Congratulations to Curtis Granderson becoming one of only 3 players in the history of Major League Baseball to post a season totals of 20 or more doubles, triples, homers, and stolen bases. While the plateaus are kind of arbitrary it is still a remarkable achievement and helps to highlight just how special of a season that Granderson is having. He’s all over the AL leaderboards:
Slugging – 5th
OPS – 9th
Runs -2nd
Total Bases – 3rd
Triples – 1st (with more than double the next closest)
Runs Created – 4th
Extra base hits -2nd
And those ranks were prior to today’s 4 for 4 game. Plus he’s done it while playing a key position expertly in the Major’s biggest centerfield. The guy has to finish in the top 10 in MVP voting or something is seriously wrong.
As for those other seasons they belong to Frank Wiildfire Schulte and Willie Mays. Each of those seasons were pretty interesting as well.
Frank Schulte, 1911
Have you ever taken a look at the 1911 NL leaderboards? If you had you probably knew of Schulte, which not many do. He won the MVP that year as led the league in homers with 21 when the next closest was 16. He led in RBI, total bases, and slugging and tied with Honus Wagner for the lead in adjusted OPS. He stole 21 bases that year, which really wasn’t a big deal for the era, when the leader had 81. But he did so with out being caught once. Interestingly he was second in the league with 31 sacrifice hits. Unlike Granderson Schulte only struck out 76 times. But unlike 2007, that was enough to lead the league.
Willie Mays, 1957
People kind of know about Willie Mays, cuz he’s like really good. In 1957 he was a 26 year old who already had an MVP award under his belt. He finished with 35 homers, the best total of the three,, 20 triples, 26 doubles, and 38 stolen bases. He was caught 19 times though which isn’t all that impressive and it was by far the highest total in his career. He managed to wrack up all those extra base hits despite 15 intentional walks. And he racked up all those homers despite striking out only 62 times. But Willie is just really really good.
Other coverage
Tiger Tales: A Detroit Tigers Blog: Granderson Reaches 20 20 20 20
Roar of the Tigers | MVN – Most Valuable Network » Blog Archive » win or lose, Granderson is The Man (possibly The Tiger)
Granderson’s numbers this year are impressive. People may like to bash him, but I think he has been outstanding.
I know Magglio is having an MVP season, but honestly, I think now Granderson is the team’s MVP. Besides, I’ve said all along A-Rod is the MVP of the AL and have said so for months.
Granderson’s having a special season, and the fact that he’s hitting sub .160 of LHP or something near there, means he’s KILLING RHP. I think his splits take a big step forward next season, similar to Grady Sizemore’s this year. Sizemore had been terrible against LHP and now he’s hitting them better. Then again, avg vs. LH/RHP is a pretty arbitrary thing to look at.
…and Granderson will likely only improve.
As mentioned previously, he’s the kind of guy that I’d hope would be a lifelong Tiger.
I’m an admitted Granderson basher,solely for his inability to hit LHP and Leyland’s stubborness in letting him hurt the offense by staying in the lineup against southpaws,as well the tendency for many Tiger fans to overlook that glaring deficiency in his game and consequently overrate him.It’s mind-boggling that he’s compiled such impressive numbers without any production at all against lefthanders.At the same time,I too hope he has a long career with this team-he seems to be a character guy who could take a place among the current greats of the game by learning to hit lefthanders.Until then,he’s an exceptional platoon player.By the way,if he collects 2 more hits against LHP,he will have a 20-20-20-20-20.
Now, can some of you now understand how I likened him to an Al Kaline. No, he’ll never have the numbers, but his overall ability which will improve, his humble but outgoing personality and his will to achieve reminds me of an Al Kaline. I wish we had more like him.
Congrats Grandy! I look forward to following his career for a long, long time.
Curtis also has an honest chance at a gold glove this year. Its an amazing parallel, but Say Hey also batted over .300 (.333) and won a gold glove in 1957.
Just being compared to Willie Mays is an amazing accomplishment. I hope Grandy plays his entire career with the Tigers and is mentioned with the likes of Kaline, Trammell, and Whitaker.
He has a gold glove for sure, but his arm doesn’t scare anybody-they scored off a short fly ball sometime this weekend.
Curits’ arm should scare people, and in time, it will, he’s got a rocket, seriously, he’s just inconsistent with his accuracy. That will come in time. If I’m building a dynasty, I take him over any other CF in the league as far as the total package(hitting, fielding, arm strength, speed, etc.)
While Granderson’s glovework is as good as any center fielder in the league,his arm is more suited to left field than right or center-another reason comparisons to Mays or Kaline,two of the outstanding outfield arms in history,is simply ridiculous.