Get a whiff of Giancarlo Stanton's epic strikeout woes

Vinnie Iyer

Get a whiff of Giancarlo Stanton's epic strikeout woes image

Mighty Giancarlo Stanton has struck out? Must be your average Marlins game in May.

The Miami slugger is mired in the worst slump of his career through all 41 games this season.

It was appropriate and expected that Stanton's first at-bat on Sunday against Nationals ace Max Scherzer ended in his 59th strikeout of the season.

MORE: Who will go No. 1 in the MLB Draft?

Scherzer came into the game third in the majors in stirkeouts with 74. Stanton, somehow with his ridiculous total, came into the day behind four batters in that dubious hitting stat, second in the National League to only Rockies rookie sensation Trevor Story.

Stanton is on pace, like the others ahead of him, to make Mark Reynolds look like a contact hitter. Reynolds, the modern master of coming up empty, whiffed a record 223 times in 2009. Stanton is on track to go down swinging or looking 233 times this season.

While Story is doing plenty of other good things in his chase for NL rookie of the year, Stanton is trying to make up for his issues with pure power.

Stanton, through Saturday, had 11 home runs and 25 RBIs in 40 games, on track to set career highs with more than 40 and 100 in those categories, respectively. But he's struggled to get to the actual Mendoza line, battling only .210 with a career-low .801 OPs to match.

It looks a lot worse than that of late.

Stanton's stretch in the previous five games was historically bad. Per ESPN's Jayson Stark, Stanton going 0-for-17 with 15 strikeouts was the worst a position player has fared in 50 years.

Per ESPN's Jerry Crasnick, that's added to a miserable month in which Stanton was batting .156 with 28 strikeouts in only 64 at-bats before Sunday.

The only cleaning up Stanton has been doing is sucking wind at the plate and life out of the middle of the Marlins' lineup. It's good then that he has ultimate resource in the Marlins' hitting coach, Barry Bonds.

Stanton has worked harder with the all-time home run king to break out of his funk. Bonds tried to give him simple see-ball, hit-ball advice when the two had a recent one-on-one batting cage session.

"He wanted to get out and work on some things, just tracking the ball and doing some little things," Bonds told the Associated Press. "I just stepped in there to give him couple of breaks."

Stanton's track record and talent say he will get out of this, and likely break out in a big, strong way. The Marlins, still fighting above. 500 without the best of Stanton, shouldn't start to worry — unless it also becomes a June swoon.

Vinnie Iyer

Vinnie Iyer Photo

Vinnie Iyer, has been with TSN since 1999, not long after graduating from Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. He has produced NFL content for more than 20 years, turning his attention to full-time writing in 2007. A native of St. Louis, Mo. but now a long-time resident of Charlotte, N.C. Vinnie’s top two professional sports teams are Cardinals and Blues, but he also carries purple pride for all things Northwestern Wildcats. He covers every aspect of the NFL for TSN including player evaluations, gambling and fantasy football, where he is a key contributor. Vinnie represents TSN as host of the “Locked On Fantasy Football” podcast on the Locked On network. Over his many years at TSN, he’s also written about MLB, NBA, NASCAR, college football, tennis, horse racing, film and television. His can’t-miss program remains “Jeopardy!”, where he was once a three-day champion and he is still avid about crossword puzzles and trivia games. When not watching sports or his favorite game show, Vinnie is probably watching a DC, Marvel or Star Wars-related TV or movie.