Curtis Granderson Sucks

[Guest LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr]

G-Fafif wrote: There is also something about how much good-guyness he projects that is vaguely offputting, even if it's far preferable to the jerk store calling to say they ran out of him.

Yeah, I don't get this at all. For all the good-guyness, I haven't ever gotten a faint whiff of phony or holier-than-thou or anything like any kind of off-smell.

Also, psst! OPS isn't the world's best measure of offensive production, you guys! (By and large, because it equates OBP and slugging in terms of value.)

[Edgy MD]

Yeah. Curtis is alright. Curtis is your buddy. Curtis is the kind of guy you can trust, the kind of guy you can drink a beer with, the kind of guy who doesn't mind if you puke in his car. Curtis!

[Benjamin Grimm]

Suddenly, I wanna puke in his car!

[Centerfield]

In keeping with the spirit of this thread (and a few others) I've never really thought Matt Harvey was all that either.

I mean the guy gave up a HR to Chase Utley, and Utley is hitting .100. Totally overrated.

[nymr83]

this thread is sitting here, mocking me.

I had Curtis Granderson in a Daily Fantasy league lineup last night all set to go... then i saw there was a chance of rain in Pittsburgh and swapped Gerrit Cole out for a cheaper pitcher. that gave me the space top "upgrade" from CG, who i liked in last night's matchup, to a more expensive outfielder. whoops.

Curtis isn't worth the contract the Mets gave him, but he's nowhere near the Jason Bay "please bench me" level. Anyone who thinks otherwise is a Neanderthal who still hasn't seen the value of a Walk.

Edgy wrote: Boy, that homer sure sucked down the line in a hurry.

I wish this was one of those forums where you could "like" posts, because thats all i really wanted to do with this one

[MFS62]

Edgy MD wrote: Dilson managing the post-game OK.

Was that the one on TV? I caught the one on radio (weak signal/ tons of static) and he did it in English. He did OK.
Later

Also - I've noticed that when post game reporters interview a young Spanish speaking player, if the player doesn't seem to understand a particular word, the reporters repeat the question using the same word. Maybe this is fodder for the Mets on the Air thread.

[Edgy MD]

It was on the radio. The accent was certainly thick. But most times you get a Latin American-born 21-year-old up there to do a live interview, it's a tough situation to put him in. But he seemed to understand the gist of the questions and twist out coherent if brief-ish answers.

Not a bad showing by the first Colombian-born Met.

[MFS62]

Edgy MD wrote: It was on the radio. The accent was certainly thick. But most times you get a Latin American-born 21-year-old up there to do a live interview, it's a tough situation to put him in. But he seemed to understand the gist of the questions and twist out coherent if brief-ish answers. Not a bad showing by the first Colombian-born Met.

Exactly. And I hope he'll get plenty of opportunities to hone his major league post game, Hero-of-the-game, interview skills as the season unfolds.

Later

[G-Fafif]

LeiterWagnerFasterStrongr wrote: G-Fafif wrote: There is also something about how much good-guyness he projects that is vaguely offputting, even if it's far preferable to the jerk store calling to say they ran out of him. Yeah, I don't get this at all. For all the good-guyness, I haven't ever gotten a faint whiff of phony or holier-than-thou or anything like any kind of off-smell.

I agree there's nothing necessarily nefarious about him. Sometimes I take after TMF's grandfather, too, and can't particularly warm up to a given player.

Would probably help if he hadn't been an MFY and the Mets hadn't positioned him as Wright's co-star headed into 2014, like "this is what we need -- a Yankee!"

[Guest Mets � Willets Point]

CF must now start all "sucks" threads for underperforming players until his mojo wears off.

