Maybe you forgot how good Giancarlo Stanton is at obliterating baseballs. The Miami Marlins masher played just 74 games in 2015 because of injury, after all, and hit a paltry .233 during the first half of this season.
Consider Monday's All-Star Home Run Derby your reminder.
In a display that would make the creators of Backyard Baseball blush, Stanton cracked a combined 61 home runs in his three victorious rounds—a Derby record.
He also dominated in the distance department, as MLB.com's Mike Petriello highlighted:
After missing last year's Derby because of a fractured hamate bone, Stanton rolled into the event as the favorite, according to the Odds Shark oddsmakers. But some, including yours truly, didn't pick him to win.
Whoops.
Say what you want about Stanton's multiple trips to the disabled list and his uneven performance thus far in 2016. He is, with apologies to Michael Jackson, the undisputed "King of Pop."
It's not merely that Stanton sends the ball to places where it ought to carry a passport, though he certainly does that. It's the way he looks: like the Platonic Ideal of a slugger—a man who was born (or possibly created in a super-secret bunker) to swing a wooden stick at a horsehide-covered projectile.
Baseball is a game of nuance as much as spectacle. True fans appreciate the subtle moments. But even in this pitching-dominated, post-steroid (or "post-steroid" if you're feeling cynical) era, there's something magical about a gargantuan home run arcing into the stratosphere.
We crane our necks. We hold our breath. We ooh; we aww. We marvel.
To win the 2016 Derby, Stanton dispatched the 2011 winner, Robinson Cano of the Seattle Mariners, with relative ease, bashing 24 homers to Cano's seven. In the second round, he met stiffer competition in MLB home run leader Mark Trumbo of the Baltimore Orioles, but he prevailed 17-14.
Then came the final boss—defending Derby champ Todd Frazier. Last year, Frazier put on a clinic in front of his then-hometown Cincinnati Reds fans. This time, the Chicago White Sox third baseman ran out of mojo, dropping the championship bout to Stanton, 20-13, and giving ESPN play-by-play man Chris Berman the opportunity for an all-too-easy, "Down goes Frazier!"
Really, though, it was Stanton who went up. He won this event more than anyone else lost it.
"I had a great time," Stanton told the Associated Press (via ESPN.com) moments after receiving the Derby trophy. "I had a blast."
"Blast" being the operative word.
Here, let's look at one of Stanton's homers from the 61 on offer and gawk, courtesy of Fox Sports' Dieter Kurtenbach:
There are other MLB spectacles that make for appointment viewing: Clayton Kershaw's curveball, Bryce Harper's swagger, a Noah Syndergaard heater.
But right now, is there any other single act you'd rather witness than a signature Stanton bomb?
It's tempting to say this Derby outburst will propel Stanton on a second-half surge. He showed signs of an onslaught recently, crushing five home runs in the final five games before the break, including four in four consecutive at-bats.
But even if he continues to scuffle in stretches, he'll be a man whose at-bats delay a trip to the kitchen. You never know when he's going to do that thing he does, but you know you want to be around when he does it.
Already, Stanton owns two of the season's top five longest home runs, according to ESPN's Home Run Tracker.
And his 20 first-half homers traveled an average "true distance" of 421.8 feet, behind only Texas Rangers rookie Nomar Mazara—who has just 11 homers in all—and the Colorado Rockies' Carlos Gonzalez, who plays his home games in the thin air of Coors Field and was knocked out by Frazier in the first round of the 2016 Derby.
When you're ranking the game's top boppers, there's Stanton, and then there's everyone else. Oh, and he's still just 26, meaning his prime power years are on the horizon.
He's a freak of nature. A long-ball artist. And, now, a historically dominant Home Run Derby winner.
In other words: He's Giancarlo Stanton, in case you forgot.
All statistics current as of July 11 and courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com, unless otherwise noted.
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