He took the achievement in stride. "It's always good to get another home run and even better to get another win," Monger told reporters in the postgame interview.
Monger has been singled out by the media at times as underappreciated, given that he has put together quite a career while flying mostly under the radar, thanks in part to Emilio Morales playing on the same team.
Had it not been for Morales, Monger would actually own most Omaha records. He sits 3rd all-time in WAR, just 2.4 WAR behind Paul Barfoot for 2nd. He trails only Morales in runs, total bases, home runs, and RBI on the Omaha leaderboard. One spot he does comically have on Morales however is on the double's leaderboard. Monger sits in first place, 10 doubles ahead of Morales and 24 ahead of Jimmy Starks Jr.
Monger is hitting .282 lifetime with 2215 hits, 389 doubles, 38 triples, 400 home runs and 1146 RBI's to date. He has scored 1156 runs, walked 566 times and has a .339 OBP. His career WAR currently sits at 47.5.“We couldn’t be happier for James. We saw the potential when we drafted him, and he has fulfilled everything we could have asked for.” Said GM Justin Niles.
This past off-season, at age 34, it was announced that James Monger had signed a 6-year-long term extension worth $30,000,000 with the Cyclones, with many assuming that extension would finish out his career having played for 1 franchise. However, it is worth pointing out that this extension did not void Monger’s potential opt out after this season, so it’s possible that Monger could simply choose to opt out of his contract at the end of the season, which would assumedly void the entire extension.
That’s one worth watching out for.
