Pregame notes: Reworking the Granderson swing
Posted by: Chad Jennings - Posted in Misc on Aug 11, 2010 
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Grown tired of his bad season numbers, Curtis Granderson came to hitting coach Kevin Long yesterday and asked to make a change.
In a drastic mid-season move, the Yankees began a “total reformation” of Granderson’s swing. It’s the reason he was kept out of the lineup tonight against Cliff Lee. Long specifically asked Joe Girardi for one more day to work with his center fielder.
“To do something like this, it’s a stretch,” Long said. “But it’s a stretch that I think is not going too far and I think he feels the same way… He’s had length to his swing for a long, long time. He’s been an all-star with length to his swing, but we’ve both decided at this point we want to shorten it as much as we can.”
After batting practice yesterday, Long and Granderson went through an intense session of mechanical changes. They were going to do it again after the game, but Granderson was a late-inning replacement and so they put off that session until today. After BP, Granderson and Long will get to work again, then they’ll go through the same stuff tomorrow before the series opener in Kansas City.
Long and Girardi both compared the changes to those of Nick Swisher in the offseason. It’s basically an attempt to quiet Granderson’s swing. It’s not an unheard of series of changes, but making them this late into the season is certainly an unusual move.
“His stance is going to be a lot more square,” Long said. “His hands have changed their position. He’s holding on with two hands. His load to where he gets to contact, we’ve eliminated a lot of movement there. This takes time to do something like this, but we’re going to have five or six complete sessions. He did get into the game yesterday and had what I would call a pretty good at-bat.”
As Long said, Granderson has yet to get going for an extended period of time. He said Granderson told him at one point, “How much worse could it get?” The changes have worked wonders for Swisher, and Long said he’s been encouraged by how well Granderson had adapted in the early stages.
“His eyes were lighting up,” Long said. “He was excicted. I was excited.”
Here’s Long talking about the changes.
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• Mark Teixeira will be back with the team tomorrow.
• This is the first time Posada has caught Javier Vazquez since May 1. Girardi said he texted Posada this morning to make sure his shoulder felt strong enough to play tonight.
• Girardi said he expects Francisco Cervelli to stick with A.J. Burnett, but Cervelli might not have another specific starter who he catches every time. Cervelli will be with Burnett, and then mix-and-match to give Posada additional days off.
• Alfredo Aceves will make his next rehab appearance on Friday with Trenton, because Scranton will be on the road. Girardi said he would like to see Aceves get stretched to 40 or 45 pitches before activating him, “but if he doesn’t, he doesn’t,” Girardi said.
• Girardi said he’s not especially worried about Vazquez’s recent dip in velocity. “In the beginning of the year he wasn’t able to pitch well with his velocity down,” Girardi said. “Now he’s figure out how to do it. So it’s not a huge concern.”
Associated Press photo of Granderson
Good for Granderson. It’s almost like he cares or something. I pity the fool.
Although completely revamping a swing mid season is far from the norm, what exactly is Long and Granderson supposed to do?
Some people just can’t win.
What Granderson has done the last few months obviously isn’t working so what harm could be done to make some changes?
It’s not going to happen overnight but it’s a start. Sooner or later, he’s going to come out of it. Too talented a player not to.
Bret,
So you don’t want to swing two bets on this Crawford thing?
Desperate times deserve desperate measures. GO Grandy!
If Long gets anything out of Granderson over the remainder of the season, and postseason ? he should get a big contract renewal and raise. I think it?s up after this season. If so, he should get a raise already, never mind what he can do for Curtis.
Maybe I should give Long a call. You think it?s too late for me?
Oh, and MTU – about Lee getting Sabathia’d – You got that right, my friend
Sounds like a bad idea to tinker with the guys swing in august but if it helps that’s great
Good for Granderson. I hope the changes work for him.
Cashmoney,
I understand your point but in this case we’re measuring up Gardner to Crawford which is a 50/50, 1-for-1 bet.
I’m looking at Gardner’s career numbers, looking at how the league has adjusted to him, looking at the swings he’s taking (and not taking) and thinking the Yankees would be crazy to commit to his development while a player of Crawford’s talent becomes available for money alone in the prime of his career.
Nick is essentially saying the Yanks will commit to Gardner.
I don’t see it at this point.
RoboGrandy.
We can fix him. We can make him better than he was before.
Joe-
The only thing missing will be the “red carpet”
LGY,
Nick in SF is fun to bet with.
That’s part of the joy of betting.
It’s not just about making money.
If I lose, he’ll be a good sport about it.
I wouldn’t expect to much out of this game from the Yanks with this lineup and Lee on the mound. Working with Granderson this late in the season is either going to make it better or worse, but I do know that between Gardner and Granderson lately there’s a lot of strikeouts piling up and it’s crunch time now.. There’s no time now to be messing with someones mechanics..
Well, if something is broken, trying to fix it is probably a good first step.
# Bret The Hitman August 11th, 2010 at 7:14 pm
Cashmoney,
I understand your point but in this case we’re measuring up Gardner to Crawford which is a 50/50, 1-for-1 bet.
I’m looking at Gardner’s career numbers, looking at how the league has adjusted to him, looking at the swings he’s taking (and not taking) and thinking the Yankees would be crazy to commit to his development while a player of Crawford’s talent becomes available for money alone in the prime of his career.
Nick is essentially saying the Yanks will commit to Gardner.
I don’t see it at this point.
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I get your drift, Brett. But think of this, even if the yanks had decided to go after Crawford.
The odds still doesn’t change in the fact that there will 4-5 teams that will be vying for his service.
Let’s say the Yanks are a 60 percent , so you just simply weight it down to 3-1 odds.
