Dodger catcher Yasmani Grandal is certainly off to a hot start. The 27-year old switch-hitting backstop was hampered with injuries throughout the spring. A forearm injury sidelined him, causing him to start the season on the disabled list. Grandal worked hard and battled back, and was finally able to return to game action on April 12th.
Since then he’s been quite effective. Grandal has been tearing the cover off the ball and doing a good job of handling the pitching staff behind the plate. So far Grandal is 6 for his first 15 with 3 doubles, and 3 runs batted in. In 21 plate appearances he’s batting .400 and has six walks. He has yet to strikeout, making contact in every plate appearance.
His line drive percentage (20%) is one of the highest it has been in years. Keep in mind this is only through the first six games, so it’s a small sample size to say the least. Still as you can see, he has a 33.3% average for hard hit balls and his soft hit ball percentage (13%) so far are all better than career norms. Basically what I am trying to point out is that Grandal is swinging the bat with authority and hitting a lot of line drives.
So far his O-swing percentage is at 15%. That means he’s not swinging at many pitches outside of the strike zone. That can explain how he has not struck out at all in his first 21 plate appearances, and has six walks. Grandal already has three multi-hit games.
It may be only six games, but Grandal has looked very impressive since being activated from the disabled list. The Dodgers are sure to ease him back into every day action by getting A.J. Ellis some reps in behind the dish, but a healthy return to form for Yasmani Grandal is a huge boost to not only the lineup, but the pitching staff as well.
Can Grandal put a whole season together? That really is the question with Grandal. He has shown great ability, 30 days at a time, can he make a 60 day stretch? He is good when he is good, but he bad when he is hurt, which is a regular occurrence so far in his career.
I notice that the Blind Squirrels have begun to look like a real bullpen and not the arson-setting squad as of late. Let’s hope they can maintain this standard for a vast majority of their opportunities.
Nice place to visit, now that the mountain of trash was taken out.
I agree True. Grandal has the tools to be someting special, but he’s also had 4 years before this to put it together and hasn’t.
The bullpen has the arms. If those guys become pitchers, and this rotation needs them to be, it could work. The question still remains – how will this team fare against the quality teams in the league?
😉 About that batting stance…silly looking.
Reminds me of a square dance song from 6th grade – “with a heel and a toe and heel and a toe and a slide slide slide…..”
Man, that goes back a long way.
His batting stance looks uncomfortable, but it sure works! One thing I like about Grandal, is that he likes challenges.
Not really. That last sentence was neither appropriate nor called for. You have no place being critical of anyone else’s tone or language when what you contribute is arguably worse. This is Scott’s site and he can run it the way he wants to, but I really have an issue with you and the level of nastiness you bring to these threads. There’s a difference between Timmons getting frustrated and throwing his toys and storming out of the room, and calling people here assholes and trash.
The way Grandal has come back from his ST injury, just has me thinking what if Mattingly had rested him for a few weeks last year. I don’t know why they kept throwing him out there. Even Kirk Gibson was only limited to one AB in a World Series, and Gibson was swinging the bat a lot better than Grandal was late last year.
Well, Gibson couldn’t run but he could still swing the bat. But your point about sitting Grandal last year is spot on. His shoulder injury affected his swing to the point where he was hurting the team.
YF there was no reason to be playing Grandal over AJ last year, after Grandal got hurt. Mattingly not only didn’t realize that Grandal was hurt, until Grandal finally told Mattingly.
And anyone could see that Grandal was hurting, by looking at his swing, and his face, when he had to swing. Not only did Mattingly risk hurting Grandal further, Mattingly hurt the team, by playing Grandal last year, after he was hurt. Mattingly played both Joc and Grandal, in the playoffs, and put a big hole in the batting order, that didn’t really contribute to the team.
The worse part, was that AJ was hitting really well at the end of the year, and hits well, in the post season. Everyone here, saw the line up, that Mattingly had for the post season, and knew the Dodgers, really didn’t have the best team out there, to win, and they didn’t. Even the national broadcasters, didn’t understand why these two guys were playing.
exactly
They are bringing Avilan up because of Baez, and Coleman won’t be in Colorado this weekend. I think they should bring someone else up to, to have another long man, in the bullpen this week end.
Because both Wood and Kazmir, will be pitching this week end. Kazmir has only pitched once in Colorado, and that was when he still had a good fastball.
So this week end, might be very challenging for both Wood, and Kazmir, and the Dodgers could use another arm in the pen. I hope Maeda can pitch a decent game there. Because he depends on movement so much, and they say nothing really breaks there.
One thing I can say about Maeda, is that he is a fighter, and he will do his best, to pitch a good game there. And maybe he will hit another HR there.
It was good to see the Giants getting sweeped by the Dbacks, and that shouldn’t happen, with the money they spent on there pitching. The Dodgers I think maybe once, lost four games in a row, in the season, and that is mostly, because, the Dodgers had both Kershaw, and Greinke, in there rotation.
It seems like the Giants suddenly stopped hitting, right after they left town. And really, a lot of good hitters, are starting out slow this year, and they are just not hitting to much. Maybe the pitchers, are more ahead this year, then in previous years, because Posey, Goldy, and even Trout, are not hitting to well, yet.
And our own Turner, hasn’t hit, and doesn’t look good, right now. Hopefully Colorado is just where the Dodgers need to be right now. Not only to invigorate there offense, but to help Turner, and Cory, to break open there bats.
And to help them both, to get all of those ground outs, and routine flyballs, out of there minds. And maybe the Dodgers offense, isn’t as bad, as it has looked, these last three games.