Crooked Pitch

It took nine games to happen, but Mike Stanton finally hit his first big league home run on Friday, going 2-for-4 with four RBI. It will be his first of many home runs to come.

While you’re waiting for his home runs to come, however, you’ll deal with a lot of strikeouts and zero-hit nights. In the three games prior to Stanton’s home run he was 0-for-12 with six strikeouts. In fact, looking at his nine games in the majors thus far, it’s been either feast or famine. He has four multi-hit games where he’s gone 9-for-16 (.563) and five game where he hasn’t gotten a hit, going 0-for-19 with nine strikeouts. Be prepared for ups and downs like this for the duration of the season.

If you would like see my projection for Stanton in 2010 — and I made this on the day he was called up — you can find it at FanHouse.