Miami Marlins

Miami Marlins manager Don Mattingly said Friday he may move MLB home run leader Giancarlo Stanton to the leadoff spot for the team's final two games of the 2017 regular season against the Atlanta Braves this weekend at Marlins Park.                          

Mattingly said Stanton's attempt to hit 60 or more homers—he has 59—is a key storyline, and he's more willing to focus on individual accomplishments with the Marlins out of the playoff picture.

"I'd really like it myself, to see him get to the round number at least," he told reporters. "You know, the number was 61 for a long time, and I'd love to see him put a couple up to see what it looks like. It's a big number; it's kind of fun. It's kind of incredible to watch that many homers in one season from one guy. It's just different."

Stanton is tied with Babe Ruth for the ninth-most home runs in a single season. Only Barry Bonds (73), Mark McGwire (70 and 65), Sammy Sosa (66, 64 and 63), Roger Maris (61) and Ruth (60) finished with higher totals.

Greg Cote of the Miami Herald passed along comments the 27-year-old outfielder made Thursday night about being part of such a select group of sluggers.

"It's crazy to be in that company," Stanton said. "It doesn't sink in yet. It doesn't make sense yet, really. But it's really cool. It's everything I've worked for, and it's something really cool."

Stanton usually hits second in the Miami order behind speedster Dee Gordon. He's accumulated three plate appearances in the leadoff spot during his eight-year career, racking up two strikeouts and a walk, according to Baseball Reference.      

Derek Jeter is wasting no time cleaning house after MLB owners approved the sale of the Miami Marlins from Jeffrey Loria to a group spearheaded by the former New York Yankees shortstop and businessman Bruce Sherman. 

According to the Miami Herald's Barry Jackson, Jeter—who will officially operate as CEO and co-owner—asked Marlins president David Samson, who is also departing, to fire vice president of player development Marc DelPiano, assistant general manager Mike Berger, vice president/player personnel Jeff McAvoy and vice president/pitching development Jim Benedict this week. 

The report comes a week after Jackson and Clark Spencer reported Jeter had asked Samson to fire five special assistants to management. Chief among those dismissed were Jack McKeon, who led the franchise to a World Series title in 2003, Hall of Famer Andre Dawson and two-time All-Star Jeff Conine. 

"Sure, I'm sad," McKeon said at the time. "No question you're sad. I'm disappointed, but you understand. A new regime is coming in, and they want their new people in there. You can't fault them with that."

As far as future moves are concerned, Jackson reported Friday that it is "widely expected by members of the organization" that Jeter will retain manager Don Mattingly, who is under contract through 2019. 

"Part of my thought about coming to Miami was to build," Mattingly said Thursday, per the Sun Sentinel's Craig Davis. "I came with the thought of basically building, and building something that's sustainable.

"The one thing I do know from Derek's standpoint is he's a guy that's going to come here and he's going to want to win. And he'll have a vision, I think, for the long range where he wants to build the organization where it's not just a chance to win one year."

Miami Marlins outfielder Giancarlo Stanton hit his 58th and 59th home runs Thursday against the Atlanta Braves, the most since Sammy Sosa and Barry Bonds in 2001. 

Stanton went deep off Julio Teheran in the fourth inning and took Rex Brothers deep in the eighth. The Marlins slugger is just the sixth player in MLB history to hit at least 59 homers in a season, joining Sosa, Bonds, Mark McGwire, Babe Ruth and Roger Maris.

Bonds set the all-time home run record with 73 in 2001. Sosa hit 64 homers. They are the last players to hit 60 in a season, though both did so under the suspicion of performance-enhancing drug use. No player has hit 59 without the suspicion of drug use since Maris' 61 in 1961. 

Stanton, who has never tested positive for any PEDs, said in August he still considers 61 to be the home run record.

"You grow up watching [the movie The Sandlot]," Stanton said, per Dave Hyde of the Sun Sentinel. "You grow up watching those films of Babe Ruth and [Mickey] Mantle and these guys and 61 always been that printed number as a kid."

The Marlins have three games remaining in the regular season, so Stanton could wind up setting his own personal record for home runs. 

