New York Yankee Player Profiles: Giancarlo Stanton, when you’re hot you’re hot

New York Yankees, Giancarlo Stanton
Oct 7, 2020; San Diego, California, USA; New York Yankees designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton (27) hits a two run home run against the Tampa Bay Rays in the eighth inning during game three of the 2020 ALDS at Petco Park. Mandatory Credit: Orlando Ramirez-USA TODAY Sports

Giancarlo Stanton spent much of the 2020 season on the IL for the New York Yankees with a hamstring injury; he came back into the lineup during a Blue Jays game on September 15th. On the 16th, Stanton went 4 for 4, including a home run and a double.  He ended the season playing in only 24 games but hit 11 home runs.  During the postseason, he hit 6 home runs in seven games. In addition, he hit a Grand Slam helping the Yankees to a huge win in game one of the ALDS.

This season he had pretty much started as he left off last season. Then, on April 5th against the Orioles, Stanton hit a monster Grand Slam, the Yankee’s first of the season. It was thought at the time, If Stanton can stay healthy, he could be the Yankee’s most dangerous weapon this season. He could come close to replicating his 2017 MVP season.

Giancarlo Stanton has not replicated his 2017, but it’s not for the lack of trying. He is hot right now and hitting the ball as he did in his 2017 MVP season; he is striking out less and being more patient at the plate. After a short time on the IL, he was slow to regain his form, but in August, Stanton has shown that he is a force to be dealt with. For the month, he has 8 home runs and has the team’s highest OPS at 1.032. In addition, he is now playing excellent defense in the outfield, giving manager Boone more options for the lineup, including keeping Anthony Rizzo and Luke Voit in the lineup.

During the New York Yankees 13 game winning streak, he hit six home runs driving in 11 runs. There are no other words for this type of performance other than Super Star status.

Lets’ take a look at his career and what he can do for the New York Yankees.

The Baseball superstar Giancarlo Stanton

Like many New York Yankees players, some we know and some we don’t know about their private lives. Stanton is no different, but here is what we do know. He is liked by many Yankees fans because he is a great player and disliked by many because he makes so much money, is frequently injured, and doesn’t always hit the ball.

His early life in California

But back to his early life. He was born to Michael Stanton and Jacinta Garay in Los Angeles, California, on November 8, 1989. He has an older brother and an older sister. He was brought up in the Sunland-Tujunga area of Los Angeles near the San Gabriel Mountain’s foothills.

In Stanton’s mind as a child, he didn’t care for his given name. Friends called him Carlo or Gene; his Mother called him Cruz (his middle name), although she wanted to name him Fidel, the Father objected. So Giancarlo decided he wanted to be called Mike from now on, and so it was until 2012 when he reinstated his preference for his real name Giancarlo. Stanton is of Irish African American descent, although his mother had Puerto Rican ancestry.

The future Yankee Giancarlo was a dominant player in just about every youth league sport he tried, including football. He continued playing sports after enrolling at Verdugo Hills High in Tujunga in 2003. He pitched and played the outfield for the varsity baseball squad. In 2005, as a sophomore, he hit a game-winning homer for the Dons in the city’s quarterfinals.

Unfortunately, Giancarlo’s grades were not measuring up to his stats. So his parents, in the process of a divorce, switched him to a private school, Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, about 30 minutes away. Almost immediately, Giancarlo began coming into his own, both on and off the field. As he approached his final height of 6’6″ and packed on more muscle, few doubted he would make a living in sports. The only question was, which sport? He had accepted a scholarship to play baseball for Tulane and received offers from UCLA, UNLV, and USC to play football.

The Miami Marlins selected Stanton

In 2007 when selected by the Miami Marlins in the second round of the draft, he was happy to receive a half-million signing bonus. He was again considering the Miami location, glad that he was not named Fidel. In 2008, Giancarlo spent the entire season with the Greensboro Grasshoppers of the Class-A South Atlantic League. Playing for manager Edwin Rodriguez, he was just 18 when the season started, but he torched enemy pitchers for 39 homers in 125 games. Giancarlo followed up his first campaign in pro ball with an outstanding 2009 season as he moved steadily up the organizational ladder.

