Bad Wax

Player Name: Michael Stanton

Player’s Current Team: Greensboro Grasshoppers

Player’s Current Parent Team: Florida Marlins

Player’s Current Address: c/o Greensboro Grasshoppers 408 Bellemeade Street, Greensboro, NC 27401

Date Sent out: 7/9/08

Date Returned: 8/5/08 (27 days)

Why go after this autograph: I actually wrote about Mike Stanton about a month ago in my Roughs on the Diamond feature. He was one of the reasons the readership of my blog exploded as he was mentioned as part of the Manny Ramirez deal, when the Marlins were still in talks with the Red Sox. Honestly, Mike is probably the top prospect in the Marlins farm at this time. He was their second round pick from the 2007 amateur draft. This was his first full professional season. In 2007 he split time between rookie and short season A ball, going 0.161/1/3 in 56 at bats, he was only 17. This year he was moved to the South Atlantic League (SAL) and at just 18 years old, showed the world that he is ready to become a superstar in professional baseball. This season for the Greensboro Grasshoppers (low A) he went 0.287/33/81 and he is just 18 years old. Normally such a young prospect would star next season out in low A as well, but he is hitting the ball so well, and if he opts for the Arizona Fall League this fall, he could be thrown right into advanced A ball next season. He still has a lot to learn and cut his strike out levels down (113 in 411 at bats), but if he isn’t rushed to the majors (like Cameron Maybin was), you might actually get to see an amazing player develop, just in time for a late 2010 call up.

Current MLB Comparison: This is a tough call, I think he has 40 homer capability, that being said, I can’t see him as much more than a 0.260 hitter. So I would tend to compare him to Adam Dunn. Is that a bad thing though? If he can corral his strikeouts and become a 0.280 hitter, maybe compare him to Andruw Jones in his prime.

Any Current Certified Autographs Available: I still have not seen any autographed cards f him, I have to assume that he will be in this fall’s Bowman DPP card set.