Most people know that Curtis Granderson's 2007 season is one of four seasons to belong to the 20-20-20-20 Club (20 homers, doubles, triples and stolen bases in the same season) along with Frank Schulte's 1911 season, Willie Mays' 1957 season and Jimmy Rollins' 2007 season. They also know that Granderson has a reputation for being an incredibly nice guy. Let's look a little bit further and get five more facts about one of the newest New York Yankees.
1. Granderson's 2007 and 2008 seasons stand out significantly from the rest of his career. His 2009 season opened doubts that Granderson has already peaked, which wouldn't be out of place given that his 2008 season was his age-27 season (typically a player's best season statistically). In 2007 and 2008, Granderson hit .292/.363/.524, for an OPS of .887. In his other seasons (2004-2006 & 2009) he hit .256/.329/.450, for an OPS of .778, or more than a 100 point difference.
2. In 2007, Granderson hit fastballs incredibly well. According to FanGraphs' wFB stat, he was 31.7 runs above average versus fastballs, good for ninth in all of baseball. In 2008, he dropped down to a respectable 14.9, good for 46th place. But last season, he fell all the way to 1.2, or 115th out of 153 qualifying players.
3. Defensively, Granderson is a big upgrade from Melky Cabrera. For his career, Cabrera has a Ultimate Zone Rating (UZR) per 150 games of -2.4, while Granderson's mark is 5.2, almost a full win better. Granderson's +17 mark in center field was the third best in 2009 (Brett Gardner was the best Yankee at +11) and his +26 mark from 2007-2009 ranked seventh among center fielders. Cabrera did not factor in the top 10 of either leaderboard. Also, Granderson finished third in the 2009 Fielding Bible Awards for center field.
4. Among the 132 batters that had at least 150 plate appearances versus left-handed pitching in 2009, Granderson's isolated power (ISO) was the third lowest (only Scott Podsednik and Emilio Bonafacio were lower), his on-base percentage was second lowest (only Stephen Drew was lower) and his slugging percentage was the lowest overall by a wide margin.
5. Granderson is hard to double up. He has never grounded into more than seven double plays in a season, and last season he had the best GIDP% in the Majors, at a minuscule 0.94%. (minimum 50 GIDP opportunities) He grounded into only one double play in 106 opportunities. To put that in context, 132 players had 100 or more GIDP opportunities, and of that group, the next lowest GIDP total was four, by Grady Sizemore and Luke Scott.
Next up in the "5 Facts" series: Javier Vazquez
Next post: My 2009 "Aboveground" & "Underground" Mix CD's explained, coming Wednesday or Thursday
1. Granderson's 2007 and 2008 seasons stand out significantly from the rest of his career. His 2009 season opened doubts that Granderson has already peaked, which wouldn't be out of place given that his 2008 season was his age-27 season (typically a player's best season statistically). In 2007 and 2008, Granderson hit .292/.363/.524, for an OPS of .887. In his other seasons (2004-2006 & 2009) he hit .256/.329/.450, for an OPS of .778, or more than a 100 point difference.
2. In 2007, Granderson hit fastballs incredibly well. According to FanGraphs' wFB stat, he was 31.7 runs above average versus fastballs, good for ninth in all of baseball. In 2008, he dropped down to a respectable 14.9, good for 46th place. But last season, he fell all the way to 1.2, or 115th out of 153 qualifying players.
3. Defensively, Granderson is a big upgrade from Melky Cabrera. For his career, Cabrera has a Ultimate Zone Rating (UZR) per 150 games of -2.4, while Granderson's mark is 5.2, almost a full win better. Granderson's +17 mark in center field was the third best in 2009 (Brett Gardner was the best Yankee at +11) and his +26 mark from 2007-2009 ranked seventh among center fielders. Cabrera did not factor in the top 10 of either leaderboard. Also, Granderson finished third in the 2009 Fielding Bible Awards for center field.
4. Among the 132 batters that had at least 150 plate appearances versus left-handed pitching in 2009, Granderson's isolated power (ISO) was the third lowest (only Scott Podsednik and Emilio Bonafacio were lower), his on-base percentage was second lowest (only Stephen Drew was lower) and his slugging percentage was the lowest overall by a wide margin.
5. Granderson is hard to double up. He has never grounded into more than seven double plays in a season, and last season he had the best GIDP% in the Majors, at a minuscule 0.94%. (minimum 50 GIDP opportunities) He grounded into only one double play in 106 opportunities. To put that in context, 132 players had 100 or more GIDP opportunities, and of that group, the next lowest GIDP total was four, by Grady Sizemore and Luke Scott.
Next up in the "5 Facts" series: Javier Vazquez
Next post: My 2009 "Aboveground" & "Underground" Mix CD's explained, coming Wednesday or Thursday
No comments:
Post a Comment