11-23-2009, 08:26 PM
<!--quoteo(post=70007:date=Nov 23 2009, 06:17 PM:name=KBwsb)-->QUOTE (KBwsb @ Nov 23 2009, 06:17 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}><!--quotec-->To start with, I like Granderson. We were born at the same hospital (St. Francis, in Blue Island) he has a pretty much sterling rep as a stand-up guy, a great clubhouse figure, and he plays pretty good ball.
He also is much better at playing day games than playing at night : Granderson is a career .280/.360/.518 hitter during the day, substantially better figures than his .268/.336/.466 at night. Unless the Cubs' new owners get the 50 annual night games at home they want right away in 2010 (they won't), that could be a meaningful statistic. (I got this info from another Cub website)
He's an All-Star, has World Series experience, and seems like a cool guy.
Let me play Devil's advocate now...he has been a regular for 4 seasons. In one of those, three years ago, he was excellent. In another, he was very good. The two other years, including last year, he sucked.
He cannot hit lefty pitching. At all. He's batting .210 lifetime against left-handed pitching. IOW, he HAS to have a caddy, a platoon mate, in order to not be a complete <i>hole</i> in the batting order every 3rd or 4th day.
He's a good fielder, not a great fielder. He has speed, but has only averaged 17 SB a year since becoming a regular.
Again, I like the guy, but I want us to be clear what we're getting. Ace and Scarey will soon contradict me with glowing stats that show him to be the next Willie Mays, which is cool.
But I don't believe that we should obliterate the farm system in order to land a guy the Tigers are already trying to shop.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I agree with all of that actually, especially the last line. The only thing I'll semi-disagree with was him sucking last year. Now, he did in fact suck, but you have to take into account the unluckiness of last year.
You're absolutely right in that he needs a platoon partner. But, it's not hard to find a righty that kills lefties. That, and as I said earlier the Cubs only faced lefty pitching about 20% of their PAs last year and I have to think that's pretty standard year by year and team by team. Having Granderson play 80% of the time is not ideal for what you're paying him, but that's still a very large majority of the time.
He also is much better at playing day games than playing at night : Granderson is a career .280/.360/.518 hitter during the day, substantially better figures than his .268/.336/.466 at night. Unless the Cubs' new owners get the 50 annual night games at home they want right away in 2010 (they won't), that could be a meaningful statistic. (I got this info from another Cub website)
He's an All-Star, has World Series experience, and seems like a cool guy.
Let me play Devil's advocate now...he has been a regular for 4 seasons. In one of those, three years ago, he was excellent. In another, he was very good. The two other years, including last year, he sucked.
He cannot hit lefty pitching. At all. He's batting .210 lifetime against left-handed pitching. IOW, he HAS to have a caddy, a platoon mate, in order to not be a complete <i>hole</i> in the batting order every 3rd or 4th day.
He's a good fielder, not a great fielder. He has speed, but has only averaged 17 SB a year since becoming a regular.
Again, I like the guy, but I want us to be clear what we're getting. Ace and Scarey will soon contradict me with glowing stats that show him to be the next Willie Mays, which is cool.
But I don't believe that we should obliterate the farm system in order to land a guy the Tigers are already trying to shop.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I agree with all of that actually, especially the last line. The only thing I'll semi-disagree with was him sucking last year. Now, he did in fact suck, but you have to take into account the unluckiness of last year.
You're absolutely right in that he needs a platoon partner. But, it's not hard to find a righty that kills lefties. That, and as I said earlier the Cubs only faced lefty pitching about 20% of their PAs last year and I have to think that's pretty standard year by year and team by team. Having Granderson play 80% of the time is not ideal for what you're paying him, but that's still a very large majority of the time.