Stanton’s Struggles

The $300 million man limped his way through April for the Miami Marlins. What will May hold and should we be worried?

Giancarlo Stanton struggled slightly through the month of April for the Miami Marlins. Slashing .264/.350/.529 had the skeptics coming out of the shadows. Especially during the series with the Mets at Marlins Park.

However, those numbers are pretty normal for Stanton during the month of April. The big question is, will we see improvement for May?

The Fish will need improved production out of Stanton if they have any hopes of being able to contend in the NL East.

The Million Dollar Bat

Stanton’s slow start to the season is nothing new for fans of the Fish. We are quite used to this semi catatonic start from Stanton. The biggest question for the remainder of the year will be, what form of Stanton will we see?

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Will we see the 2014 Stanton, who had the same slow April start? Or will we see the 2016 version of Stanton that batted a career low .240.

I believe the Marlins will get a good idea as to which version we will see based on May’s performance. In his best season to date, Stanton blasted a staggering .367/.479/.684 line with eight long balls in the month of May.

In comparison, last season during May Stanton only managed to bat .173/.287/.373 with four homers and 31 strikeouts. Unfortunately for the fans and the team, that last line is more typical of Stanton in May.

If Stanton is unable to provide decent numbers this month, we may be in for some tough times. Getting our slugger going, will pay dividends when it comes to the playoff race.

Supporting Cast

If Stanton is unable to get his bat going, we will have to see stellar performances out of Marcell Ozuna and Christian Yelich. Both of these bats will need to demonstrate their effectiveness to help the Fish.

Justin Bour has been another bat that we have seen come to life as of late. This type of performance will help as well. No imagine for a moment that all four of these bats come to life at the same time. If they can come together and stay hot, I like our chances of a wild car.

Next: Miami Marlins: Dark Horse of the NL East

However, should they all continue their downward trend, it will be another long year of Fish baseball in Miami.