Marlins’ Dee Gordon Having A Great Season

It looked like Miami’s Giancarlo Stanton had a good shot at the National League home run title this season, but that’s probably not going to happen now that he’s out four to six weeks with a wrist injury. But fear not, Marlins fans; even though your team won’t make it to the post season barring some miraculous comeback after the All Star break, you have another player who has a shot at an individual honor in shortstop Dee Gordon.

Going into games of July 2nd, Gordon was tied with Arizona’s Paul Goldschmidt for the National League lead in batting average at .350. Gordon isn’t a power guy like Goldschmidt, he’s a speed guy. Last season as a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers, he led the league with 64 stolen bases. He’s got 26 this year, an impressive total so far, but well behind Billy Hamilton of Cincinnati who has 40. But then, Gordon is hitting 120 points higher than Hamilton, and has almost twice as many hits. This season, Gordon tied a major league record by getting his 50th hit in just his 28th game of the season. The player who’s record he tied was Hall of Famer Rogers Hornsby, who did the same thing in 1924. Hornsby went on to hit .424 that season, something almost unimaginable.

Gordon’s speed is evident in this three run inside the park home run he hit in the Marlins’ 5-3 win over the San Francisco Giants in Marlins Park on June 30th:

Gordon was part of a big seven player trade between the Marlins and Dodgers back in December. Los Angeles picked up veteran shortstop Jimmy Rollins in a trade with Philadelphia, but at 36, Rollins is past his prime and is hitting just .212 in 77 games for the Dodgers. At 27, Gordon, who is the son of former major league pitcher Tom Gordon, should just be hitting his peak.