Built in 2012, Marlins Park is one of the most unique-looking stadiums on the outside, but when you go inside, you'll find it has some of the most interesting features in all of sports.

Find out what they are in this video, part of the Deeper Coverage Stadium Tour presented by T-Mobile.

          

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MLB owners unanimously approved the sale of the Miami Marlins from Jeffrey Loria to an ownership group led by New York businessman Bruce Sherman and former New York Yankees shortstop Derek Jeter, Fox Sports' Ken Rosenthal reported Wednesday.

Sherman and Jeter reached an agreement in August to purchase the Marlins for $1.2 billion. Rosenthal added the pair still need to close on the deal and that they're expected to do so "within next week."

Despite not officially having ownership of the Marlins, Sherman and Jeter have already begun making plans for the franchise.

FanRag Sports' Jon Heyman reported the new owners are expected to fire team president David Samson. The Miami Herald's Barry Jackson and Clark Spencer also reported Jeter instructed Samson to fire Andre Dawson, Tony Perez, Jack McKeon and Jeff Conine, all of whom had been special assistants within the organization.

MLB owners unanimously approve sale of Marlins to Derek Jeter and Bruce Sherman https://t.co/zre217z6pN via @CBSSports

— SecuredTheBagPod (@SecureTheBagPod) September 29, 2017

Both Dawson and Conine played for the Marlins, while McKeon managed the team to its last World Series win in 2003.

According to Jackson, trimming payroll will be another of Sherman and Jeter's first tasks. The Marlins are 21st in payroll, with salaries totaling a little over $117 million in 2017, per Spotrac. Jackson spoke to a potential investor who said that figure could fall to as low as $55 million if Miami trades Giancarlo Stanton. Should Stanton stay, the ownership group plans to spend $80 million to $85 million.

Derek Jeter has reportedly asked Miami Marlins president David Samson to fire four front-office special assistants, including former manager Jack McKeon, who led the team to a World Series title in 2003. 

On Friday, the Miami Herald's Barry Jackson and Clark Spencer reported Jeter "has informed the team that he plans to fire" McKeon, who serves as a special assistant to owner Jeffrey Loria, as well as Andre Dawson, Tony Perez and Jeff Conine, all of whom are special assistants to the president.

Jackson and Spencer added that the former New York Yankees shortstop asked Samson "to fire those four Marlins luminaries for him because [he] didn't want to do it."

On Saturday, ESPN's Buster Olney reported Dawson and Perez were fired over the phone. 

Sampson himself is not expected back with the team assuming Major League Baseball's owners approve the sale of the Marlins from Loria to the group spearheaded by Jeter. 

"Sure, I'm sad," McKeon told the Herald. "No question you're sad. I'm disappointed, but you understand. A new regime is coming in, and they want their new people in there. You can’t fault them with that."

On Aug. 11, Jackson reported Loria had agreed to sell the franchise to a group of investors that includes Jeter, businessman Bruce Sherman and Michael Jordan, among others, for $1.2 billion. 

Conine, who spent eight seasons with the Marlins, joined McKeon as a key piece of the 2003 Marlins team after he rejoined the club following its midseason trade with the Baltimore Orioles. 

Dawson, on the other hand, closed out his Hall of Fame career in South Florida from 1995 to 1996, while Perez spent part of the 2001 season as manager after he was named a special assistant the year prior. 

Roger Maris Jr. was listening. He always listens. Because as long as there is baseball and as long as there are home runs, if he listens hard enough, his father is still close to him.

So yes, when Miami Marlins slugger Giancarlo Stanton tossed a shoutout to Maris Jr.'s father last month, you bet it came through loud and clear.

You see, over the past two decades, we've been through Barry Bonds, Mark McGwire (twice) and Sammy Sosa (three times). We've watched McGwire break the single-season home run record in 1998 (70), Bonds up the ante in 2001 (73) and other 62-plus efforts during the cartoonish seasons of 1998-2001 that made Roger Maris' old record of 61 in 1961 seem almost quaint by comparison. He now ranks all the way down at seventh on the all-time single-season home run list.

