Granderson hopes to continue progress

TAMPA, Fla. - Curtis Granderson's description of his first season with the Yankees pretty much mirrored most people's.

"It had some ups, it had its downs," the centerfielder said Friday at the minor-league complex. "But we made it through."

Granderson started 2010 slowly, was further slowed by a left groin strain that kept him shelved for most of May, slumped badly upon his return and had a strong finish to his season, including the playoffs.

He finished the regular season hitting .247 with 24 homers and 67 RBIs in 136 games.

"Statwise, they are what they are," he said. "I never read too much into them. If I would have batted .500, if I would have batted .005, same thing I just looked at it as: Was I helping the team win ballgames? And sure enough, we made it to the playoffs, so I was able to help in some way."

Granderson's hope for 2011 is to continue the progress he made starting in mid-August, when hitting coach Kevin Long adjusted his swing. It was not a makeover, Granderson said - more a case of simplifying his swing by cutting down on excess movement.

"We don't need a lot of moving parts," he said. "As long as we're in the right spot, as little movement as possible and get ready to attack the baseball."

SEE PHOTOSWho are the 10 greatest Yankees?

Granderson had 10 homers and 26 RBIs in his final 30 regular-season games. In the postseason, he hit .357 (10-for-28) with a .514 on-base percentage and .607 slugging percentage. After Aug. 12, Granderson hit .286 against lefties. Before that, he was hitting .206 against them.

He spoke with Long earlier this week and is looking forward to getting started. "It's always great just to get outside again," he said. "The gym is great; I can do everything I need to. But it still doesn't simulate the sky and the size of the field and the intensity of the coaches and other players. It's always good to get down here."

Granderson, who spent 10 days in New Zealand last month as a Major League Baseball ambassador - he went to Europe, South Africa and China in previous offseasons - is "excited" about the Yankees' offseason.

"There's a lot of pieces that aren't here that everybody in baseball would have loved to have, for example Cliff Lee or [Andy] Pettitte," Granderson said. "But I feel the moves we made were great. I feel what we had last year, in coming up short against Texas, is pretty much coming back again with a couple added pieces that should hopefully get us over that hump to put us where we want to be."

Notes & quotes: Eric Chavez, who spent the previous 13 seasons with the Athletics before agreeing to a minor-league deal with the Yankees on Feb. 4, took grounders Friday. Chavez, 33, has played in a total of 64 games the last three seasons because of injuries. The Yankees hope he can spell Alex Rodriguez in the field a couple of days a week, but Chavez has a more immediate goal. "Stay healthy," he said. "A lot of people were asking me, coming into this situation obviously with [Jorge] Posada as the DH, [Mark] Teixeira, A-Rod, but coming to a place where expectations [for him] aren't too high - it's more realistic to think that I can play in two or three games per week than five or six. I'm just going to try to keep myself healthy and show them I can swing the bat a little bit and see what happens."