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Entries in Curtis Granderson (15)

Tuesday
Feb192013

Curtis Not-So-Granderson

Overall, Curtis Granderson did not have a grand 2012. 

  • On the grand side of things, he hit 43 homers and drove home 106 runs.
  • On the not-so-grand side, he hit .232 and struck out a whopping 195 times. 

How bad is that strikeout total?

Here are the five worst strikeout seasons in Yankee history

Rk Player SO Year
1 Curtis Granderson 195 2012
2 Curtis Granderson 169 2011
3 Alfonso Soriano 157 2002
4 Danny Tartabull 156 1993
5 Jorge Posada 151 2000
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 2/19/2013.

You may have noticed that the Grandyman set Yankee records each of the last two seasons for whiffs.

Here are the MLB strikeout leaders over the last two seasons

Rk Player SO From To
1 Adam Dunn 399 2011 2012
2 Drew Stubbs 371 2011 2012
3 Curtis Granderson 364 2011 2012
4 Danny Espinosa 355 2011 2012
5 Mark Reynolds 355 2011 2012
Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 2/19/2013. 

Granderson is getting killed on pitches outside the strike zone

The picture says plenty, it tells us that 26.9% of the pitches that Granderson swung at were out of the strike zone. And he missed on 43.9% of those.

Not surprisingly its the curveball that's Granderson is chasing, hitting .139 against it last season. And when he makes contact on pitches out of the strike zone, against curveballs he hit .029.

Curtis hit .248 before the All-Star break and was one of baseball's worst hitters for average after the break at .212. But he did hit 20 homers in 75 games with 58 RBI and that power is essential for the Yankees' success.

It's that desire to hit homers that gets Granderson into trouble. While some batters like the ball down and in, Granderson loves pitches on the fat part of the bat and outside pitches are clearly his weak point.

Here are his 2012 homers

When you look at the location of the pitches in which he hit for homers, you can see how he ends up chasing so many pitches out of the zone and the risk is high that he will end up with nothing.

You can be sure that the mantra that Granderson is hearing this spring from Yankees hitting coach Kevin Long, is "See the ball. Hit the ball." because without that, Granderson, who is in his walk year, will end up with just another strikeout year.

 

Friday
Oct192012

Yankees Hitters in October: An Autopsy

The New York Yankees' season ended last night when Prince Fielder snagged Jayson Nix's pop-up at the lip of the infield grass, completing the Tigers' four-game ALCS sweep. The sad part? Nix's one-hundred-foot floater was one of the Bombers' better ABs -- hey, at least he made contact!

New York led the American League in both on-base percentage and slugging during the regular season, but the club's offense no-showed in October. Here's a post-mortem on the Yankees' bats:

  • Collectively, the Yankees batted .187, got on base at a .254 clip and slugged .303. Ichiro was the only Bomber to tally double-digit hits (11), and Raul Ibanez was the only guy to go deep more than once (he hit three HR).
  • New York's trademark plate patience disappeared in October. The Yankees chased 32.4% of pitches thrown out of the strike zone during the playoffs, up from 27.3% during the regular season. Teams have been jumpier overall in the playoffs while facing higher quality pitching (the chase rate has increased from 28.4% during the regular season to 30.4%), but that's still a major jump in swinging at junk for the Yankees.
  • The club's biggest hackers were the hitless Eric Chavez (43.6% chase rate) and Robinson Cano (41.5%), who went 3-for-40. Chavez went after pitches thrown a foot outside, while Cano extended the zone down to his shoe tops:

Chavez's swing rate by pitch location

 

Cano's swing rate by pitch location

 

