Without much protection in the lineup, Marlins outfielder Giancarlo Stanton has struggled to find a comfort level this season. His strikeout rate is 30.4 percent, his highest since he was a rookie, and he entered play Saturday without a home run before slugging one an estimated 472 feet.
For a player with Stanton's prodigious power, we knew it would not be long until he put one into the seats. Even so, there have been concerns about his approach, given how few hittable pitches he has been seeing. Stanton's line drive rate is 9.8 percent, an indication that he is struggling to square up the ball.
Stanton's career line-drive percentage is 18.0, so we think he will be able to make adjustments and get going. Stanton is the only threat in Miami's lineup, but he is also simply too talented to keep struggling like this no matter how pitchers are approaching him. Fantasy owners got a loud reminder of why they drafted Stanton Saturday, and they simply have to keep riding him until he pulls out of this.