Q.  What do Trayvon and Granderson have in common?

A.  First of all, the profile, the K/BB, the gap power, the age-arc, etc ... see this article.

Curtis Granderson tackled AAA at age 24 ... in 111 games he had a 48:129 EYE, had excellent gap power.  ... 

Trayvon's K's and BB's were both a bit higher, but the EYE (the ratio of BB's to K's) is exactly the same and Trayvon was pushed a little faster.

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Q.  Do they swing the same?

A.  They swing exactly the same, yes.

In this gorgeous video, watch Trayvon prep the swing in Nick Franklin style:

• Lead foot goes six inches forward
• Weight sinks onto back knee
• Bat handle goes straight back (not up) a few inches, "stretching the rubber band"
• Bat wrap cocks quietly, hands twitch comfortably
• Trayvon goes to the ball *suddenly*
• The bat speed (launch and throughspeed) is extra class

It's a beautiful swing, short, graceful and explosive.  It's not as magical as Nick Franklin's more upright, more centrifugal Teddy Ballgame swing -- for example, Franklin has the flowery Joe DiMaggio finish, whereas Trayvon has a very short, Alvin Davis finish.  But the physics involved are sweeeet.

Now look at Curtis Granderson's swing.  Especially at the 0:17 mark in this video, you can see the same angle of bat wrap, the same prepatory move of the hands, the same bat speed and swing shape, the same compact followthrough, same LD/FB results ... check it out.

You got the same unusually-high back elbow, the same distance between hands and shoulder, the list goes on.

Both players are lower to the ground, in the box, than a Nick Franklin is.  It's a quicker swing, more fast-twitch, less leveraged.  Trayvon Robinson and Curtis Granderson have swings that utilize their physical attributes.

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Trayvon is young and Curtis Granderson is now fully mature; the last two years Granderson has taken to clearing his front knee and his belt buckle early, for extra power.  (This is exactly Jack Nicklaus' swing key for smooth added yardage.)

But other than that, you're not going to find a more lookalike swing than those of Trayvon and Granderson.

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Q.  Does this fall into the category of a Kyle Seager "Keep the Bat In the Zone a Long Time" (KBIZLT) swing?

A.  It does, yes.  

Here is an explanation of the KBIZLT concept.  For Trayvon, it's not quite as much as Seager's - the followthrough isn't extended through the swing plane quite the same way, and Trayvon doesn't make a conscious point of staying inside the ball as much as a Seager or a Derek Jeter does.  

But pretty much.  His path to the ball, and the throughswing, are unquestionably KBIZLT.

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Q.  Why so many strikeouts, then, for both of them?

A.  Bat acceleration through the zone.

Anybody can drag the bat through the zone lifelessly, as Chone Figgins does, and avoid a strikeout.  These guys attack.

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Pitch recognition plays in.  Old players' EYEs improve.  Curtis Granderson fanned 174 (!) times in his first full year ... now that's down to 110, 115.

I'm not saying that the pretty, and clean, swing guarantees contact.  But it certainly suggests that the swing shouldn't be the root cause of the K totals.

Hey, if he's an inner-city kid on a pheenom's timeline, you figure he's gonna win some and lose some.  LOL.

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