  • Curtis Granderson whiffed 43.5% of the time that he swung, far north of his already-high 29.7% miss rate during the regular season. He struck out 16 times, four more than any other postseason hitter.
  • The second-most whiff-tastic hitter? Alex Rodriguez. Despite being plastered to the bench for much of the ALDS, A-Rod struck out 12 times during the postseason. He whiffed 37.9% of the time that he swung (27.1% during the regular season).
  • Robinson Cano didn't record a single hit against a breaking or off-speed pitch, going 0-for-23 against curves, sliders and changeups. Pitchers buried Cano with soft stuff thrown low and away:

Location of breaking and off-speed pitches thrown to Cano during the playoffs

  • Russell Martin's hitting woes weren't due to poor plate discipline -- he just couldn't connect on pitches thrown over the plate. Martin saw a strike 55.6% of the time, second-highest among playoff hitters with at least 30 plate appearances (Jon Jay is first, at 56.2%).
  • Nick Swisher passed on some meatballs. He swung just half of the time that he got a pitch thrown middle-middle over the plate, down from about 76% of the time during the regular season. The average swing rate on middle-middle pitches is about 75% during the playoffs, and it was 72% during the regular season.
Monday
Sep102012

Curtis Granderson becomes the 39th Yankee with 100 homers

Curtis Granderson came up as a pinch-hitter off the bench to hit his 35th homer and drive in five runs, and New York beat the Baltimore Orioles 13-3 on yesterday to regain sole possession of first place in the division. Granderson ended up with three hits and five RBI and according to ESPN Stats, the last player to have 3+ hits and 5+ RBI in a game he did not start was Kelly Gruber of Toronto, on April 11, 1988.

The Grandy Man's 2012 homers

The home run for Granderson was his hundredth as a member of the Yankees (he had 102 for the Tigers), the 39th player to hit 100+ homers for the Yanks and it's a great list of players.

Not surprisingly, the Yankees have had the most 100+ hitters of any franchise.

Rk Player HR From To G
1 Babe Ruth 659 1920 1934 2084
2 Mickey Mantle 536 1951 1968 2401
3 Lou Gehrig 493 1923 1939 2164
4 Joe DiMaggio 361 1936 1951 1736
5 Yogi Berra 358 1946 1963 2116
6 Alex Rodriguez 301 2004 2012 1228
7 Bernie Williams 287 1991 2006 2076
8 Jorge Posada 275 1995 2011 1829
9 Derek Jeter 255 1995 2012 2564
10 Graig Nettles 250 1973 1983 1535
11 Don Mattingly 222 1982 1995 1785
12 Jason Giambi 209 2002 2008 897
13 Dave Winfield 205 1981 1990 1172
14 Roger Maris 203 1960 1966 850
15 Bill Dickey 202 1928 1946 1789
16 Tino Martinez 192 1996 2005 1054
17 Paul O'Neill 185 1993 2001 1254
18 Charlie Keller 184 1939 1952 1066
19 Tommy Henrich 183 1937 1950 1284
20 Bobby Murcer 175 1965 1983 1256
21 Robinson Cano 173 2005 2012 1192
22 Tony Lazzeri 169 1926 1937 1659
23 Joe Pepitone 166 1962 1969 1051
24 Bill Skowron 165 1954 1962 1087
25 Elston Howard 161 1955 1967 1492
26 Roy White 160 1965 1979 1881
27 Hank Bauer 158 1948 1959 1406
28 Joe Gordon 153 1938 1946 1000
29 Bob Meusel 146 1920 1929 1294
30 Reggie Jackson 144 1977 1981 653
31 Hideki Matsui 140 2003 2009 916
32 Tom Tresh 140 1961 1969 1098
33 Mark Teixeira 134 2009 2012 590
34 Thurman Munson 113 1969 1979 1423
35 Gil McDougald 112 1951 1960 1336
36 George Selkirk 108 1934 1942 846
37 Mike Pagliarulo 105 1984 1989 703
38 Nick Swisher 101 2009 2012 576
39 Curtis Granderson 100 2010 2012 430
Provided by Baseball-Reference.comView Play Index Tool Used
Generated 9/10/2012.

 

Here are the totals for each team:

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