When one looks at Curtis Granderson’s basic line, he’s off to equally as bad a start to his 2015 season through 11 games as he was through 11 games in the 2014 season.
Granderson is 5-for-34 with 7 strikeouts through the first 11 games this year. He was 6-for-41 through 11 games last season.
Eerily similar, right? Well, not exactly.
Grandson’s on-base percentage is more than 70 points higher this year than last year through the first 11 games. That’s because he’s drawn a league-high 11 walks in his 45 plate appearances, giving him a .356 on-base percentage despite the .147 average.
Granderson has actually reached base in nine consecutive games, and has a .389 on-base percentage during that span.
Remarkably, Granderson has drawn eight walks with a two strike count in 23 plate appearances, and has walked 11 times in 19 chances with a three-ball count.
“He’s not really worried about hitting the ball out of the ballpark,” Terry Collins said after Friday night’s win. “He’s worried about getting on base. … Whereas last year, he was trying to hit some homers and it was pull, pull, pull, which is what he came here to do. Now he’s in a different role and he’s accepted that role, and he’s gone about it the right way.”
Eventually, Granderson is going to have to hit, as he’s not going to walk 24 percent of the time all year. The good news for him aside from the walks, he is he isn’t striking out very much, and he’s hit into quite a bit of bad luck early on. Eventually, some of that bad luck has to turn itself around.
Even while the Mets wait for that to happen, Granderson is still finding a way to be a quality and steady presence at the top of the Mets lineup.
Just Mets 