My Little Stanton Tracking Project
Okay, so I remember when that big Stanton trade to the Yankees went down. It was all over the news, right? Huge contract, big power hitter coming to New York. My first thought was honestly, “Man, that’s a lot of money and years.” Seemed like a massive gamble, even for the Yankees.
So, I decided to do something simple, just for myself, really. I wanted to kinda track how he was doing, not in a super analytical way, just keeping my own notes. See if this big move felt like it was working out, from my own couch perspective. I wasn’t trying to be some expert, just wanted to follow along closely.
Here’s what I did:
- I grabbed an old notebook, nothing fancy.
- Made a section just for Stanton.
- Whenever I thought about it, maybe once a week or every couple of weeks, I’d quickly look up his basic stats. You know, home runs, RBIs, batting average. Sometimes I’d note down the strikeouts too, ’cause, well, that was part of his game.
- I’d just jot down the numbers. Maybe a quick thought like, “Hit a couple bombs this week,” or “Tough stretch, lots of strikeouts,” or the dreaded, “Looks like he’s hurt again.”
- Didn’t use any special software, just pen and paper. Kept it super basic.
- Sometimes I’d think back to his Marlins days and compare in my head, like, “Is he hitting like he used to?”
I kept this up pretty consistently for the first season or two he was in pinstripes. It wasn’t about predicting anything, just my way of keeping tabs.
What I Found Doing This
Honestly, the biggest thing that stood out from my own little tracking was how often injuries seemed to pop up. You hear about it on the news, sure, but writing it down week after week in my own notes kinda drove it home. It wasn’t just about the massive home runs; it was also about the time spent off the field.
It made watching the games different too. When he came up to bat, I had my own little context in my head, based on my simple notes. Felt a bit more involved than just reading the sports headlines.
I eventually stopped doing it so religiously. Life gets busy, you know? But it was a fun little personal project for a while. It showed me how different it feels to follow a player closely, even with just basic notes, compared to just catching the highlights. It wasn’t rocket science, just my own way of processing that huge trade.
