TAMPA — The Granderson Project is in full swing.
Yankees outfielder Curtis Granderson took live batting practice off a left-hander on Field 2 yesterday and early in the second round lined a pitch up the middle. That’s progress.
Granted the left-handed pitcher was Kei Igawa, but Granderson is in the process of attacking left-handers in a much different way than he has in the past.
His development is one of the huge keys of this spring training. In Johnny Damon, the Yankees had a sure thing at the plate. Granderson is still developing as a hitter. He batted .183 against lefties last season and is a .210 hitter over his career, so something has to change. Only two of his 30 home runs last year came against lefthanders.
Granderson has thrown away his old approach and positioning against left-handed pitchers and will now use the same approach that he has vs. right-handers.
“What I’ve done in positioning and approach [vs.] right-handers, mirror that against left-handers,” Granderson explained. “Keep the body in the same position against both right-handed balls and left-handed balls, just because you want the ball to get deeper and go the other way, doesn’t mean that your body goes the other way.”
Essentially, Granderson was taking himself out of a solid hitting position when a left-hander was on the mound by thrusting his body and head forward or sometimes overcorrecting and getting so closed he couldn’t let loose with a swing.
“I didn’t understand that was happening, but since high school I’ve done that,” Granderson said.
Under the tutelage of hitting coach Kevin Long (another vital Yankee in the final year of his contract), Granderson is attempting to change all that.
When the games start the results will not necessarily be in base hits, it’s going to be “am I in the right spot,” Granderson said. “I want to be the position that if the pitch is thrown in or thrown away, my body is in the physical position to do both. That’s where I haven’t been the past few seasons.
“In the beginning of the year last year I was there, but left-handed pitchers changed their approach and I tried to change with them and I didn’t get it right.”
Long said it’s a correctable problem. The Yankees wouldn’t have made the trade for Granderson if Long couldn’t tackle the issue.
“It’s not as far off as I thought it would be, he’s really coming along,” Long said. “I think he’s going to do well. He’s got a nice swing. . . . He’s capable of being successful vs. lefties. I’m not saying it’s going to be great overnight but I think the process is in place.”
Granderson said he knows he can be his own worst enemy.
“I can overanalyze the situation,” he said. “I can get a double, but get jammed and go in there and say, ‘OK, what was wrong?’ I’ve gotten better. But it’s still too much thought.”
That is Granderson’s nature. He is the son of educators so he is always trying to break down and learn as much about a situation as possible. Most of the time that’s a good thing, but as a hitter you don’t want to get caught thinking too much.
Granderson is enthusiastic about the new approach. He’s also working on the nuances of left field, so he really doesn’t have all day to think about his swing.
When he was done with his hitting he hustled out to left and took 15 minutes of fly balls from Double-A manager Tony Franklin. He then worked on ground balls down the line, speeding up his release and getting the ball in quickly. Left field is a different deal than center. Granderson hasn’t played left since 2007.
During the workout he was constantly asking questions of Franklin and easily made adjustments. Hitting lefties is the real battleground. For the Yankees to be complete, Granderson has to get that right.