[MLB Blockbuster] Tigers deal Granderson and E. Jackson

In other baseball news, the Astros will continue to suck as they do nothing.

 

I agree his slugging was really good, but his OPS was #12 out of 23 qualifying players, and his OBP was #17 out of 23 (and he was supposed to be their leadoff hitter). His career trajectory just hasn't shown much improvement. His worst full year was 2006, and then he improved dramatically to his best year in 2007 and then faded in 2008 and faded more last year to be similar to 2006.

I'm not saying he's terrible, but I don't think he's in that upper echelon of the best CFers in the game.

 

Talk about a bad year to be a Houston fan.

All 3 teams are going nowhere.

 

LAWLZ @ this tweet!

BTW, as a Yankee fan, love the deal! Phil Coke can be replaced, didnt like him anyways and Kennedy had no place on this team.

Of course, this might signal Melky being dealt....hmmm, can only wonder.

 

for a second i thought Tiger Woods was banging baseball players

 

The big question is will Granderson thrive in that hitters park, with all that talent around him, or will he wilt under NY pressure?

 

Couldn't agree with you more on this. You know you have a terrible system in place when there is a group of about 4 teams that basically just uses the rest of the teams in the league as their personal farm system.

 

Agreed.

Conversely to Edwin Jackson (as you noted earlier), Granderson had an unlucky year in 2009. His BABIP dropped to .276, after going .317 and .362 the prior two seasons, meaning 2008 is probably as close to the real Granderson as we've seen (.935 OPS, 135 OPS+). He'll likely make up at least .050 points in batting average over 2009, which would project him at around .900, particularly when you consider he'll be moving to a vastly superior hitter's park.

 

Got off track a bit - those great numbers were from 2007. My point was that he'll probably come back to numbers around 2008 (.858 OPS, 123 OPS+) plus the boost from moving from Comerica to Yankee Stadium.

 

if that were true, it would be awful. but the truth is...different teams are competitive year in and year out. like the NBA and NFL, it has its perennial cellar dwellars....and some of those teams need a salary floor if they're getting money from the larger market teams.

 

But the difference is that the Steelers, Colts, and Patriots did it because they hired the right people and made smart front office moves - not because they had a built-in advantage over the rest of the league. Those opportunities are equally available to every team in the league, as evidenced by the fact that none of those teams are big market teams.

The Yankees can't win without the right moves - but they had the advantage of being able to make more mistakes than anyone else. Any team can win in a given year when all the pieces fall into place in the MLB, but no small-market team can build a dynasty like the Yankees or Red Sox (or any of about 6-7 other teams).

 

The Yankees have made the playoffs 14 of the last 15 seasons. In a sport, mind you, where not that many teams make the playoffs, and won the world series 5 of those times. The Red Sox have made the playoffs 9 of those 15 years, and won the world series twice. Yes, there have been times of struggle for both squads, but in today's world, its not really possible to argue that money doesn't correlate highly with winning. I did a statistical project on this back in college - which was 10 years ago, and I expect the correlation to have increased since then - and the result was clear that teams with big payrolls win considerably more frequently.

That's not to say other sports don't have the same or similar problems. The Lakers seem to win a lot. The Steelers / Cowboys are the NFL teams, etc., etc.

Good organizations are good organizations. As mentioned, the Yankees don't just spend a lot, but they often spend wisely. The Mets are also spending a lot, but suck. But winning in spite of overspending is considerably harder when you can't overspend.

I'd agree it isn't as bad as a few teams using the rest of the league as their farm system. But it is certainly difficult as a fan. Add the Northeast and California media bias and it becomes even more difficult to watch - a bias that seems to exist moreso in baseball than any other sport. For me personally, add in the fact that I find baseball to generally be the most boring of the three major sports, and I barely watch it anymore.

 

Cool.

Seeing as how I live ten minutes from the Tigers AA stadium. Maybe I'll have some high quality players to watch.