[batmagadanleadoff]

G-Fafif wrote: G-Fafif wrote: There is also something about how much good-guyness he projects that is vaguely offputting, even if it's far preferable to the jerk store calling to say they ran out of him. Yeah, I don't get this at all. For all the good-guyness, I haven't ever gotten a faint whiff of phony or holier-than-thou or anything like any kind of off-smell. I agree there's nothing necessarily nefarious about him.... Would probably help if he hadn't been an MFY and the Mets hadn't positioned him as Wright's co-star headed into 2014, like "this is what we need -- a Yankee!"

This is about how I feel about Granderson. I got nothing against the guy personally, but to me, he's just one more symbol of how far this franchise had fallen. I mean, they marketed this guy like he was Beltran2005 coming to the Mets in his superstar prime. Yearbook and program covers and all that and he's an aging player in obvious decline. NTTAWWT. Everybody gets old, if they're lucky enough. But he's a corner outfielder and ideally, your corner outfielders should be lethal hitters.

[Lefty Specialist]

The thing is, they didn't sign Curtis Granderson to be a leadoff hitter. I get that he can take a walk, and that's useful leading off. But he was signed to be a thumper in the middle of the lineup. He's not getting $15MM a year to be Dexter Fowler.

[Ceetar]

Lefty Specialist wrote: The thing is, they didn't sign Curtis Granderson to be a leadoff hitter. I get that he can take a walk, and that's useful leading off. But he was signed to be a thumper in the middle of the lineup. He's not getting $15MM a year to be Dexter Fowler.

who says what he was signed for?

He was signed to make the Mets better. He's doing that. Runs don't count more or less based on the salary of the player.

[Edgy MD]

I don't know. He's signed to do what the manager tells him. That he accepts that would be considered a virtue in some quarters.

And a highly compensated hitter who says, "I came here to bat cleanup so bat me cleanup" � even after that had been reasonably shown to be a less effective way to help the team � would be considered a prima donna.

[MFS62]

Speaking of prima donnas, what about the case in which arguably the greatest shortstop ever to play the game joins a team and the incumbent shortstop for that team refuses to give up the position?

OK, maybe or maybe not pertinent to the Granderson discussion, but the alarm on my "Time to Take a Shot at Jeter" clock just went off.

Later

[Gwreck]

Curtis checking in again on this thread.

[G-Fafif]

The glove on the head when he does interviews after wins: almost endearing.

Contributing to wins: very endearing.

[Centerfield]

I hope he checks in about 27 more times.

[Guest themetfairy]

He sucks in the field as well.

[Centerfield]

So Granderson has sucked a lot less in May than he did in April (.755 OPS vs. .682).

He is still only 17th out of 23 RF'ers who qualify, but it's progress.

http://espn.go.com/mlb/stats/batting/_/position/rf/sort/OPS/order/true

I found this list pretty interesting. First off, below Granderson are a couple of dodged bullets. Matt Kemp, Carlos Gonzalez and Carlos Beltran all look shot. Jason Heyward is struggling pretty bad as well. None of them are in sniffing distance of .700.

And only 6 RF'ers in total are above .800, which at .350 OBP and .450 SLG, would seem pretty attainable for a corner outfielder. Josh Reddick is #3 on that list and I have to admit I have no idea who he is. Giancarlo Stanton only has an .846 OPS. I would have bet my house he would be at least in the mid .900's.

[Frayed Knot]

Tough to know what to make of Grandy's "surge" lately.
Last season he OPS'd 468 in April, then jumped to 838 & 933 in May & June, kind of split the difference in July with a 753 before plummeting to 415 in August, then back up to 918 in September
So while I'd love to say that he's figured something out and is in for a lengthy streak, we've seen this movie before and it adds up to lots of movement but nothing resembling a trend.

[ashie62]

Curtis is a polite handsome man.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Frayed Knot wrote: Tough to know what to make of Grandy's "surge" lately. Last season he OPS'd 468 in April, then jumped to 838 & 933 in May & June, kind of split the difference in July with a 753 before plummeting to 415 in August, then back up to 918 in September So while I'd love to say that he's figured something out and is in for a lengthy streak, we've seen this movie before and it adds up to lots of movement but nothing resembling a trend.

