Boy, Curtis Granderson sure gets in a lot of face time with the press, huh? I guess that’s better than the alternative. Anyway, C-Grizzie sat down for a chat with New York Magazine to talk about a whole bunch of stuff. It’s some nice light reading on a gorgeous Saturday morning, so check it out.
Timing the key element in the Austin Jackson trade
In Curtis Granderson, the Yankees acquired a young, talented center fielder with a track record of major league success. For him they traded Austin Jackson, a young, talented center fielder who has yet to record a major league at bat. The Yankees, in their attempts to contend now and contend in the future, thought the exchange a worthy one, though they didn’t particularly like trading Jackson. Drafting him in the eighth round of the 2005 draft, the Yankees saw plenty of potential in the former two-sport star. Now it’s the Tigers who will see how he ultimately develops.
Granderson’s age, talent, and experience made him an attractive target for the Yankees. Since Jackson’s ceiling approaches what Granderson has become, the trade made sense. Again, the Yankees need to balance winning now and winning later, and acquiring a 29-year-old center fielder who has OPS’d above .850 twice in his career fits that bill. They could have remained patient with Jackson, hoping he’d catch on as the club’s center fielder in 2010, but there were enough concerns with his game to make them think that might be an unrealistic expectation.
Lynn Henning of The Detroit News spoke to Yankees’ AAA hitting coach Butch Wynegar, who spent all season working with Jackson. While Wynegar heaped praise on the center fielder, he also noted that Jackson might not be ready for the bigs in 2010.
“He still is raw, still has a lot to learn, but he’s an intelligent kid and a good athlete — and he wants to learn,” Wynegar said. “I basically told the Yankees at the end of the year, if they were thinking about him being their center fielder this coming year (2010), I didn’t know if he was ready yet.”
The concern with Jackson, Henning notes, lies in his swing. Just after the trade, Steve Carter of Project Prospect laid out the concerns, noting issues with Jackson’s stride and shoulders. These contribute to his lack of power and his struggles with off-speed pitches. But both Wynegar and Tigers’ hitting coach Lloyd McClendon think Jackson can adapt his swing and find success at the major league level. He might struggle if the Tigers move forward with plans to make him the every day center fielder, but eventually most parties think he’ll become a solid major league regular.
For the Yankees, the trade ultimately came down to timing. It sounds like they wanted to remain patient with Jackson, giving him another year in AAA, at least to start, to continue developing his game. But with a vacant outfield spot and nothing that attracted the Yankees on the free agent market, they explored trades. If Johnny Damon were under contract for one more year, Jackson would likely remain in the Yankees system. Even without Damon, perhaps the Yankees would even have pursued a trade for a corner outfielder if Wynegar and others thought Jackson would be ready for action in 2010.
The mandate to win now and win in the future means making tough decisions on promising young players. Other organizations might have attempted a different tactic to remain competitive in 2010 while allowing Jackson more time to develop. But when offered a 29-year-old All-Star center fielder, the Yankees felt they had to pounce. Jackson was an unfortunate casualty.
Photo credit: AP Photo/Keith Srakocic
Appreciating a core of peak-age players
When the Yankees closed out the 2008 season, youth was not on their side. The team had just two regulars — Robinson Cano and Melky Cabrera — on the right side of 32, and four of their key starters still under contract for 2009 were going to be playing their age 35 seasons. The team needed to get younger and get their quickly.
Since missing the playoffs that year, though, Brian Cashman has built up a World Series Championship that features a solid core of young players who are all enjoying or are about to hit their peak performance seasons. He has replaced some late-30s players with some late-20s guys, and the team should enjoy these peak years as their veterans begin inevitable declines. At the risk of sounding too hyperbolic, the timing couldn’t have been better.
In 2010, the Yankees should expect more of the same. Robinson Cano will be playing his age 27 season and Mark Teixeira his age 30 season. In the outfield, Nick Swisher will be baseball aged 29 this year and Curtis Granderson 28. The the tail end of the peak-age spectrum is Nick Johnson, who will be playing his age 31 season. With Derek Jeter nearing his 36th birthday, A-Rod pushing approaching 35 and Jorge Posada playing his age 38 season, the Yankees will be turning to the young guys for more and more production.
So what do all of these age-related numbers mean for the Yankees? For a long time, the accepted baseball knowledge held age 27 to a peak performance years for most players. Some can sustain that peak for a few years; others can’t. Generally, well above-average players will remain above-average players even throughout their mid-to-late 30s while some see precipitous declines. In either event, good teams will feature a mix of seasoned veterans on the way out and younger players on the way up.
Lately, though, a new study by J.C. Bradbury has challenged those assumptions. The Sabernomics scribe wrote about his findings at length for Baseball Prospectus earlier this week. Basically, he found that players seem to peak at age 29, two years later than previously expected, and that some skills mature later than others and some earlier. For hitters, Bradbury’s table looks like this:
[TABLE=58]
The Yankees, then, should enjoy some very good years from their core of youngsters. Nick Swisher and Curtis Granderson are amidst their peak years while Mark Teixeira is sitting on the cusp. Nick Johnson’s stellar walk rate could increase even more, but the true guy to watch is Robinson Cano. After a bad 2008, Cano bounced back with a stellar 2009. He hit .320/.352/.520 with 25 home runs, 48 doubles and a pair of triples. Not yet at his peak, Cano reached career highs in all of his counting stats and neared career highs in his rate stats. He should only get better.
Throughout the mid-2000s, the Yanks turned into a team with aging superstars. They saw Gary Sheffield and Bobby Abreu arrive past their peak years. They witnessed Jason Giambi turn into a mid-30s pumpkin and then back into a slugger, and they watched Hideki Matsui’s knees crumble. For 2010, at least, age is finally on the Yanks’ side, and if all goes according to plan, the Yankees will enjoy the benefits of youth.
Yet another Curtis Granderson interview
Scoop Jackson sat down with Curtis Granderson, the Yanks’ new centerfielder or leftfielder, depending on which side of the fence you sit on. Scoop really seems to push the “how will you handle the pressure, how will you deal with the media” crap, but C-Grizzie pretty much blows it off. Check it out, the more you read about Granderson, the more you like him.
Curtis Granderson Press Conference Liveblog
Nine days after being officially acquired from the Tigers, Curtis Granderson will be formally introduced to the masses today at Yankee Stadium. The press conference is scheduled for 11am ET, and will be broadcast on both YES and MLB.tv. If you’re unable to tune in, I’ve got you covered with this here liveblog. Welcome to the Boogie Down, Curtis.
Photo Credit: Getty Images
Curtis Granderson press conference scheduled for tomorrow
Via Bryan Hoch, the Yankees will have a press conference tomorrow to formally introduce Curtis Granderson to Yankeeland. Assuming it’s on YES, we’ll liveblog it like we did with the CC Sabathia/A.J. Burnett and Mark Teixeira pressers last year.
Getting to know Curtis Granderson
It’s been hardly a week, but we’ve already heard about all the wonderful things Curtis Granderson does both on and off the field. Anthony McCarron profiled the Yanks’ new centerfielder over the weekend, writing about his children’s book, how he was still getting A’s and B’s as a double major while playing in the minors, the money he’s donated to charity, and plenty of other great stuff. Make sure you check it out, fantastic read.