Florida Marlins outfield prospect Michael Stanton(notes) single-handedly destroyed the Carolina Mudcats on Monday, belting three homers and driving in seven runs. That makes seven hits, five home runs and 11 RBIs over the past two days for the 20-year-old. He’s gone deep nine times for Jacksonville in 17 games, and he’s now batting .338. Double-A pitching doesn’t seem to be much of a challenge for him this year.
You’ll recall that Stanton impressed everyone in spring training, hitting .286/.355/.714 over 28 at-bats. In the image above, he’s admiring the flight of a home run hit against Francisco Liriano(notes) on March 15. He entered the season ranked No. 3 on Baseball America’s top prospect list, behind only Jason Heyward(notes) and Stephen Strasburg(notes), so it’s not as if expectations were low.
If you’re in a larger league and looking for a mid-season lottery ticket in the power categories, keep Stanton in mind. He hit 39 homers at Single-A in 2008 and 28 across two levels last year. He’s already in the player pool, too. (Just don’t mistakenly add this dude). In the past, Ks have been a serious issue for Stanton (144 in ’09), but he’s walked as often as he’s struck out this season. Both of Florida’s corner outfielders are struggling, so a May/June Stanton call-up no longer seems farfetched.
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