Jul

A quick note on Curtis Granderson and plate discipline

The Yankees are a power and patience offense, so it’s not a surprise that they lead baseball with a 9.9% walk rate and are second with a .178 ISO (one point behind the Red Sox). Their best player all season has been Curtis Granderson, who personifies that power and patience approach. His .299 ISO is third best in baseball, trailing only Jose Bautista (.358) and Lance Berkman (.305), plus his 11.8% walk rate is a top 30 mark and continues to climb. Only Nick Swisher (15.0%) and Russell Martin (12.1%) have better rates on the Yankees.

That walk rate is not an outlier for Granderson, who walked 10.0% of his plate appearances last year and in 10.5% of his plate appearances from 2008-2010. What is sort of surprising is the number of pitches he’s seeing; Curtis leads the majors by averaging 4.48 pitches seen per plate appearance. Bobby Abreu (4.42), Carlos Santana (4.41), and Adam Dunn (4.41) are next in line. He had averaged 4.11 P/PA from 2008-2010. Furthermore, Jack Curry noted the other day that Granderson had fouled off 135 two-strike pitches to stay alive this year, second in the AL to the unstrikeoutable Dustin Pedroia (150). It’s not all about the long ball with Grandy, who’s been putting together quality at-bats all season. That’s great to see.

Categories : Asides, Offense

11 Comments»

Jerome S. says:

July 22, 2011 at 5:10 pm

Looking at those depressed ISO’s makes me realize even more how terrible offense is this year. Holy shit.

Brian S. says:

July 22, 2011 at 5:23 pm

Russel Martin has a 12% walk rate and still sucks. That’s pretty hard to do.

Ted Nelson says:

July 22, 2011 at 5:54 pm

He’s 6th in fWAR amung MLB Cs this season… but I guess he sucks.

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IRF says:

July 22, 2011 at 5:56 pm

a 97 wRC+ and good defense from the catchers spot is pretty solid.

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Mike R. - Retire 21 says:

July 22, 2011 at 6:13 pm

This comment just dipped your VARC into the negative.

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