Grandal

[Texsox]

On a night when everybody is hitting,  Grandal manages four walks. It's truly amazing to me that a guy not hitting his weight can draw so many walks. You expect guys like Frank or Babe to draw walks as pitchers pitched around them. Grandal may have the best eye for an umpire's strike zone I've ever witnessed. 

Minnesota was hitting everyone's bat yet he kept his bat away from the ball. I'm impressed. There must be NL pitchers with higher averages and they don't get walked. 

[hogan873]

He's not even hitting Madrigal's weight, but the OBP is impressive.  I do think that if he were swinging the bat more, especially at the close pitches, he'd be getting more hits.  I don't know if his BA would be close to his career norm, but it would be higher.  It truly is impressive how good of an eye he has.

[ChiSox59]

A .132/.387/.316 is something else.  A 30% walk rate.  33 BB / 27 K ratio. 

I wish he was hitting his career average, but what he is doing right now with the walks is incredible.  

 

[chitownsportsfan]

1 hour ago, ChiSox59 said:

A .132/.387/.316 is something else.  A 30% walk rate.  33 BB / 27 K ratio. 

I wish he was hitting his career average, but what he is doing right now with the walks is incredible.  

 

Between Yermin, Yoan, Grandal and Vaughn you get quality, long PAs more often than not.  That puts a lot of pressure on the opposing pitchers especially the 2nd and 3rd times through when they start to get more dangerous. Robert was putting together great ABs before he got hurt as well and Mendick more often than not gives a good AB.

It's really amazing how all of a sudden the Sox have this strong core of guys that are just professional hitters.  The Twins announcers were commenting on it last night.  It's hard on the opposition.

[Lillian]

How much of this improvement in the quality of at bats do you think is attributable to Menechino? Grandal has always drawn a lot of walks and Madrigal was advertised as a exceptional contact hitter, but the entire team seems to be improving, in this regard.

Edited May 18, 2021 by Lillian

[YoYoIsMyHero]

The MLB record for 4 walk games in a season is 7. Grandal has 3 so far.

[Dick Allen]

It's probably the most productive .132 batting average of all time.

[CentralChamps21]

Grandal has had Garcia batting behind him in a lot of games. He's going to take a lot of walks when that's the case.

He's also had Vaughn behind him a lot and Vaughn is still unproven, though I imagine Grandal will start getting better pitches to hit when Vaughn is behind him.

He needs to be in front of one of the big bats in the lineup. He'll get more pitches to hit and start turning a lot of those walks into doubles and homers.

[Dominikk85]

5 hours ago, Texsox said:

On a night when everybody is hitting,  Grandal manages four walks. It's truly amazing to me that a guy not hitting his weight can draw so many walks. You expect guys like Frank or Babe to draw walks as pitchers pitched around them. Grandal may have the best eye for an umpire's strike zone I've ever witnessed. 

Minnesota was hitting everyone's bat yet he kept his bat away from the ball. I'm impressed. There must be NL pitchers with higher averages and they don't get walked. 

Adam dunn also Still walked 15% in his terrible 2011 year. 

I think it is several reasons. For one guys like dunn, Santana or grandal just don't chase a lot so the typical in and out approach of pitchers doesn't work so well and you have to beat them in the zone to strike them out. That means pitchers who rely on getting chases will strike them out but also walk them some. 

 

Also grandal still has homer power and pitchers hate getting beat by a Homer even if the percentages suggest they should dare the guy to hit. 

 

And Lastly unlike the late career Dunn grandal does strike out but it isn't outrageously high so some pitchers probably believe rightfully that a 128 babip isn't his real talent level and that grandal going forward will again be a 20 to 25 Homer guy who hits 240 With good obp

[lostfan]

Grandal's BABIP is .128, his career average is .277. That is extreme, and definitely suggests a return to the mean eventually.

[South Side Hit Men]

On 5/18/2021 at 3:25 PM, lostfan said:

Grandal's BABIP is .128, his career average is .277. That is extreme, and definitely suggests a return to the mean eventually.

How long have teams shifted him to this extreme?

I do expect improvement, but not necessarily a return to career norms.

[hankchifan]

Grandal has close to .397 OBP and gets long at bats that adds to the pitch count. His reputation influences umps who call  balls on borderline pitches.  He can hit the dinger if you give him too much plate. He is also a switch hitter. He adds value in many ways.  I much rather see him cometo the plate than a Collins or Eaton.

Edited May 20, 2021 by hankchifan
Wrong acronym

[chitownsportsfan]

A 139 avg with a wRC+ of 127. Amazing. .9 fWAR they aren't liking his defense as much this year which yea it's been bad at times.  Still a top quartile catcher in MLB.

[South Side Hit Men]

1 hour ago, hankchifan said:

Grandal has close to .397 OBP and gets long at bats that adds to the pitch count. His reputation influences umps who call  balls on borderline pitches.  He can hit the dinger if you give him too much plate. He is also a switch hitter. He adds value in many ways.  I much rather see him cometo the plate than a Collins or Eaton.

As long as he swings the bat at decent pitches when the situation calls for it, both the walks and attempts at hits will provide much value. He has been scoring at a solid rate in multi walk games.

His good command of the strike zone is a good reason for his walks, but there are a substantial number of times he is hitting in front of the “pitcher” at the bottom of the order, similar to an 8 hole hitter in the NL.

I expect pitchers to attack him more (and him to correspondingly swing more, get more hits) once (if) Leury finally becomes a bench player behind Engel, and later Robert and Eloy. 

(Hitter Yasmani batted in front of)

2021 Multi walk games

• 4/7 4th (Collins) 3 BB 0 Hits 0 Runs
• 4/8 6th (Williams) 2 BB 0 Hits 1 Run
• 4/29 6th (Vaughn) 2 BB 0 Hits 2 Runs
• 5/1 7th (Lamb) 4 BB 0 Hits 2 Runs
• 5/4 7th (Garcia) 2 BB 0 Hits 1 Run *
• 5/5 6th (Garcia) 3 BB 0 Hits 0 Runs *
• 5/6 6th (Vaughn) 4 BB 0 Hits 0 Runs
• 5/12 6th (Vaughn) 2 BB 1 Hit 3 Runs
• 5/17 6th (Garcia) 4 BB 0 Hits 3 Runs
• 5/18 6th (Vaughn) 2 BB 1 Hit (HR) 1 Run
  * - Cincinnati (Pitcher hit 9th)

[chitownsportsfan]

It's hard to attack Grandal because he just doesn't swing at tough breaking pitches. He has one of the best off speed eyes I've ever seen.  When pitchers get ahead in the count on him they often make a few good pitches that he either fouls or or takes and suddenly it's 2-2 or 3-2 and the pitcher tightens up with a fastball that often misses -- because Grandal can launch a meatball 400 feet.