Roundup – Curtis Granderson Analysis

Curtis Granderson in full extension (Bill 'The Great' Richardson/BDD)

- The Detroit Tigers signed their center fielder, Curtis Granderson, to a five-year deal worth $30.25 M, with a club option for 2013.

Love it…just love it.  Doesn't it seem like Dombrowski is doing everything right these days?  Getting together what should prove to be a very scary lineup AND getting it under contract through arbitration years and in some cases some free-agency seasons.

Granderson is not only an example on the field, but off the field too, where he has become a great spokesperson for the game of baseball with his blog, frequent interviews and being 'a guy you wish your daughter would marry' according to comments by Jim Leyland in the past.

On the field, he proved very efficient in while patrolling center field, ranking fourth in the majors last season with a +20 rating by the good people at The Fielding Bible and playing in all but four of all Tigers games.

While not considered your prototypical leadoff hitter in the past, in that he didn't put up OBP numbers that were judged adequate to occupy the top spot of the lineup, he made some great strides toward super stardom last year:

*He cut down his strikeouts percentage by 5% last season compared to 2006.
*He reduced his groundballs ratio to 36% from 44% the previous season.
*He became the third player in MLB history to enter the 20-20-20-20 club (steals, homers, triples, doubles).
*He hit 84 extra-base hits in 611 AB.
*He improved 42 points on his batting average from 2006 and 22 points on his career average in the majors.
*He added 140 points on his OPS from the 2006 campaign.

With all these improvements, lefties still completely dominate him…and getting worse!  He posted a .160 average against them last season, well below his .202 career average.  He compensates by a very healthy 1.014 OPS against righties.

Ok.  He is forgiven.

Great guy, great player, great deal.  Compare that to Sizemore's deal signed in 2006 and with inflation it compares pretty well.

- Chris Jaffe has a pretty good interview running at THT with none other than Bill James.

“In the early days of the Abstract, did you ever have any doubts if you'd be able to make it?

You have to understand: everybody I talked to about it told me that there was no market for this stuff, the public didn't care about this kind of material. Even the people who were interested in it thought there was no economic number of people who shared their interest. Of course I had times when I thought everybody else might be right and I might be wrong.

Given that most of SABR's membership is more interested in baseball history rather than any sort of statistical analysis, why did you coin the word “sabermetrics” to describe the new wave of baseball stats?

Well, we needed a word, and I wanted to honor SABR, and. . .I just put it together that way. The mind is kind of random.

Who has influenced your writing style? Do you have any guidelines you try to follow when writing?

Yes, I write like I talk. . .I write like people talk. I learned from everybody I like to read, I guess.

How do you handle writer's block?

I eat.“

- 'Should a Clubhouse be a Chapel?'

“The lowlight of Miller’s career — besides being released at the end
of last season, that is — was the discomfort he experienced throughout
his career over participating in baseball chapel services every Sunday
morning.

“From Day 1 it was uncomfortable,” Miller, 31, said. “I
was in extended spring training, and on Sunday there was a knock on the
door. I thought it was a joke. This guy was coming to preach to us in
our little locker room. He had two little handouts that said Baseball
Chapel and prayer of the week.”

Baseball Chapel, an evangelical
group, has existed for 35 years and supplies Sunday morning chapel
leaders to all major and minor league teams. “Our purpose is to glorify
Jesus Christ!” its Web site, baseballchapel.org, proclaims.

“They
preach to you,” Miller said in a telephone interview. “Some are more
overbearing than others. At the end they ask if you have anything ‘you
want me to pray for.’ The other guys would say ‘our families, safe
travel.’ I’d say nothing. Then they would pray. It was very
uncomfortable. They’d say Jesus this and Jesus that. At the end they’d
say ‘in Jesus’ name.’ ”

- Jon Sickels analyzes Hunter Pence's future and I happen to agree with him:

“What do I think? This is an easy one for me, I think he'll keep hitting. But will he maintain at about the same level as he is now? All three of the projection systems above show him not hitting QUITE as well in '08 as in '07, likely from blending his actual '07 output with his MLEs from 2006.

My own numbers are .303/.351/.503. I think there is a chance he could exceed that.

- Jon Weisman of Sports Illustrated weights in on some baseball traditions:

“4) The wild card

I feel shame. As a diehard opponent
of the wild card, I'm dying hard. It never made sense to me that a team
that wasn't the best in its division after six months should have a
chance to be crowned the best in baseball after a seventh.

But
if you're going to rule out a second-place team from one division, even
if that team has a better record than a first-place team from another
division, then what's the logic of allowing the inferior division
winners into the postseason mix? They're certainly no more deserving.
So if there's a problem with the playoffs, it isn't really with the
wild card. It's with the existence of divisions to begin with.”