Greatest Moments in Marlins History (Redux): #79 Hammerin’ Stanton
Oct 25, 2014; San Francisco, CA, USA; Miami Marlins outfielder Giancarlo Stanton (middle) waves to the crowd as he is awarded the Hank Aaron Award by newly elected commissioner Rob Manfred (left) and Hank Aaron before game four of the 2014 World Series between the San Francisco Giants and the Kansas City Royals at AT&T Park. Mandatory Credit: Ed Szczepanski-USA TODAY Sports
For moment #80 we saw Giancarlo Stanton reign as Home Run King of the NL for 2014. In 2014 Stanton was honored with something else from another Home Run King. Today we bring you Moment #79 of the Greatest Moments of Marlins History: Giancarlo Stanton winning the 2014 Hank Aaron Award.
Before we get into how Stanton won the award, let’s first talk about the award itself. The Hank Aaron award was created in 1999 to honor the 25th anniversary of Aaron’s 715th home run, making him at that time the all time home run leader in Major League Baseball. The first year of the award was handed out to the player with the best Hits, RBI, and Home Run total in each league. Now it’s voted on by the fans and is given to the best overall hitter in both leagues.
How good was Stanton in 2014? Was he really that good to win the 2014 Hank Aaron Award? I think he was, and I voted for him every day that I could. I didn’t vote because he’s a Marlins, and I’m a huge Marlins fan (well that could be part of the reason, too); but it was because Stanton really was the best hitter in the NL in 2014. Let’s take a look at his numbers.
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Stanton was in the top 10 of almost every offensive category in the National League. He had a 5.8 Offensive WAR, which was second in the National League. He was also second in On-base Percentage in the National League with a .395. We can’t forget he was in second for On-Base Plus Slugging with a .950. Enough with sabermetrics, let’s move on to the fun numbers. With 94 walks Stanton was second in the National League, but 24 of those were intentional walks which led the National League for intentional walks. He had 105 RBIs, which was good enough for second, and 120 runs created which put him in second again. Stanton did lead the National League in Home Runs, Slugging, Total bases, and Extra Base hits (37, .555, 299, and 69). These numbers helped give Stanton the Hank Aaron Award.
Join me next time as we finish off the redux countdown and see the final moment added from 2014 to The Greatest Moments in Marlins History. Until next time… Let’s Go Marlins!