STAR GAZING
Stanton, Trout finally get shot at baseball’s center stage
THIS was going to be another wasted season for Giancarlo Stanton and Mike Trout. Just a month ago their teams were sellers at the non-waiver trade deadline.
Trout’s Angels moved one of their few attractive pieces, reliever David Hernandez. The Marlins pretty much were trying to unload as much salary as possible — even listening on Stanton. Heck, a month ago you could have made a case that the Marlins were the franchise in the worst situation in pro sports — non-contenders, playing before small crowds, with a lousy TV contract, with tons of dead money on the books and an uncertain future about who would even own the team.
Most of that bad stuff still exists for the Marlins, except they have an agreement for a new buyer with Derek Jeter as the face of that group and, like Trout’s Angels, they are suddenly contenders.
This is good for baseball. The sport is better when its great players are involved in meaningful games in September, and it looks like we are going to get that with Stanton and Trout at a time when MLB wants so badly to create national stars.
In the case of those two, September should be even more compelling because in an age when sadly nothing matters in sports unless two polarized sides can scream at each other about it, both Stanton and Trout come with compelling individual stories sure to entice debate.
I wrote recently about whether Trout can win an MVP even after he missed a quarter of a season. He certainly is in play for it, and if the Angels are, say, playing the Yankees on Oct. 3 in The Bronx in the one-and-done wild-card game then, f irst, big win for MLB and ratings, and also huge push for Trout’s candidacy.
As for Stanton, he hit his 50th home run Sunday. The most cherished single-season record in baseball — perhaps all sports — used to be the homer mark. Roger Maris hit 61 in 1961 to break the standard of 60 by Babe Ruth in 1927. But then from 1998-2001, 61 was eclipsed on six occasions: three times by Sammy Sosa, twice by Mark McGwire and once by Barry Bonds, whose 73 in 2001 stands as the record. Except because Bonds, McGwire and Sosa are generally viewed as having reached those heights through at least the assistance of illegal performance enhancers, there are quite a few folks who still see 61 as the legitimate homer record.
One of those people is Stanton himself, and he may just force everyone to take a side.
Heading into Monday night, Stanton had 17 homers (and counting) in August, 24 in the second half (nine more than anyone else) and he still has seven more games against the Phillies (second-most homers allowed in the NL) and a sixgame trip through the homerinducing environs of Arizona and Colorado.
It appeared as if Aaron Judge had taken the baton from Stanton as the game’s leading Bunyanesque character, especially when Judge won the Home Run Derby dramatically in Stanton’s home park while Stanton lost in the first round to Gary Sanchez. But since then Judge has slumped, and Stanton has finally had the merging of full health (he already is at his third-most games played in his career) and his full skill package at age 27.
The Marlins’ starting pitching, in particular, remains poor. But there is a strange winning quality that seems to come with Jeter, whose group still must be approved by the other owners. It was revealed Aug. 11 his group had won the bidding for the Marlins. Since then, Miami (12-3) has the majors’ best record. That allowed the Marlins to complete the weekend just 4 ¹/₂ games out of a wild-card spot.
Trout’s Angels were even closer — just 1 ¹/₂ games back in the LIE-atrush-hour jam for the AL’s second wild card. There were six teams within three games of the Twins for that spot.
Trout is the game’s best player, Stanton its greatest power source. The sport is not well served when its primeaged stars do not get the main stage. They should have that in September — Trout going for the MVP, Stanton going for the MVP and 62 homers.
Can you be a 120-game MVP? What does passing Maris mean? That and the wild card are in play for Trout and Stanton. They have the main stage.