Giancarlo Stanton should contend for the NL HR championship crown in 2016. He is capable of cracking 40 – 50 HRs if he can play a year completely healthy. The Marlins are lucky to have one of the best young hitters in the game on offense.  We will predict he will lead the overall MLB as well.  Stanton cracked 27 HRs in just 74 Games Played in 2015 before a broken hand derailed his last three months of the season.

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So I think I fared fairly well from my prognostications of last HR leaders last year – although I was seriously off on Mark Trumbo and George Springer and of course Nelson Cruz did not slow down in 2015.

I almost nailed the totals for the top 1 – 4 in the AL.  Bryce Harper did emerge.  I also said that Edwin Encarnacion and Jose Bautista would be near the top of the list of near misses, but those continued to be productive past that.

So it comes to another year of figuring out this maze of the top power hitters.  I still believe that if Giancarlo Stanton remains healthy for a full season – that he will bomb 50 HRs.  I am picking him to be the National League Leader.

Mike Trout won his 4th Silver Slugger Award and now has 3 runner ups for the MVP and one MVP that he won last year. He clubbed 41 HRS in 2015 at the Age of 26. Baseball Reference is only projecting 31 big flies for him in 2016 – and I think he will be closer to 50 HRs and as opposed to 30 HRs. 41 HRs was good for third in the AL behind Chris Davis (47) and Nelson Cruz (43) in 2015. I believe the Angels slugger will win his 1st HR crown next campaign.

Pretty much there is nothing safer than picking Mike Trout to lead the Junior Circuit in the American League right?  yes.  I believe he will continue to improve upon his numbers, and he may challenge 50.

Out of the remaining Free Agents left, I believe only Yoenis Cespedes and Chris Davis will contend for the top spots as HR king.   Since I predict both of them will remain in the American League, I am posting them in that for now.

National League HR Leaders in 2016

Giancarlo Stanton, MIA – 48

Nolan Arenado, COL – 40

Bryce Harper, WSH – 40

Yoenis Cespedes, NYM – 36

Paul Goldschmidt, ARI – 35

Anthony Rizzo, CHC – 35

American League HR Leaders in 2016

Mike Trout, LAA – 46

Chris Davis, BAL – 44

Manny Machado, BAL – 38

Josh Donaldson, TOR – 37

Jose Abreu, CHI – 35

Overall in the MLB

Giancarlo Stanton, MIA – 48

Chris Davis, BAL- 41

Mike Trout, LAA – 46

Nolan Arenado, COL – 40

Bryce Harper, WSH – 40

Just outside the bar will be he following guys:  Jose Bautista, Edwin Encarnacion, Nelson Cruz, Manny Machado, Carlos Correa, Todd Frazier, Kris Bryant, Jay Bruce, Kyle Schwarber and Miguel Sano.  There will be an influx of young talent all crush 30+ HRs.

I look for David Ortiz, Alex Rodriguez, Mark Teixeira and Albert Pujols battle to hold back father time for one more year.  I would say Ortiz always has a chance to crack 30 though.

Bryce Harper has finally come of age as a budding superstar in the league with 41 HRs in the 2015 season. He may be capable of launching up a 50 HR season in his career – however I will believe that he will be pitched around a lot more in 2016 than he was last year.  Don’t kid yourself, this man will still hit any ball out of the park that is thrown in his wheelhouse.  The Nats new CF will just turn 23 next campaign.

*** The views and opinions expressed in this report are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of mlbreports.com and their partners***

A Big thanks goes out to our chief writer Hunter Stokes for preparing today’s feature post.

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