And yet, there was Stanton last month, en route to constructing possibly the greatest long ball season we've seen since Bonds', noting he still considers Maris' 61 to be the record.

"I did see that, and I think a lot of people feel that way," Maris Jr. told Bleacher Report in a recent phone conversation. "The record books don't indicate that, but in the court of public opinion, I think a lot of people think that is the record even though it's not in the books.

"Kind of like when Dad hit 61, a few people thought differently at that time, too. It's interesting Stanton is shooting for that, and it's exciting to watch him play."

Player	No.	Season
Barry Bonds	73	2001
Mark McGwire	70	1998
Sammy Sosa	66	1998
Mark McGwire	65	1999
Sammy Sosa	64	2001
Sammy Sosa	63	1999
Roger Maris	61	1961
Babe Ruth	60	1927

It says a mouthful regarding both baseball's revered numbers and the permanent stain from the steroid era that a man who spent the entire 2016 season with Bonds as his hitting coach would then approach a milestone home run mark one season later and...completely discard Bonds in favor of digging back into history.

Maris Jr.'s father is not in the Hall of Fame, yet he doggedly continues to be remembered in his own unique way as a historical figure. Seasons come and seasons go, yet Roger Maris never goes out of style. And it is touching to Maris Jr. and his three brothers and two sisters.

"It obviously makes you feel good knowing he's in good light with the people who follow baseball and with the general public," Maris Jr. said. "There's never a time that goes by when you don't think that's great."

Maris Jr., who lives in Gainesville, Florida, was scheduled to be in Atlanta for the Marlins-Braves game two Saturdays ago, and he was supposed to meet Stanton for the first time. While Hurricane Irma forced Maris Jr. to cancel, Stanton smashed No. 54.

Meanwhile, Maris Jr. this month is preparing to launch 61 Outfitters, a clothing company specializing in fishing and hunting caps designed to honor his father.

That Stanton happens to be stirring memories of the former New York Yankees slugger in the same month that the Maris family is gearing up for the launch of a clothing line that plays off Roger's accomplishment is not lost on Maris Jr. He's seen enough to know that timing is everything in this game.

While Maris Jr., 58, doesn't watch baseball as much as he once did, he does pay attention, especially to MLB's annual Home Run Derby. And you bet he noticed it was Stanton at last summer's event in San Diego who set a Home Run Derby record by slugging...61 homers.

"It's all flowing together," Maris Jr. said.

In a way, it always has. One of he and his wife Danis' two daughters, Brie, 24, interned for the Yankees a couple of summers ago, and the family has been invited back to Yankee Stadium several times for various ceremonies: the 50th anniversary of Maris' 61-homer season, the final game at old Yankee Stadium, Opening Day in new Yankee Stadium, a Roger Maris bobblehead giveaway.

"The Yankees have always been very good to us," Maris Jr. says. "George Steinbrenner was extremely gracious with my dad, and the Steinbrenners to this day always have been very generous with us."

Roger Maris died of cancer in December 1985, at the age of 51. The family's highest-profile baseball date since then, of course, was its attendance at St. Louis' Busch Stadium on the night in 1998 when McGwire broke their father's record with his 62nd home run—five of Roger's six children were in attendance: Roger Jr., Richard, Kevin, Randy and Sandra. Those images remain indelible, and it was especially emotional that evening not only because of the record but also because Roger Maris finished his career in St. Louis.

Maris Jr. vividly remembers plenty of nights running around that old ballpark as a kid, and playing pepper there with his father. While the family talked about its "disappointment" following McGwire's steroids admission, even that doesn't overshadow their fondness for him personally. After the steroids admission, McGwire phoned Pat Maris, Roger's widow, personally to apologize.

"What happened happened," Maris Jr. said. "He admitted what he did, he said he was sorry, and I believe he was. I think he's a pretty great guy. He didn't have to say that. Like when he was under oath to Congress and he took the Fifth, most people would have tried to protect what they did and lied through their teeth. That shows character, for him to come clean and be upfront about it. You've got to give him kudos for that."

From a distance, Maris Jr. still views 1998 mostly in a positive way.

