Last year, between the Mets and Dodgers, Granderson whacked 26 HRs and hit .212 - Todd-father numbers, Chris Carter numbers, common stats in this era of the Three True Outcomes. Long ago, Grandy became a homer/strikeout dice roll, negating his speed and - I believe - limiting his career. Then again, he's still around, so whadda I know, eh?
Grandy is expected to team with the regenerative 35-year-old Steve Pearce and CF Kevin Pillar. Unless a secret cavalry rides up from Triple A, I can't imagine a more depressing outfield, east of the imploding Pirates. Seriously, come July 30, who doesn't expect the Jays to be shopping Josh Donaldson like the last dose of Viagra at a Shriner's Convention? Likewise, the O's will almost surely be dangling Manny Machado from a bamboo fishing pole - two neutron bombs going off in the pennant race. (Let's hope that by June, Miguel Andujar has claimed 3B for the next Yankee decade; otherwise, we could end up emptying our system - Andujar included - for a three-month rental.) That Toronto already looks to be on life-support carries serious Yankee implications.
When you think about the 2018 Yankees fielding baseball's two premier HR hitters, you want to look back through history for comparable pairs. There's Ruth/Gehrig, Mantle/Maris, Mays/McCovey, Canseco/McGwire, Aaron/Mathews and - yes - Manny Ramirez and Big Papi. (I'd add Killebrew/Allison.) They all won championships, which increases our optimism. But go back just a few years, and another twosome pops up: Bautista/
Toronto went three seasons with two top sluggers, back to back and belly to belly, but no World Championship flag adorns the Rogers Centre. We can tout the 2018 Yankees as sure bets for the post-season, but from that point on, it's pitching, pitching, pitching... and let's never kid ourselves: Homer happy lineups often get shut down in October.
Ah, but that's for later. Today, let's welcome Granderson back to the division, playing against us in at least 15 games. Three things I've learned about ex-Yankees returning home:
a) They always fondly recall their time in Gotham.
b) The fans always greet them warmly.
c) They always beat us in one game.
Bank on it: Grandyman will blast a big home run, effectively swiping a game from us. We will tear out what's left of our hair, but the juju gods won't care: It simply has to happen.
And so here is my existential question for today:
When the Grandyman hits it, will The Master sing?
YES!!!
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Absolutely John sings for him and I won't even begrudge Granderson the short-porch HR that causes it. Games come and go. That guy deserves every special moment he can get before he retires, even if he'll invariably be too much of a class act to gloat about it.
ReplyDeleteDuque was correct. Pablo Escobar batted clean-up for the Jays back then. I think. Was pretty coked up then, though. Sure looked like Pablo.
ReplyDeleteWhen the Grandyman hits it, will The Master sing?
ReplyDeleteNo he won't sing it, but he will say that "but everyone knows that the 'Grandyman can'...
I think the Master should sing. Grandy was a good, if not great, Yankee. And he's been a class act where ever he's played.
ReplyDeleteMet him once. He was a really nice guy then, too.
ReplyDeleteThe Grandyman probably batted .230 in 4 years with the Mets, but it seemed like he batted .800 with Ruthian slugging against the Yankees. The guy couldn't touch the ball with a pizza paddle, but for whatever reason he killed the Yanks at a higher rate than Ortiz and Longoria, two of the biggest killers I can remember. In short, he won't be responsible for 1 win against the Yankees, he'll be responsible for 12.
ReplyDeleteAnd let's stop with the Grandyman praise, lest we forget that upon signing with the Mess he declared that real fans root for that shitpile that plays in Queens. The Grandyman died that day and was simply Curtis Granderson from there on out. Oh, and I'm pretty sure in the 2012 playoffs, you know where the world blamed ARod for the geriatric bombers failure, Grandyman was 3-30 during that stretch and 0-11 against the Tigers. In fact the only guy colder than him wasn't ARod, but IIHIIFIIC punching bag Joggie Cano (3-40, yikes).
Oh, you're forgetting what a great team effort that hideous 2012 ALCS meltdown was, Leinstery!
ReplyDeleteYep, Grandy was 0-11 with 7 Ks, a record of futility that had not been approached in the Bronx since David Justice's 2001 World Series.
But...
Joggy was 1-18 with 3 Ks against the Tigers.
Chavez and Gardy, both 0-8 (Chavez with 4 Ks).
A-Rod, 1-9, with 3 Ks.
Russell Martin, 2-14, 3 Ks.
Off-the-Mark Teixeira, 3-15.
Nick Swisher, perhaps the worst all-time postseason player in MLB history, 3-12, with 5 Ks, 1 ribbie, and that infamous misjudged fly ball that cost us Game 1 after that great comeback.
About the only people who did hit were Ichiro and Raul Ibanez.
Brrr. Still makes me shiver.
Overall, Grandy was, as you write, 3-30 in that postseason.
BUT...he did have some very good playoff performances for us: .455 against the Twins in 2010, and .294 against Texas that year.
.250 against Detroit in 2011, but with that game he singlehandedly won with bat and glove in the Motor City, to get us back to New York.
And, much to my surprise, he's actually only hit .273 against us lifetime, with 10 homers and 25 RBI. There are a good 7-8 teams he's done better against, AL and NL.
Of course, I do still cringe remembering how he torched us in that 2006 ALDS, when he was still with the Tigers. In that critical Game 2, in which Mussina gave up a 3-1 lead run-by-run in a process that felt like water torture, he hit a key SF to make it 3-2, then tripled in the winning run. Pure agony.
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