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.

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.

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.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 9/10/2012.

Here are the totals for each team:

Rk	Tm	#
1	New York Yankees	39
2	Detroit Tigers	33
3	Boston Red Sox	28
4	Baltimore Orioles	27
5	Cincinnati Reds	26
6	San Francisco Giants	26
7	Los Angeles Dodgers	25
8	Oakland Athletics	25
9	Philadelphia Phillies	24
10	Cleveland Indians	23
11	Atlanta Braves	21
12	Chicago Cubs	20
13	Milwaukee Brewers	20
14	Pittsburgh Pirates	20
15	Chicago White Sox	19
16	Minnesota Twins	19
17	St. Louis Cardinals	19
18	Texas Rangers	19
19	Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim	16
20	Toronto Blue Jays	16
21	Houston Astros	14
22	Kansas City Royals	11
23	New York Mets	11
24	Seattle Mariners	11
25	Washington Nationals	10
26	Colorado Rockies	9
27	Florida Marlins	9
28	San Diego Padres	7
29	Arizona Diamondbacks	5
30	Tampa Bay Rays	5

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Play Index Tool Used
Generated 9/10/2012.