"Sosa and Mac, in my mind, I related it to my dad and Mickey [Mantle]," he said, referring to the two Yankees who dueled in '61, when his dad finished with 61 homers and Mantle 54. "When Dad did this, he was the first guy to do it where the media was really [outsize], when you had television and print, radio; everybody was fighting for stories at the time, but there was nobody in the locker rom to protect him. There was no press secretary. He would be sitting in the locker room for hours answering question after question, and if he didn't answer the 100th question, he was a jerk."

It was quite an education, Maris Jr. said. And then, "to see Mark break the record and get all the adulation, you think about what it was like for Dad."

He's never met Bonds. He was watching on television the night the Giants slugger broke McGwire's single-season record in '01, albeit with far different emotions.

"In the moment, pretty much everyone kind of knew what was going on," Maris Jr. said. "The home runs were just getting out of control. One year they did it, then everyone's hitting 65, 67. Then there was a point where the record was going to be so far obliterated.

"It used to be that every year someone got off to a hot start and there was a number that was attainable. Now, it's not even attainable."

At the time, Maris' achievement was controversial because Babe Ruth was—and remains—a beloved legend and because Maris broke the Babe's single-season record in the first season in which MLB expanded its schedule to 162 games. Previously, clubs had played 154 games.

But while Maris' Yankees played eight more games in 1961 than Ruth's Yankees in 1927, Maris wound up with just seven more plate appearances than Ruth in their historic seasons (698-691). And it took Maris three fewer plate appearances to hit 60 compared to Ruth (684-687). Maris then hit No. 61 in his 696th plate appearance of the '61 season.

There's no telling what Roger Maris would have thought of McGwire and Co., but Maris Jr. said: "I think he would have loved it. I think he'd have been right there with it. He loved the long ball. I don't think he's any different than any other person in this country who lived through that whole time. It was like, Wow. There was a wow factor to the whole deal."

That wow factor re-appeared with Stanton for a time in August and early September, but he's now hit only one home run in his last seven games. Nevertheless, Maris Jr. is rooting for him.

"When he first came into the league and I saw his first homer, I thought, 'Oh my God, who is that?'" Maris Jr. said. "The way he turned on the ball, the power he exuded. Ever since then, I've been a big fan, following him. He's just incredible. When he first came up, you were just in awe if you were a fan and enjoy the long ball.

"I was like, 'How many home runs is he going to hit?'"

    

Scott Miller covers Major League Baseball as a national columnist for Bleacher Report. Follow Scott on Twitter and talk baseball.

Even amid the most extreme home run barrage in Major League Baseball history, Giancarlo Stanton looms like a titan over mere mortal men.

It's time for Bleacher Report's MLB Metrics 101 to pay proper homage.

The Miami Marlins right fielder already has 54 home runs. That's an astonishing number in and of itself, but it's also a gateway to a veritable treasure trove of other astonishing numbers.

Let's go through that gateway.

          

Stanton's Pace and Its Place

Even if Stanton doesn't go yard again this year, his 2017 season would still be a huge homer-hitting success.

His 54 dingers blow away his previous career high of 37, which he set in 2012 and matched in 2014. He's also just the 17th player to hit as many as 54 homers in a season, and he's the first since Jose Bautista in 2010 to do so.

But we might as well face it: Everyone and their uncle (and their uncles' uncles) wants to see Stanton top 60. 

He has a real chance of doing so.

With 54 homers through 143 games, ESPN.com puts him on pace for 60 on the year. He'd be the first player since 2001 to reach the 60-homer plateau, and it would only be the ninth of 60-homer season ever:

Player	Year	HR
Barry Bonds	2001	73
Sammy Sosa	2001	64
Mark McGwire	1999	65
Sammy Sosa	1999	63
Mark McGwire	1998	70
Sammy Sosa	1998	66
Roger Maris	1961	61
Babe Ruth	1927	60

It's indeed possible that Stanton will blow past 61 homers. He has as many as Sammy Sosa did through 143 games in 2001. Sosa then launched 10 more in his final 18 games. Given that Stanton hit 11 in a mere 12-game span as recently as August, a finish like that is well within the realm of possibility.

