Charlie Grant

Career Batting:.209 BA .264 OBP .248 SLG. 2 HR. 3,098 PA.(1897-1914)

Grant is here as much for his historical importance as his quality. It’s a challenging model: the record shows him as a mediocre player for almost all of his career, and an odd choice for early attempts to break (perhaps more accurately, “bypass”) the color line.

He couldn’t hit, didn’t walk much, had very little power, and struggled to hold down a full time starting role. He was a fantastic glove at 2B, to the degree fielding statistics and reputation can be trusted, so he’s got that going for him.

There are three potential arcs for Grant: further research could uncover plausible arguments that spoke to his quality beyond this initial draft, increasing his performance and, therefore, his playing time. Or, further research could raise confidence in Grant just being a bad player, and his career actually never coalesces, ending after 1899 or perhaps 1903. Or, he is who we see now: someone whose offensive woes are hidden by the overall Deadball context and whose glove keeps him around as a utility player.

We’ve embraced that third path, but honestly it doesn’t feel great: utility players very rarely have 18 year careers, no matter how good their glovework is. It’s not that they don’t have MLB careers–there are a lot of them out there–but they usually get about 1,000 PA’s over 3-5 years and disappear. And, Grant _only_ played 2B, so even calling him a utility player is a bit of a stretch.

So the option was to either follow that model, and ignore the 2nd half of Grant’s historical record or to reduce his playing time and project him as–somehow–sticking around.

For now, we’ve gone with the latter, but, again, this one is subject to a fair bit of possible reinterpretation.

NameCharlie Grant (Tokohama)
ID / Statusgrant-003cha / Draft
Pos2B
DOB / i9s Career08/31/1877 / 1897 - 1914
BirthplaceCincinnati, OH (USA)
Height / Weight5'8" / 160
B / TR / R

 

Batting Projections

YearABH2B3BHRBBSOSBCSBAOBPSLGOPS
18971352040051531.148.179.178.357
189814131400111242.220.276.248.524
189991173007841.187.245.220.465
1900110226114931.200.228.300.528
190110120310111651.198.277.248.525
190218542910122052.227.274.286.560
190319339600132482.202.252.233.485
190415328700102242.183.233.229.462
19052987514102344144.252.305.305.610
19061041851071431.173.225.240.465
190717636411133172.205.259.256.515
19081332340082031.173.220.203.423
1909221434001736103.195.252.213.465
191019037500152962.195.254.221.475
191116435710163232.213.283.268.551
191216536400142763.218.279.242.521
191319556300223665.287.359.303.662
191412523200102921.184.244.200.444
TOTALS2,88060194722184249636.209.264.248.512

 

Pitching Projections