of the season (504 feet). In 2017, Stanton was back on top with the highest maximum exit velocity (122.2 MPH) and ranked second in barrels per plate appearance.
Needless to say, whenever someone has asked “Who hits the ball hardest?” over the past few years, you’re supposed to answer: “Stanton.”
… Which is why it’s VERY funny that his 1,000th career hit was a 66 MPH blooper that fell somewhere in between Bryce Harper in right and Howie Kendrick on the infield:
Of course.
Even Stanton recognized the silliness of that outcome:
With that hit, Stanton became the 61st active Major League to have 1,000 hits in the Major Leagues. Of those 61 active Major Leaguers, however, only 20 (including Stanton) accomplished the feat at Stanton’s age (28) or younger.