1-1 money is still a sucker’s bet to me , be it @ 1 dollar or 10000 dollars.
just musing …
Fixing his swing on Aug 10? Wow. Great get Cash
Sounds good. Its bold during the season but as Granderson said “how much worse can it get” …sometimes you have to take risk to get reward. Hopefully that’s what happens in this case. Give Granderson props for taking the bull by the horns.
I think Grandy needs to “catch a game at ATT” if you know what I mean.
The dude just seems tight.
Turn on, tune in Grandy and watch those pop-ups turn to lasers!
K Long’s favorite TV show as a kid was The 6 million dollar man.
Give Curtis credit for asking for help. Long has a big job changing a guys swing in Aug., but hope he can help Curtis.
I think the 3rd guy was Pherson or something.
That’s right, Bret. No gloating. I’ll just collect my winnings and be on my way.
Bronx Jeers, They sell these out front:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/t.....569083200/
It’s been easy enough to see that Granderson had too many moving parts in the batters box. Nick Swisher quieted down his approach from last year and it’s worked for him.
Although all hitters are different, working with Granderson is just what the doctor ordered. Let’s see what the adjustments do.
Bret,
Is that code for I have my doubts about Crawford being a Yankee so I don’t want to lose too much money when he doesn’t sign with them?
Jeff Pehrson.
How long did Walton go on for?
Cashmoney,
Those 4-5 teams don’t have 50 million coming off the payroll after 2011.
If the Yankees want Crawford over Gardner, that’s all that matters.
But you’re right.
I bet I could get better odds from Las Vegas.
If I betting were a hobby of mine and I had more money on the line, I probably would.
Montero lines out one step from the warning track in center. You can just about chalk up a blast before the end of the night.
Is Montero daring the Yanks to not call him up?
Man, GB is watching Jesus as if he were Mantle.
# GreenBeret7 August 11th, 2010 at 7:29 pm
Montero lines out one step from the warning track in center. You can just about chalk up a blast before the end of the night.
———–
Damn, that kid is in some kind of groove.
Maybe Montero should help Granderson with his swing?
Granderson is a 40 HR talent and has a contract that is challenging to trade coming off this year
Gardner is a guy who can be sold high because he has a team friendly contract and has peak value.
Easy to see who to trade to make room for Crawford
ZMAN,
Easy to see for some.
# ZMAN August 11th, 2010 at 7:32 pm
Easy to see who to trade to make room for Crawford
——–
It’s not that easy when they’d have to pay him $100M, plus Lee and his $100M.
Do people really think the Yanks want a $230M payroll next year?
This is not the “full monty” with Curtis’s swing just some emergency steps.
The full version will emerge after the off season.
MTU
Granderson said he didn’t want to wait until the offseason.
Giuseppe Franco August 11th, 2010 at 7:32 pm
# GreenBeret7 August 11th, 2010 at 7:29 pm
Montero lines out one step from the warning track in center. You can just about chalk up a blast before the end of the night.
———–
Damn, that kid is in some kind of groove.
Maybe Montero should help Granderson with his swing?
———————————————————————————————————————-
CB and I were discussing his swing and the results off the bat being much like Rodriguez and Frank Thomas. Short, fast, smooth and violent impact, but, mainly the power and length that he gets to the off fields.
LOL i was just gonna ask about Jesus Montero.
He’s obviously tearing it up in AAA. When are the Yankees gonna call him up? A young star always makes a team thrive.
Carl-
I can understand that but completely re-tooling a swing is going to take a lot of time and a lot of reps. I’m not an expert but I doubt that something like that could be accomplished in season.
IMO what we are likely to see are a series of “tweaks” and not the full transformation.
I’m in the ‘Yankees will not sign Crawford’ camp but what makes people think he’s a 100 million dollar guy?
“Granderson said he didn?t want to wait until the offseason.”
He’s had enough offseason already. It’s high time for a little onseason.
“Gardner is a guy who can be sold high because he has a team friendly contract and has peak value.”
This statement was true two months or so ago. Not today.
# MTU August 11th, 2010 at 7:48 pm
Carl-
I can understand that but completely re-tooling a swing is going to take a lot of time and a lot of reps. I’m not an expert but I doubt that something like that could be accomplished in season.
IMO what we are likely to see are a series of “tweaks” and not the full transformation.
I’m just going by what Long said in the audio.
I’d be against signing Crawford. Spend the money on Lee. Pitching is what wins in the postseason. With Pettitte getting older and Javy likely will not be back. Lee is who the yankees need to target.
The infield is locked up I like having the outfield more flexible for younger players. Yanks dont need an allstar at every position.
“I’m in the ‘Yankees will not sign Crawford’ camp but what makes people think he’s a 100 million dollar guy?”
He’s not. But
…..he may be the best free agent position player on the market and those guys tend to get overpaid.
Montero has put on shows in BP during the past 2 spring trainings. In 2011, he’ll make a serious case to be taken north and it won’t be from BP.
It also gives Tony Pena another chance to drill him hard with his work behind the plate.
The same applies to Brandon Laird working with Graig Nettles.
I said this about 5 days ago. They should sit him tomorrow against Chen too. Doing this now while not the greatest time to do it, it’s better than doing nothing.
Grandy needs to play and getting him right will only help.
Montero lined a double down the right field line. Not a good swing, though. It was a solid shot but he was bailing out and hit it off of his front foot.
I hear ya, Bill D. Crawford’s a great ball player, no doubt about that. However, he’s not a middle of the line-up force-he’s a catalyst. He’s a great defender but he doesn’t play a premium, up the middle, position. It’ll be interesting to see what he gets.
With Lee you have to swing at first pitch fastballs. Once you take a strike and get behind in the count he will abuse you. Thames takes a first pitch fastball right down the middle. Then falls behind 1-2 and then gets used.
If only he remembered his first big league at bat against RJ he would be fine.
Are u serious????