He spent 50 games with the Jupiter Hammerheads and hit .291 with 12 homers. Then, Giancarlo started the 2010 season back in Jacksonville. That May, in a game against the Montgomery Biscuits, he hit a ball that cleared the scoreboard in left-centerfield later to be found to have gone 500′ from home plate. A month later, Giancarlo had surpassed 20 homers in just over 50 games. Finally, he got the call from the big club and was in the lineup at age 20 on June 8 against the Philadelphia Phillies with a $325 million contract.

In Stanton’s first major league game, he went 3 for 5 with two RBI’s. After that, he continued to have success after success and award after award: two Silver Sluggers, two Hank Aarons, two home run Leaders, four All-stars, until he reached the MVP of the National League in 2017.

Giancarlo Stanton becomes a New York Yankee.

After the 2017 season, the Marlins dumped salary, Giancarlo Stanton was traded to the New York Yankees after a 59 home run season. The trade was for cash considerations, and the Marlins got Starlin Castro and minor leaguers. In 2018 he made his New York Yankees debut hitting two homers in his first game. He ended up the year with 38 homers and 100 RBIs. Although he carried the team during Judge’s injuries and others, many fans criticized him for his team-leading 211 strikeouts.

On April 1, 2019, in a cruel April fool’s joke, placed on the 10 days IL with a bicep strain. He returned to the lineup on June 20 to go back to the IL seven days later with a knee injury that limited him to just nine days on the playing field last season. With the Yankees’ unrelenting injuries in 2019 and the departure to the IL of Hicks, Tauchman, and Encarnacion, the Yankees looked forward to returning to the outfield. Manager Aaron Boone was hoping Giancarlo could have a big impact on the postseason.  He came back to play in nine games in September but then went back on the IL.

Stanton came back from a knee ailment in time to play in the ALDS against the Minnesota Twins. Unfortunately, he wasn’t much help in three games; he hit .167 with no home runs and only 1 RBI.  During Game 1 of the ALCS against the Astros, Stanton suffered a right quad injury while running out a single in the second inning. He hit a home run in the sixth during the Yankees’ 7–0 win before the club realized after the game he was injured.

Stanton played in only one game during spring training before going on the IL with a calf strain.  He was expected to miss the start of the regular season, but when the start of the season was held back, the coronavirus Stanton was given the time to heal. He came down with a hamstring injury after an August 8th game at Tropicana Field, keeping him away from the field until September 15th. He came back for the IL and played masterfully.

This spring, in 13 games, he had one home run, 3 doubles, and 11 hits and had the second-highest batting average of .314. In his first six games of the new season (he has played in 5), He has a Grand Slam, 5 hits, and driving in 5 runs. There is no question the talent is there; it’s all about if he can stay healthy.

The Athletic says: He bashes the baseball harder than anyone in the sport. His home runs come off the bat as line drives. He is the poster boy of easy power; no one seems to work less to impact a ball more than he does.

Giancarlo’s personals:

As I have said before, Stanton’s private life is pretty private; he is not married but has been attached to several beautiful women over the years. He supposedly has a main squeeze right now, but it is doubtfully not the only one based on the previous history. On the lighter side, women know and appreciate Stanton as a sex symbol. In 2013 he posed gold clad and nude for ESPN’s body issue, something Bryce Harper of the then Nationals, Rob Gronkowski of the Patriots, among others, have done as well. Other than that, there are no scandals attached to his name.

In September 2019, he was featured as the love interest in singing star Lexy Panterra’s “Deep End” video. However, the star says they are just good friends. As if for now, the media beam is pondering the strong rumors of him dating a brunette beauty, Terez Owens. Owens is a model and sports blogger. But now, his attention has seemed to turn to Chase Carter, who he has been dating off and on for three years. The superstar baseball player appears not ready to settle down.

EmpireSportsMedia.com’s Columnist William Parlee is a member of the Society for American Sports Research. Follow me on Twitter @parleewilliam.