Some will argue that anything beyond 61 homers would make Stanton the "true" single-season home run king. The thought has even entered his mind.

"The record is the record," Stanton told Dave Hyde of the Sun Sentinel in August. "But, personally, I do [think 61 is the record]."

There are no mysterious implications at play here. The only guys who've topped 61 homers did so during the Steroid Era. That makes them personae non gratae with dingers.

But for every "Yeah, but," there's a "Yeah, but." 

In 1927, Babe Ruth played against the same seven all-white teams over and over again. In 1961, Roger Maris played in an expanded league with an expanded schedule. And while performance-enhancing drugs were a factor for Sosa, Mark McGwire and Barry Bonds, so were expansions in 1993 and 1998, a widespread shift toward smaller ballparks and potentially a juiced ball to boot.

Speaking of juiced balls, they're likely the underlying cause of 2017's never-before-seen rate of 1.27 home runs per game. Ben Lindbergh and Mitchel Lichtman presented a compelling case at The Ringer. Rob Arthur followed up with his own compelling case at FiveThirtyEight. 

And yet, Baseball Reference posits Stanton would have 55 homers in a neutralized environment. Considering that said environment would have blocked the 60-homer threshold from Ruth in '27 and Sosa and McGwire in '99, one could argue Stanton is headed for only the sixth "real" 60-homer season in MLB history.

Lest anyone get up in arms at the notion that Stanton isn't doing anything to drive his own surge, that's a segue to the next point.

           

It's About Consistency, Not Power

As a 6'6", 245-pound star who's hit moonshot after moonshot since entering the league in 2010, it can't and won't be disputed that Stanton packs a great deal of power.

But 2017 doesn't mark a step forward for his raw power. His 12.2-degree launch angle, 91.9 mph exit velocity and 417-foot average home run distance are his lowest marks of Statcast's three-year era.

Rather, the bigger changes have to do with Stanton's health and consistency.

Regarding the former, the injury bug has left him alone and put him on track to smash through his career high of 150 games played. Regarding the latter, he's pushed his strikeout rate down from a career rate of 28.5 percent down to a more manageable 23.8 percent.

In short: A powerful man is playing in more games and putting more balls in play. If that isn't a recipe for dingers, nothing is.

Stanton made a change midway through 2017 that allowed him to take off like this. It's easy to spot when comparing his 17th homer on June 13:

To his 18th homer on June 19:

What should stand out is how Stanton switched from more of an even stance, with his feet roughly parallel to one another, to a decidedly closed stance, with his front foot closer to the plate. He only continued to push the envelope in the ensuing weeks. His most recent homer reveals he's now nearly showing his back to the pitcher when he's in the box.

"The stance helps me stay with my approach and not pull off balls like I would do, which would lead to more at-bats given away or falling into the pitcher's plan," Stanton explained to Tyler Kepner of the New York Times.

Before June 19, Stanton swung at 45.6 percent of all pitches. Since June 19, he's swung at 39.3 percent.

The benefits of his improved selectivity are staggering. Before the switch, he was slugging .542 with 17 homers. Since the switch, he's slugged .724 with 37 homers.

Well, maybe next year. In the meantime, there's plenty more to appreciate about what Stanton is doing now.

           

Barrels, Bombs, Bunches and More Miscellaneous Stanton Home Run Notes

The reality that Stanton's historic surge is less about extreme power and more about greater consistency might make you, dear reader, suspicious that his power is no longer extreme in any sense.

Not true.

Stanton remains built to barrel the ball, and Statcast reveals that he's hit with an ideal combination of launch angle and exit velocity on 48 of his 54 home runs. That's eight more than any other hitter.

If it's good, old-fashioned distance you prefer, consider that Stanton has seven more 420-foot homers than anyone and nine more 440-foot homers than anyone. And as this graphic from MLB's Daren Willman shows, no field has been spared from Stanton's bombardment:

In addition to tying an all-time record after he hit 18 homers in August, Stanton has collected multiple home runs in nine different games. That's three more times than any other player this season, and just two off Sosa's and Hank Greenberg's single-season record of 11 games.

