Grand Cards: Putting the "M" in MLB: Chris Getz Traded To Royals

Thursday, November 5, 2009

Putting the "M" in MLB: Chris Getz Traded To Royals

Ahh...the season is over and we can all relax. This is a new "segment", of sorts, that will track the progress of University of Michigan baseball players in the professional ranks. Ideally, this will include periodic updates of the whole group, profiles of individual players, and recognitions of transactions or milestones.

Chris Getz, the White Sox starting second baseman for 2009, has been traded to the Kansas City Royals. Is this something I care about? Why yes, yes it is.

There he is, sporting his true colors.

Getz actually started his career at Wake Forest, before transferring to Michigan for the 2004 season, where later swiped 29 stolen bases in his Junior year. He was drafted by the White Sox in 2005 and moved up their system at a reasonable pace. He spent two full seasons in Birmingham (AA) before playing a full season in AAA Charlotte in 2008, earning a September callup to the Show. The big leap came this year, when he earned the starting spot in Chicago, and rewarded the Sox with 25 SBs in 27 attempts.

Speed is certainly Getz's greatest asset, and he could develop into a reliable player with some game changing wheels. White Sox Cards had a nice writeup on Getz earlier this year, with the same general assessment. He has the tools to develop into a solid MLB contact hitter. Oh, and that post featured the outstanding custom card you see below.

With Getz sticking in the same division, he'll still have plenty of chances to play in front of his hometown crowd in Detroit. Even better, his chance of sticking in the bigs improves, as the Royals aren't exactly feeling the pressure to put a championship team together right away, don't have much in the way of major 2B prospects and can survive letting Getz work through some growing pains as he tries to develop into a solid Major Leaguer.

Here's to a strong follow-up to a respectable rookie campaign. Best of luck in 2009 to Chris Getz, now of the Kansas City Royals.