Stanton towers over Miami
ST.LOUIS— When Giancarlo Stanton gets home from San Francisco in the wee hours of Monday morning, the day of the Home Run Derby at Marlins Park, he’ll have an unusual view out his apartment window: himself.
A silhouette of Stanton will replace the so-called “Dancing Lady” image on the Inter Continental Miami luxury hotel down town Friday through Tuesday as MLB All-Star festivities take over parts of the city.
Stanton can see the building — and, usually, the Dancing Lady — from his nearby living space.
“I see her jiggling her butt all the time from across the way,” said Stanton, who saw clips of his 19-story self (on the building’s 35 floors) from Miami’s July 4 celebration. “I saw some videos with fireworks in the background. It was really cool. They sent me a really cool silhouette of just the skyline and the fireworks and everything. Definitely looks really awesome.”
The creation of the constantly replaying black-andwhite moving image didn’t require a ton of time from Stanton, either. He said he went to a recent shoot in a South Florida green room and it involved “less work than hitting in the cage.”
“Just dry swinging, a couple of different angles,” Stanton said. “It was pretty easy, pretty simple.”
Stanton, as the face of the franchise hosting the AllStar Game, is taking a central role in its promotion. On Monday, he will seek to defend his Home Run Derby title. On Tuesday, he’ll play in the actual exhibition, his fourth time being an All-Star.
MLB released the Home Run Derby bracket Wednesday. Stanton will face the Yankees’ Gary Sanchez in the first round. The winner there will face the winner of the Royals’ MikeMoustakas and Twins’ Miguel Sano.
On the other side of the bracket, it’ll be the Yankees’ Aaron Judge against the Marlins’ Justin Bour, plus the Dodgers’ Cody Bellinger versus the Rockies’ Charlie Blackmon.
So, yes, a Stanton-Judge final is possible.
Prado rests
Third baseman Martin Prado started on the bench Wednesday for the second time in six games, part of
the regimen decided on by the Marlins when he returned May 23 from his strained hamstring. An extra day off or two mixed in was a worthwhile precaution, manager Don Mattingly said.
“Our general plan when he first cameback, we didn’t want to run him out there10 straight days or anything,” Mattingly said. “We wanted to be able to do three or four, give him a day, do the same thing and now four days before the break.
“Then we should really hopefully be past all this.”
Odds& ends
Infielder Miguel Rojas (right thumb fracture) is nearing a rehab assignment. He has been working out at the Marlins’ spring training facility in Jupiter, taking batting practice and facing live pitching, among other baseball activities. …
Right-hander Brad Ziegler (back strain) is symptomand has started throwing on flat ground, Mattingly said. Since Ziegler was down for almost two weeks, the building-up process won’t be too speedy, but Mattingly expects Ziegler back in short order after the break. “He shouldn’t be too far off,” Mattingly said. “Once he starts throwing, if we don’t have any setbacks, he should be able to move forward quickly.” …
As of Wednesday afternoon, Bour was last in the NL All-Star Final Vote tally, though he was owning the state of Florida. Voting ends at 4 p.m. today. The winner will be announced at 6 p.m. today on MLBNetwork and MLB.com.