Not that I know anything, but If I had to guess, I'd guess that this is just a random clustering of good hits -- and not a trend.

[Centerfield]

Granderson sucks again. His recent slump has sunk his OPS down below .700 (.693). That ranks him 20th of the 24 RF'ers who qualify.

[Ceetar]

actually he's exactly average at a 100 wRC+

Which puts him behind Duda, Tejada, Cuddyer,and Murphy on the team.

It's kind of nice that at least 3-4 guys are hitting above average though.

[Guest John Cougar Lunchbucket]

I think Dillons Gee wants in on this thread. Sounds like he was a bit unlucky with his fielders yesterday but I'm not so sure this guy, who in addition to having an even shot at sucking moose cock most nights gets hurt way too often, is worth 20% fewer starts for deGrom and Hovvey. Although fewer Neese appearances is nice. What I'm saying is, if we're going to stretch out the rotation let's do it with Matz or Montero or that guy from Princeton or some other wildcard.

[batmagadanleadoff]

Ceetar wrote: actually he's exactly average at a 100 wRC+ Which puts him behind Duda, Tejada, Cuddyer,and Murphy on the team.

Just glancing at that without really scrutininzing those numbers, that's a disaster. Not that I really need to study numbers to know that the Mets offense isn't very good right now. Half the starters are at or below average according to your numbers. And more importantly, ideally -- if everyone can't be above average, you wanna be above average at the positions that are expected to generate more of the offense, and below average at the traditionally weaker hitting positions. Tejada and Murph are middle infielders, and not of the Sandberg/Ripken/A-Rod variety.

The Mets offense is not playoff quality right now, no matter how you spin it.

[Ceetar]

batmagadanleadoff wrote: Ceetar wrote: actually he's exactly average at a 100 wRC+ Which puts him behind Duda, Tejada, Cuddyer,and Murphy on the team. Just glancing at that without really scrutininzing those numbers, that's a disaster. Not that I really need to study numbers to know that the Mets offense isn't very good right now. Half the starters are at or below average according to your numbers. And more importantly, ideally -- if everyone can't be above average, you wanna be above average at the positions that are expected to generate more of the offense, and below average at the traditionally weaker hitting positions. Tejada and Murph are middle infielders, and not of the Sandberg/Ripken/A-Rod variety. The Mets offense is not playoff quality right now, no matter how you spin it.

right now as in the 8* (9?) guys you're running out there, or right now as in the past week the way it looks or what?

I mean, if Granderson has another hot streak and Lagares starts driving the ball more effectively, well, suddenly yes they are a playoff team. (nevermind that the numbers say they ARE right now)

Actually it's exactly half. 4 are above (counting Tejada's small sample size, but he's the one in the lineup right now) Granderson is average, and 4 are below. (and that's counting the pitcher.)

And that's league average, not average for the position.

As you pointed out, RF is a stronger position and the leaguewide RFer has a 109 wRC+. But flip that with the leaguewide SS wRC+ of 81 and suddenly Flores is above average.

"power positions" are silly anyway. it doesn't matter what position they play in the batting order. That plays into overall team construction, sure, but on a day to day basic it doesn't matter in the least bit.

In fact, you'd rather the guys at the weak hit ting positions to be doing well. so d'Arnaud back and Flores outhitting his defense is valuable, because even if you have a crappy RFer hitting only wRC+ at 100, that's much much better than if you had a crappy SS. It's almost 20 percent better. AND it's easier to find a slight improvement to merely good in RF than it is at SS.

Of course, it's sorta unfair to pick the valleys and proclaim Granderson as a waste, because in two weeks he could have his numbers back up to good.

[ashie62]

Cuddyer sucks, oops wrong thread.

[nymr83]

Curtis sucks so bad he has to fall behind 0-2 even when he draws a walk!