LAKELAND, Fla. -- Considering the Tigers and Mets combined for nine walks over the first four innings Saturday afternoon, the fans needed some excitement. Curtis Granderson provided a moment of it in the field.

Granderson closed on Ramon Martinez's low line drive almost immediately off the bat, charging in towards left-center field before making a diving catch for the second out in the top of the fourth inning as the crowd stood up and cheered.

"That's just instinct," manager Jim Leyland said later. "You can't teach that. You can practice it."

Granderson does practice it, and he has worked hard to hone those instincts so far this spring. In his mind, he still has room for improvement -- not just for highlight plays, but for his entire defense -- before the Tigers head north to the tricky outfield of Comerica Park. He's working off instinct, but he's also working off memory.

"If I can put together the arm strength I had in '07 along with being comfortable playing shallow -- which I was in parts of '06 and '07 -- then that'll be, ideally, where I want to be," Granderson said Saturday.

That 2007 season was the year that Granderson really started to gain attention for his defense -- not just highlight plays like climbing the fence to take away a home run against the Red Sox, but strong, accurate throws to nab baserunners. His 10 assists ranked fourth among Major League center fielders that year, and his four double plays tied for the big league lead at the position.

For that matter, so did his 424 putouts, matching Ichiro Suzuki catch for catch. Ichiro, Torii Hunter and Grady Sizemore won the American League Gold Gloves in the outfield that year, and they all repeated last year.

Granderson, meanwhile, statistically slipped in 2008. His assist total fell by half, and both his total chances and putouts dropped. Part of that came with a drop in games played thanks to his season-opening stint on the disabled list, and part came from a pitching staff that gave up a lot more hits. But Granderson said he also felt like he paid for playing deeper in center than past years.

"It just happened," Granderson said. "I felt like, for some reason, I was getting beat, and I don't know why. And I think that's why my mind's set on trying to get a better jump this year."

The Fielding Bible takes into account opportunities for baserunners to advance and extra bases taken away when judging outfielders, along with how many outs the player made compared with how many were expected on balls hit in his area. Granderson's plus-20 rating in 2007 tied for fourth among Major League center fielders. His minus-12 rating last year ranked 29th.

That kind of drop is probably exaggerated, but nonetheless, it reflects how Granderson felt while playing deeper. He wants to get that old feeling back.

It isn't going to be easy. Comerica Park has become known over the years as a tough place to track line drives and low fly balls, particularly during sunny day games. Playing deeper allowed Granderson more time to judge the flight of drives that would take him towards the fence, even though it might have cost him on balls landing shallow. In the past, outfielders cited a reflection of the sunlight coming off of empty seats. When the stadium sold out games galore the last few years and Granderson still had problems, he came to believe it was a matter of depth perception at a park where the seats slope back at a lower angle than many other ballparks.

"I feel comfortable -- and this is no offense to these guys -- when I see a Torii Hunter, or an Ichiro, or other guys misjudge [a ball in Detroit]," he said. "I remember facing the Mets in '07, when Jose Valentin went to the left and the ball went to the right. It makes me feel like I'm not the only one."

He's the one, though, who calls it his home park. And the one surefire way he knows to practice his reads is by tracking the ball during morning batting practice sessions in sun-drenched Florida.

"If you take enough balls off the bat during BP, you'll see some like that at some point," Leyland said. "That's the only way you can practice that. You can't really practice that off the fungo.

"In center field, a guy takes a huge swing and your first instinct is to back up, and [then] he hits it off the end of the bat. Those are tricky. You see that happen a lot."

It's that first instinct -- or technically, the first step off that first instinct -- that Granderson is trying to hone.

"Just getting that good jump," Granderson said. "Because that's going to be a determination on catching that ball [Saturday] or not catching that ball, or just any ball."

He'll get a chance to judge balls in big league parks soon enough thanks to the World Baseball Classic. Team USA will play its opening round games at Toronto's Rogers Centre, then move to Dolphin Stadium in Miami if the Americans advance. A night game in an outdoor park like Miami, Granderson believes, would be a good test.

Arm strength and accuracy, he says, are mostly a matter of long tossing, lots of long tossing. He does that most mornings with teammate and good friend Marcus Thames, and outfield coach Andy Van Slyke tests him and other outfielders with a fair number of drills, from hitting the cutoff man to charging on a ball.

"Technique is fine," Granderson said. "It's just that sometimes I don't get that carry. In '07 I had that, and I have to get that."

If he can, he has at least done his part. Outfield defensive statistics are so tied to pitching that Robert Fick once led the Majors in outfield assists because the 2002 Tigers gave up so many hits.

Granderson isn't judging himself on statistics, though. He judges himself on feel, and on the team's bottom line. Still, a crowd reaction like he drew with his catch Saturday is a nice bonus.