Cubs to pursue Granderson aggressively when Tigers are ready

Are you suggesting that he isn’t a platoon player? He absolutely crushes rhp, but that doesn’t mean the Cubs wouldn’t field a stronger team by platooning him with someone who’s even just average against lhp and in the field.

I’d love to see the Cubs get Granderson because he fills so many of the Cubs’ needs. But hitting lefties isn’t a need he fills. In my mind, he’s a really ridiculous platoon player—a guy I’d give up a lot for but I wouldn’t trade either of our two top guys (Vitters/Castro) to get. A package built around Cashner/Lee would be as far as I’d be willing to go. If Detroit is looking to dump salary, then perhaps the best thing the Cubs could provide is a willingness to eat one of their bad contracts.

Heh, I wonder how much they’d like a free Milton Bradley?

Once again this is about certain Cub fans adhering to the goofy belief that certain ballclubs around baseball exist for the privilege of handing over their diamonds to us for the equivalency of a bag of magic beans.

It’s not going to work that way with Curtis Granderson. Detroit owner Mike Illitch is famously wealthy and strongly, strongly, strongly dedicated to the city of Detroit via his ownership of the Redwings and the Tigers. He is the # 1 philanthropist in the state of Michigan too.

If you want Granderson and it he can even be had in trade, then prepare to pay a stiff price to pry him lose. And prepare to outbid other teams who will line up for his services. Granderson would look great in Yankee Stadium, and the Yankees could dangle Austin Jackson, Ian Kennedy and other considerations to get him as but one example.

I was thinking Jeff Baker might make a lot of sense for them if the do end up shopping Inge. Could be an option at 3rd for them. Or he could compete for the 2nd base job with Sizemore, and perhaps take some occasional OF time.

but i gotta think, with Granderson/Fukudome (if we land CG) that Fuld’s chances of sticking are much less. While Fuld is a decent bat against lefties, I think they’d probably lean to finding a righty. I could see perhaps Reed Johnson coming back to split time, with an occasional Jeff Baker dabbling in the corner perhaps.

2006
Howard – 156
Granderson – 87

2007
Howard – 131
Granderson – 40

2008
Howard – 110
Granderson – 110

2009
Howard – 86
Granderson – 39

100 is the value that represents league average. I don’t think Howard is a good example of a guy who should be platooned but isn’t (maybe in the future if he continues trending down into Granderson territory).

At least for me, it doesn’t mean bad player or one we shouldn’t be willing to sacrifice a good number of prospects to get. It just means ineffective against rhp or lhp. I agree that most left-handed hitters don’t hit lefties as well as they hit righties, but it’s a matter of degree.

If you look at the sOPS+ I posted above, Granderson has 2 out of the last 4 seasons in which he’s been close to league average against left handers. The other 2 seasons he has been horrific. So let’s split the difference and say we expect him to be well below average against left handers going forward; and since CG is crazy effective against RHP and solidly below average against LHP it is reasonable to expect him to see a lot of situational LHP.

To me, that means he is not as valuable as someone who isn’t a platoon player for 2 reasons. First, because I’d want to have another player to start in his place against LHP. Second, because I would expect lefty specialists to be highly effective against him in important late-game situations.

I do disagree that nearly all LH batters should be platooned. There are a lot that are consistently average or slightly better than average against LHP. Just as a quick survey of LH CFs and their sOPS+ (2009, 2008, 2007, 2006):

Carl Crawford: 100, 83, 135, 118
Jacoby Ellsbury: 125, 109, 127, n/a
Josh Hamilton: 153, 128, 68, n/a
Michael Bourn: 106, 47, 24, n/a
Grady Sizemore: 102, 111, 130, 100
Nate McLouth: 96, 103, 109, 131
Kosuke Fukudome: 53, 110, n/a, n/a
Carlos Gonzalez: 129, 30, n/a, n/a
Denard Span: 150, 150, n/a, n/a
Tony Gwynn: 45, n/a, n/a, n/a
Colby Rasmus: 35, n/a, n/a, n/a
Nyjer Morgan: 47, 85, n/a, n/a
Curtis Granderson: 39, 110, 40, 87

Group of LH CFs with 1 season far below league’s OPS average vs. LHP (far below average, for our purposes, is <70):
Hamilton
Granderson
Morgan
Rasmus
Gwynn
CarGo
Fukudome
Bourn

Not a very big list. Many of the names on it are very young. CarGo and Bourn were better than league average this past year, but it remains to be seen if the improvement is for real. Fukudome had 67 plate appearances against lefties this year (less than half of what he had the previous year), which may in part explain how far below average he was but Cubs fans have known for a while that he is someone that is good to give a break versus lefties. Hamilton’s first year also included a small sample size versus LHP and can be forgiven since he’s been well above average since then.

Group of LH CFs with 2 seasons far below league’s OPS average vs. LHP (far below average, for our purposes, is <70):
Granderson
Bourn

That’s it, and if you think Bourn’s extremely small sample size of 30 plate appearances vs. lefties from 2007 is too small to include then Granderson is all alone. It’s worthwhile to note that many of the young guys haven’t played 4 seasons yet, so this group may expand with time. But my point is that the guys who are the premium every day left-handed center fielders do NOT exhibit the same drastic split that Granderson does. Those premium guys may not crush lefties, but they are not liabilities against them. Granderson has oscillated between about league average (sOPS+ slightly better than league average one year, slightly worse in another year) and terribad (2 seasons with a sOPS+ 60 or more below league average).

Not all LH batters should be platooned at the ML level. Granderson is probably one that should. Someone would be nuts not to want him on the Cubs, because he’s a great platoon player but a platoon player none-the-less.

There was a “hand-shake” agreement between him and the previous management that his club-option wouldn’t be excercised for 2010, but new management either didn’t get the word or decided they didn’t care. I’ll try to find a link later…