Re: Detroit Tigers, 2009, Part III: How long does it take for Leyland to screw this up?
Re: Detroit Tigers, 2009, Part III: How long does it take for Leyland to screw this up?
I thought Lynn Henning's article in the Detroit News on Friday was pretty telling... you usually don't have a writer this close to a team rip/call out a player like Granderson very often. Granderson was much loved here, but, you know what? Henning was right.
http://www.detnews.com/article/2010...eal-makes-Granderson-trade-even-more-puzzling
From Henning's article....
The perception has always been that dealing Granderson was a payroll issue. Then why trade the most popular player on Ilitch's team, and on some days its most important performer, when he was only being paid $5.5 million for 2010?
It doesn't make sense in light of the other expenditures. It will make less sense if the Tigers sign Johnny Damon for $7 million or more. That's what they will pay Damon for 2010, if they ever agree on a contract that is hung up on money and length (Damon and Scott Boras want a second year).
So, once and for all, let's get the story straight on Granderson:
It wasn't about money.
The real story
It had a financial component, but only tangentially. The Tigers saw a way to get younger and less expensive by making Granderson part of their big December three-way deal that netted them three good, young pitchers and a center-field prospect, Austin Jackson, who has yet to prove he's ready for the big leagues in 2010.
But more and more it becomes clear the Tigers preferred to go forward minus Granderson after he let them down in 2009.
And will that line make a few fans choke on their ballpark hotdogs.
A man who was "the face of the team," as fans like to say? A center fielder who hit 30 home runs and who made that phenomenal catch against Grady Sizemore in Cleveland?
Just whom did he let down?
Well, objectively speaking, his team.
It had to do with that .249 batting average in 2009. It remains an ugly statistic for a leadoff batter of Granderson's skill. The only harsher numbers confirmed how he hit, or rather failed to hit, against left-handed pitching -- .183.
Factor in another statistical clunker, a .327 on-base average for their supposed spark plug, and you know why the heat was on Granderson once the Tigers began reviewing 2009, not that Granderson's showing was a mystery.
But for one game ...
The Tigers missed going to the playoffs by one lousy ballgame. And for all the flak the bottom third of their batting lineup took, deservedly, for being a waste of at-bats, it was what happened at the No. 1 spot that combined with some less-than-stirring play in center field to put serious scrutiny on Granderson.
Finances became a beneficiary as the Tigers crafted their big December trade, but had Granderson played last year with the skill and game-changing ways he displayed in 2006 and 2007, and even into 2008, he never for a moment would have been included in any offseason deals by the Tigers.
No chance.
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Very interesting... almost like he was airing what fans who really know the game and don't let emotions rule decisions probably were thinking ever since Game 163 @ Minny.
