Giancarlo Stanton won the home run derby? It was only a matter of time. Although the Miami Marlins slugger was not selected for the 2016 MLB All-Star Game, the power-hitter might have already stole the show. San Diego’s Petco Park, home to one of the biggest parks in all of baseball, looked like a little league field during the Derby.
Stanton went through two former Home Run Derby champions and the MLB leader in home runs to take the title back to Florida. The Marlins 325 million dollar man by far had the hardest path en route to winning the home run derby. The odds on favorite to win didn’t disappoint hitting an MLB home run derby record 61 home runs. To put it in perspective not only did it shatter Bobby Abreu’s home runs in one single derby record (41), Stanton now has 67 career homers at the derby which is good for 5th all-time. Roger Maris hit 61 home runs in a season, which is seventh most in MLB history and Giancarlo matched that number in one evening.
In the second year of the timed event Giancarlo went up against 2011 Home Run Derby champion Robinson Cano. Once Giancarlo came out with 24 first round home runs, you could just Tell Robby wasn’t in it. He made easy work of Cano and advanced to the second round. In the other first round matchups, Orioles’ Mark Trumbo beat Dodgers’ young infielder Corey Seager 16-15, Adam Duvall of the Reds beat Padres’ Wil Myers 11-10 and defending champion Todd Frazier defeated Rockies slugger Carlos Gonzalez 13-12.
In the second round, the big bats came out to play. Stanton hit a manageable 17 home runs against Mark Trumbo but the Orioles slugger didn’t have enough to keep up. He had the power, hitting one all the way out to the scoreboard well over 450 feet but the total result didn’t come with it. Also in the semi-final round, 14 of Stanton’s homers traveled 440 feet or farther. Mark Trumbo only had 14 home runs in total during the same round.
Stanton moved on and Todd Frazier took down the Reds young outfielder in Duvall. It was Stanton versus Frazier. The favorite versus the defending champion. Giancarlo was looking to redeem himself from the 2014 derby in which he only belted six homeruns. Frazier on the otherhand was making his third consecutive trip to the Home Run Derby finals. Stanton once again smacked 20 home runs and did so in dominating fashion.
All in total, Giancarlo hit 20 of the 21 farthest home runs of the night include two that went 497 feet with an exit velocity averaging 120.4 mph on the night and 11 of his final 20 home runs went over 440 feet. He joins Yoenis Cespedes as the only two players to win the home run derby and not be selected to that year’s MLB All-Star Game.
Stanton, the first Marlins player to win the derby, spoke about the victory afterwards with ESPN’s Pedro Gomez.
