THE GRANDY MAN CAN!
I waited to write “Part III” of this series as long as I could to see if Curtis Granderson could continue his strong start to the season. We are now past a quarter of the way of the season and Granderson is still on fire! In fact, Granderson is off to such a strong start that he has the highest slugging percentage of any member of the power hitting New York Yankees at .625%! (I never would have imagined that when the Yanks traded for him) So far this season, he is Mr. Consistent and he has yet to get into a slump and has dominated the American League offensive charts.
Looking back at this trade, the Yankees scored a great deal for themselves, although Granderson’s 2010 numbers left something to be desired. The Grandy man only hit .247 in 2010 with a .324 on base percentage. Once known for his speed and ability to hit triples, Granderson only hit 7 triples and stole 12 bases. It was not until August that he worked with Kevin Long to improve his swing that everything has seemed to fall into place. As much confidence I have in Kevin Long, I also believe that playing for the Yankees in New York takes some getting used to, and that is why his 2011 numbers have skyrocketed. It’s kind of like a one year curve before a player can become a star in New York. It takes some players even longer!
Nowadays, Granderson is topping the Yankees and the AL East with his production. His batting average is .280 which is 2nd highest on the Yanks. (Arod has the highest with .287) Granderson’s on base percentage has improved to .353 and as I previously said, his slugging percentage is the 3rd highest in the American League at .625% He already has 16 home runs on the season which is nearly as many as he hit in 2010 with 24. Even the rate he is walking has improved as he already has 20 walks on the season. His highest was 72 in 2009. He is tied with Cano for the most hits on the Yankees with 51. Granderson has improved in nearly every hitting category including triples as he hit 4 triples on the season already.
Once known for his problems against lefties, Granderson’s ability to hit lefties has dramatically improved since that day in August he worked with Kevin Long. Last year he hit a mere .231 against lefties and that takes into account his impressive September. This season he is 16 for 54 against lefty pitching, bringing his average to lefties at .296. He has even hit half of his total home runs against lefties this season. (8)
The only areas he could use a little work would be the rate of strikeouts. Right now Granderson leads the team with 45 strikeouts. It’s obvious that since he is hot that he swings at a lot of bad pitches just to make contact. It’s not the worst thing in the world as he is destroying opposing pitchers, but it could catch up to him later in the season. I would also like to see him use his speed a bit more, although he does have 6 steals on the season which is the second highest on the Yankees to Gardner’s 8. That being said, he is still a force to be reckoned with at the plate.
If you had told me that Curtis Granderson would be the Yankee slugger when the Yanks traded for him, I would have thought you were crazy, but this trade worked out tremendously well for the Yankees. Looking back at what we had given up to get Granderson I think Cashman made the right decision.
YOU CAN READ PART I OF THIS GRANDERSON TRADE SERIES HERE
PART II OF THIS SERIES IS HERE
Just as an update to the first and second installment of this post, I have done a little follow up on the other 6 players involved with the trade.
2011 Numbers
Austin Jackson- Jackson is only batting .225, with a .278 on base percentage. Even with his impressive speed, he has only stolen 6 bases. His strikeouts are among the highest in the AL again at 59! He showed a lot of potential in the minors, but may be sputtering out now.
Phil Coke- Coke was just placed on the DL with a bone bruise in his foot, but has been doing OK with Detroit this year. He has only pitched in 11 games, but has pitched 52 innings allowing 48 hits and 30 strikeouts, leaving him with a 3.81 ERA.
Max Scherzer- Scherzer has been doing great for the Tigers this season and has the 2nd highest win total in the American League. He is 6-1 with a 2.98 ERA over his 10 starts. Scherzer has pitched 63 innings, striking out 60 batters. His strikeout ratio is a whopping 8.5K/9Inn. In case you don’t remember him, he pitched against the Yankees a couple weeks back and went 8 solid innings shutting out the Yankees and striking out 9! This was a big acquisition by the Tigers and tremendous loss for the D-Backs
Daniel Schlereth- Schlereth was the 4th player the Tigers received and he has been doing a so-so job for them in the bullpen. So far he has pitched 16.1 innings in 19 games and has a 2.76 ERA with 9 strikeouts.
Ian Kennedy- Kennedy was a rising prospect for the Yankees, but for some reason nobody thought he was going to be bigger than a #3 starter for the Yanks. The Diamondbacks obviously have seen something different in him as he is their #1 starter and having a great season. Kennedy is 6-1 with a 3.00 ERA (11th in NL) over 11 games. He has even thrown one full game shutout. Over the 74 innings pitched he has struck out 59 batters and has an impressive WHIP of 1.045. Kennedy was the biggest loss for the Yankees in the trade, but they had to give up something worthwhile for the Grandy Man. Hindsight is 20-20 but the Yankees though Hughes was the biggest treasure of those 2007 pitchers, but now Kennedy is killing it and Hughes’ arm is dead.
Edwin Jackson – Jackson is struggling this season as he is 4-5 with a 4.26 ERA over 10 starts. He has only pitched 60 innings but allowed 70 hits and 24 walks. On the bright side he has a 7.6K/9in ratio with 52 strikeouts on the season. Although he is starting out slow, he has big potential and I wouldn’t be surprised to see a better second half from Jackson.
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