Schizophrenic Splendid Lynn Henning: July 2009

Noted optimist Drew Sharp turned in quite a doozy over at the Free Press the other day. There's lots of general negativity and it's basically another stock Sharp column until he gets to the subject of Curtis Granderson...

That's especially true of Curtis Granderson. How is it that an All-Star can disappoint? Granderson gets a free pass in this town because he satisfies the idealism of what a professional athlete should be: humble, polite and erudite. But he has regressed from the standard established two years ago when he became the first ballplayer since Willie Mays to accrue 20 homers, 20 doubles, 20 triples and 20 steals in a season.

Drew is correct to say that Granderson has regressed from his spectacular 2007. However, Granderson had a career year in 2007 and if not for his typical poor performance against lefties, he would have been a legitimate MVP candidate. In '07 Grandy hit .302/.361/.552 overall but an Everett-like .160/.225/.269 against southpaws. 19% of his at-bats came against fellow lefties.

In '09, Granderson is at .257/.341/.464 overall and an Infantiago-like .188/.276/.277 against port-siders. For some reason (Jim Leyland), 31% of his at-bats have come against lefthanders. Against righties, Granderson is currently hitting .288/.370/.548 which is almost identical to his 2008 line against righthanders and better than his overall 2007 performance.

In short, Grandy had his career year in '07, performed better than he ever has against lefties in '08, and should be strictly platooned from here on out. At the very least, The Skipper could do what he did last year and bat Granderson down in the order, but it's tough to do that when your catcher, shortstop, and other outfielders are auditioning to be honorary members of the 2003 Tigers.

Drew came to a similar conclusion:

He's a No. 3 or No. 5 hitter. The only reason he remains at leadoff is because there's no suitable replacement.

Oh, right, nevermind.

The guy is hitting worse overall, and specifically for fewer extra base hits, so we should put him in a spot in the order that requires more extra base hits. Perfect. Other than the fact that The Skipper seems to agree that the 3 hole is reserved for the worst hitters on the team, this IS NOT a good plan. It's also incredibly contradictory and doesn't even satisfy rudimentary levels of logical reasoning.

He was one of the AL's premier run scorers the past two seasons: 122 runs in 2007 and 112 last year despite missing much of the season's first month with a broken hand. Granderson isn't even close to matching that pace, and it has as much to do with his lack of doubles and triples as the Tigers' inability to drive in runs.

Rhetorical questions alert

Is it possible that the real reason he's scoring less runs is that he's been on base fewer times? And with regards to the doubles and triples, is it possible that the Tigers are driving in fewer runs because there are fewer runners in scoring position? And are there fewer runners in scoring position because fewer runners are getting on base?

Orrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr, as Drew seems to suggest, is Granderson scoring fewer runs this year simply because he's hitting fewer doubles and triples and the Tigers are being selfish meany heads and not driving him in enough.

Drew leaves us with a solution to the Tigers' woes:

A successful week against the Mariners and White Sox should inspire the Tigers to make the one necessary trade: acquiring Dodgers outfielder Juan Pierre.

I'm dying now.

He's back on the bench because of Manny Ramirez's return. Pierre would give the Tigers a true leadoff hitter, another productive left-handed bat, speed and a reliable defensive leftfielder.

Juan Pierre: productive, reliable, leftfielder.

Gammy doesn't feel so good. I think Gammy might be dying. Yep. Yep. OK. Good-bye, Bobby. Don't call anymore. I'm dead now.

Schizophrenic Splendid Lynn Henning

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Drew Sharp Steps Up The Crazy

Thursday, July 2, 2009

Rob Parker Has Done It Again

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