The Grandbimo
Posted by Steve L. on April 25th, 2011 · Comments (4)
Most HR in baseball since Auust 12, 2010:
Player G AB HR Jose Bautista 67 236 26 Troy Tulowitzki 67 257 24 Albert Pujols 68 252 21 Curtis Granderson 59 230 21 Jay Bruce 47 182 17 David Wright 67 254 17 Alex Rodriguez 44 164 17 Miguel Cabrera 61 221 17 Paul Konerko 62 237 16 Ryan Braun 66 253 16 Matt Kemp 65 253 15 Pat Burrell 63 202 15 Jayson Werth 63 241 14 Ryan Raburn 56 247 14 Adrian Beltre 64 243 14 Buster Posey 63 245 14 Mike Napoli 45 155 13 Mike Stanton 59 219 13 Joey Votto 63 228 13 Hunter Pence 70 278 13 Mark Teixeira 64 238 13 Jim Thome 42 134 12 Drew Stubbs 62 239 12 Dan Uggla 70 266 12 Russell Branyan 38 149 12 Pablo Sandoval 55 206 12 Nelson Cruz 52 200 12 Jorge Posada 49 179 12 Carlos Lee 71 274 12 Robbien Cano 66 268 12 Jed Lowrie 44 177 12 Kelly Johnson 61 248 12 Victor Martinez 61 242 12
Is Curtis Granderson the best slugging Yankees CF since Bobby Murcer?
Possible, but Bernie in his prime was as powerful.
And the league hasn’t really adjusted to Granderson’s adjustments yet. We won’t know how much of this power surge he’ll retain until (if) they do.
@ Evan3457:I figured Murcer since Bernie never hit more than 30 HRs in a season and was really more of a low 20′s guy, most of the time.
Bernie had a run of 6 seasons where his SLG was .546, and his ISO was .225. He averaged 64 EBH and 26 HR in his prime.
Bobby Murcer was my first “home grown” Yankee hero (Stottlemyre was already on the team by the time I became a fan in 1967), but his power was, to a significant extent, the product of the porch in right field in the old Stadium. Of the 129 home runs he hit in his peak years from 1969-1973, 78 were at home, only 51 on the road. His slugging percentage on the road in those 5 seasons was only .424.
By way of contrast, Bernie’s SLG on the road in his 7 peak seasons was .531. People forget how strong Bernie was; he hit some really, really long shots on occasion. He just chose to maintain a more line-drive stroke and a high batting average; he hit a combined .323 over those 7 seasons. He really was a GREAT player for those peak seasons.
I’m not prepared to declare victory with Granderson either; he has to prove this power surge is real over the long haul, especially when teams figure out what he’s changed, and make adjustments to counter it.
Steve Lombardi wrote:
Oh, and Murcer only hit 30+ HR’s once himself, 33 in 1972 (which was a helluva lot of HRs then, I think he was 2nd in the league to Bill Melton of the White Sox). Murcer’s other HR totals for the Yanks from 1969-1973: 26, 23, 25 and 22. He did hit 23 with the Giants in 1976 and 27 with the Cubs in 1977, then started to decline…at age 32.
Of course, HR totals in the mid-20′s meant a lot more in 1970 than they did in the Steroid Era.