Curtis Granderson
From BR Bullpen
Curtis Granderson
- Bats Left, Throws Right
- Height 6' 1", Weight 185 lb.
- School University of Illinois at Chicago
- Debut September 13, 2004
- Born March 16, 1981 in Blue Island, IL USA
[edit] Biographical Information
Curtis Granderson is the current center fielder of the New York Yankees after spending the first six seasons of his career with the Detroit Tigers. He made headlines for blending speed and power at the top of Detroit's batting order. He knocked 19 home runs while serving as the leadoff hitter for the Tigers in 2006, when they won the American League pennant. He is strikeout prone - whiffing 174 times in 2006, but also draws a fair amount of walks. For the Yankees, he hit lower in the batting order at first, but then developed additional power and was moved to the top of the line-up in 2011.
The Tigers drafted Granderson in the third round of the 2002 amateur draft. He spent his first professional season playing for the Oneonta Tigers. His average was .344 in 212 at bats. He hit .286 with 10 home runs and 11 stolen bases with the Lakeland Tigers in 2003, and ripped 21 home runs for Erie in 2004. The Tigers gave Granderson a cup of coffee in 2004; he racked up six hits in 25 at bats. He did well with triple-A Toledo in 2005, hitting .290 with 15 home runs, and hit eight home runs in 162 at bats with the Tigers.
Granderson won a Spring Training position battle over Nook Logan in 2006, and opened the season as Detroit's starting center fielder. He posted a .260 average, drove in 68 runs, and piled up 59 extra base hits.
In the final game before the 2007 all-star break, Granderson made a leaping catch at the wall to rob Wily Mo Pena of a home run. Baseball Tonight declared it to be the best web gem of the first half of the season. On September 9th, 2007, Granderson became only the 3rd player in Major League history to have at least 20 home runs, 20 stolen bases, 20 triples and 20 doubles in one season. The others were Frank Schulte in 1911 for the Chicago Cubs and Willie Mays, who accomplished the feat while playing for the New York Giants in 1957.Jimmy Rollins of the Philadelphia Phillies joined the club a few days later.
Curtis played for Team USA at the 2009 World Baseball Classic. After the 2009 season, he was traded to the New York Yankees as part of a three-team deal that also involved the Arizona Diamondbacks. The Tigers received Austin Jackson and Phil Coke from the Yankees and Max Scherzer and Daniel Schlereth from the Diamondbacks and Arizona got Ian Kennedy from the Yankees and Edwin Jackson from the Tigers. Granderson hit a home run off Josh Beckett of the Boston Red Sox in his first at-bat as a Yankee on April 4, 2010. He was slowed by a few injuries in his first season in pinstripes, being limited to 136 games, but hit well, putting up a batting line of .247/.324/.468, very similar to that in his last season in Detroit. He hit with a lot of power over the second half of the season on his way to 24 homers, but this turned out to be a preliminary taste of greater things to come in 2011. He emerged that season as one of the top power hitters in all of baseball, and most remarkably, was no longer vulnerable to left-handed pitchers as he had been until that point of his career. He was in a three-way race for the American League home run crown with teammate Mark Teixeira and Toronto's Jose Bautista, and also led the league in both runs scored and RBI for most of the year. Manager Joe Girardi had no choice but to move him up in the batting order, where he settled in the second spot, behind Derek Jeter and ahead of Teixeira. On August 25th, he reached 100 RBI for the first time with an 8th-inning grand slam against Bruce Billings of the Oakland Athletics; it was his 36th home run of the season, and the Yankees' third grand slam of the game after Robinson Cano and Russell Martin had hit slams earlier, marking the first time a major league team had ever hit three grand slams in one game. The Yankees won the game handily, 22-9. He was named the American League Player of the Month for August after hitting .289 with 10 homers and 29 RBI.
[edit] Notable Achievements
- 2-time AL All-Star (2009 & 2011)
- AL Silver Slugger Award Winner (2011)
- AL Runs Scored Leader (2011)
- 2-time AL Triples Leader (2007 & 2008)
- AL RBI Leader (2011)
- 20-Home Run Seasons: 5 (2007-2011)
- 30-Home Run Seasons: 2 (2009 & 2011)
- 40-Home Run Seasons: 1 (2011)
- 100 RBI Seasons: 1 (2011)
- 100 Runs Scored Seasons: 3 (2007, 2008 & 2011)