Eight pitchers have had the displeasure of serving up multiple home runs to Stanton: A.J. Cole, R.A. Dickey, Jerad Eickhoff, Jaime Garcia, Mike Leake, Aaron Nola, Adam Wilk and Travis Wood. 

Dickey and Wood are two of 14 former All-Stars who Stanton has taken deep. Along with Felix Hernandez and Max Scherzer, Dickey is also one of three Cy Young winners to have felt the slugger's wrath.

Stanton's homers have mostly tended to be important. He's hit 33 of his 54 homers in medium-leverage or high-leverage situations, including a career-high eight for the latter. He also has a new high in his 20 homers with men on base, bringing his career total in that particular category to a nice, even 100.

There's more to get into. And not just a little more, either. A lot more.

But for now, this is enough. Everyone should leave here with an appreciation for the new and improved Giancarlo Stanton and the many enticing parameters of his chase for history.

Now all he needs to do is finish it.

          

All stats courtesy of Baseball Reference, FanGraphs and Baseball Savant and are current through Tuesday, Sept. 12.

With the state of Florida still reeling from the impact of Hurricane Irma last weekend, the Milwaukee Brewers and Miami Marlins have relocated their three-game series starting Friday to Miller Park. 

Marlins president David Samson issued a statement on the decision to move the series from Miami to Milwaukee, via Jessica Blaylock of Fox Sports Florida:

Statement from the @marlins on series vs @brewers: pic.twitter.com/PuXCymBz0n

— Jessica Blaylock (@JessBlaylock) September 13, 2017

Per George Richards and Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald, Marlins Park did sustain damage to "about six percent of the ballpark’s roof membrane" that will be replaced as soon as the team's season ends.

An image of the damaged roof at Marlins Park was captured by Beto Glez on Twitter:

Así quedó el @MarlinsPark después del #HurricanIrma en Miami, se dañó el techo móvil @US_diarioas pic.twitter.com/sF2KhtgLlH

— BeTo Glez (@BetoGlezL) September 11, 2017

The Marlins are currently playing a three-game series at Citizens Bank Park against the Philadelphia Phillies. They have been on the road since last Thursday, playing a series against the Atlanta Braves over the weekend. 

After this weekend's series against the Brewers, the Marlins have six more home games remaining this season. They host the New York Mets from Sept. 18-20 and the Braves to end the year from Sept. 28-Oct. 1. 

The Miami Marlins will allow players' families to travel with the team this week with Hurricane Irma heading toward South Florida.  

"[Team owner] Jeffrey [Loria] ultimately made the decision that all the families are going to get to go with us, travel the whole trip, kids and the whole thing, and really provide a service for our families, which is really very nice of the organization," manager Don Mattingly said Tuesday, according to ESPN.com. 

The Marlins are scheduled to wrap up a three-game series with the Washington Nationals at home Wednesday before hitting the road for a seven-game road trip against Atlanta and Philadelphia. 

"We all feel the same way, you all feel the same way too," Mattingly added. "If you had your kids here and you're leaving on a trip, it's not the best feeling to leave your family somewhere."

Members of the Tampa Bay Rays are also reportedly making contingency plans now that Hurricane Irma is listed as a Category 5 storm with 185 mph winds, according to CNN.com's Steve Almasy, Nicole Chavez and Jason Hanna. 

"I'm pretty [much] kind of panicking about it; I don't know what to do," outfielder Kevin Kiermaier said, per the Tampa Bay Times' Marc Topkin. "A lot of things can happen with its path and all that, but Mother Nature is undefeated every time certain things like this happen. It's scary nonetheless. Me being from Indiana, this is all new to me."

The Rays are scheduled to depart Thursday for a three-game series against the Boston Red Sox that begins Friday. Questions remain regarding the status of their series against the New York Yankees that is currently scheduled to begin Monday, Sept. 11. 

According to Topkin, the Rays and MLB officials are expected to reach a decision by Friday about possibly relocating the series to Yankee Stadium or a neutral site—as was the case last week when the Houston Astros and Texas Rangers played three games at Tampa Bay's Tropicana Field in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey.