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With writers drooling over Alex Rodriguez and his “charmed season”—the New York Yankee is leading the majors in home runs, runs batted in, slugging, and runs (and by significant margins)—little ink has been spilled on the remarkable achievement of the Detroit Tigers’ Curtis Granderson. Through 144 games this season the center fielder has tallied 22 triples. No one’s hit that many since 1949, when Dale Mitchell did it for the Cleveland Indians. There are five teams this season without 22 triples. With 16 games to go Granderson, a native of Lynwood, Illinois, who played ball at the University of Illinois-Chicago, won’t approach the single-season record of 36 set by Chief Wilson of the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1912, but he’s on pace for 24, which would make him the first batter with that many three-baggers since 1925. And there’s an outside chance he could reach 26, which would tie the American League (and Detroit Tigers) record.
- Granderson hasn’t stolen an especially high number of bases. You’d expect the triples-steals connection because fast base runners can turn some doubles into triples. Last year Granderson added 8 stolen bases to his 9 triples. This season he’s swiped 22 bases—which is a good number, no doubt, but still way behind the 75 of major league leader Jose Reyes. Moreover, 29 other players have stolen 22 or more bases this season (including A-Rod). Is Granderson actually not so speedy? Well, I don’t know his home-to-first or 40-yard times, but among players with 20 or more steals this season, Granderson has the highest success rate (95%)–he’s been thrown out just once. Perhaps his team has a conservative approach to stealing? Not really. The Tigers rank 13th out of 30 teams in steals. The best answer may be that Granderson simply hasn’t been standing on first quite as often as the other steals leaders. Among those players with 22 or more swipes, only Grady Sizemore has struck out more often than Granderson. And in that same group, Granderson’s walks+singles number ranks 19th, while four of the top five base stealers rank in the top ten in that stat. (Granderson’s 47 walks are nothing to write home about and, along with his strikeouts, account for an on-base percentage (.362) that’s unspectacular given his productivity).
