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No more excuses, time for Carl Crawford to produce 02.23.12 at 8:20 am ET
By Kirk Minihane
Carl Crawford set career worsts in virtually every category last season. (AP)

Carl Crawford set career worsts in virtually every category last season. (AP)

If Josh Beckett didn’t say enough this week, Carl Crawford has probably said too much.

Before we get into the rights and wrongs of what Crawford said, let me just note that this is once again an example of why the media (raising hand) can often be completely and totally inconsistent: When a guy gives us nothing or close to nothing we’ll kill him for it. And when a guy — as Crawford has done over the past couple of days with Lou Merloni in a Comcast interview and with Rob Bradford over here — gives us his true feelings and we don’t like them we blast away again. I personally have no problem with an athlete that never speaks to the media, at the end of the day where’s the benefit for the guy?

But Carl Crawford — coming off as bad a season as any outfielder has had in Red Sox history and entering year two of a $140 million deal — decided to make his feelings known in Fort Myers this week. Turns out he wasn’t thrilled with hitting sixth and seventh in the order with the Sox in 2011.

“There’s nothing else you can do [but try to hit home runs],” Crawford told Merloni. “A lot of the other teams, they would come and tell me, you know, they were like ‘we hope they leave you in the seventh hole because we’re not afraid of you at all there. You don’t intimidate us at all. You can’t hit a triple, you’re not probably going to hit a double. And you don’t hit that many home runs. You can’t do nothing, really.’ And to hear that from your peers gives you a feeling on the inside that you just, you know, you just can’t hit there. And I mean, it’s true.”

And that’s the real problem. Carl Crawford isn’t embarrassed about stealing $14 million dollars from the Red Sox (and the owner who, evidently, never wanted him) and doesn’t seem overly embarrassed about playing a not insignificant role in the (wait for it) greatest regular-season collapse in baseball history.

Nope, he just doesn’t want to have to deal with the embarrassment of being a seventh hitter in the order. It’s tough, apparently, to chat with guys from other teams when that’s the case. Makes the slap-and-tickle fests behind the cage a little more uncomfortable, and who the hell wants that?

This strikes me as a pity party, plain and simple. Do I think Terry Francona did a lousy job managing Crawford last season, dropping a four-time All-Star with a $140 million contract to seventh in the order in the third game of the season? Sure, to me it was a staggering overreaction at best.

But let’s ask this: Now that the dust has cleared, does Crawford really deserve to his anywhere higher than, say, sixth in the order? Take away salary and what we thought we knew about players and just look at numbers. Is Crawford a better hitter than Jacoby Ellsbury (who had a far better year in 2011 than any in Crawford’s career) or Dustin Pedroia or Adrian Gonzalez or a healthy Kevin Youkilis or David Ortiz? Other than to pacify Crawford — a legitimate concern, this is the real world and egos do matter — why would Bobby Valentine mess with a lineup that led the American League in runs scored, hits, doubles, OBP and slugging?

“You can’t do nothing,” Crawford told Bradford about hitting lower in the order. “You can’t really steal.”

Well, here’s what you can do, Carl. You can try and draw a walk every week or two (he had 23 walks in 539 plate appearances last season — his .289 OBP was 70th of the 73 qualified American League batters last year). You could actually hit, I’m not sure why you think there is some legislation that outlaws doubles and triples from the No. 6 or No. 7 spot. Were the bases clogged every time you stepped to the plate? And since when is that such a terrific burden? Bill Mueller — who I don’t recall ever being embarrassed about his spot in a lineup and making 1/10th of Crawford’s annual salary — won a batting title hitting mostly sixth and seventh in 2003.

I’m sure Crawford will get his shot at the top of the order to start 2012, but what happens if it’s May 11 and he’s hitting .236? We know now that he’ll be pissed about being dropped, and he’s made it plenty clear that it could affect his on-field performance. He’s put the team in a hell of a spot first by failing last season and now by trying to put some of the struggles on Francona (who told the Big Show yesterday that Crawford’s claim that the manager never spoke to him after moving him down the lineup was “revisionist history,” which is a nice way to say Crawford is full of crapola) to force himself back to where he wants to hit.

The time for excuses are over. It’s time for Carl Crawford to produce. It doesn’t matter if he’s hitting first, second, third or seventh, he needs to be the Carl Crawford the Sox thought they were getting. It was an overpay at $140 million, on that we can all agree, but it shouldn’t be the disaster we saw last season.

And if it is, we don’t need to hear why from Crawford. We’ll have figured it out on our own.

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  • Really_33

    Just spotted a Santorum 2012 bumper sticker on Adrien Gonzalez’s SUV. Explains why he made no prophylactic moves in the offseason ?

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_J6CSXCU4KVZJYCXEG3AIW3GNRA Paul Sousa

    I think Crawford will eventually regain his Tampa form but come on.  He is not going to unseat the first 4 guys in the lineup.  I would love to see him hit 9th.  He can run all he wants. 

  • Fab4ever

    Kirk Minihane! The new voice of dissension. Everything this guy writes seems to border on negativity…is he Rick Pitino in disguise? Grind, grind, grind…must have taken his lessons from Felger and Gammons…

  • Anonymous

    It does occur to me that if Pedroia could maintain his power hitting sixth and Crawford could increase his OBP (as I think he will), this would be a lot easier of a problem.   Then you could hit Crawford at the 2 slot and have the fastest 1-2 guys in the game.  

  • Anonymous

    Trade Crawford NOW. Work out something with the Cubs, get rid of his negative mind set.

  • BFD

    Get over Carl, look at Bill Mueller, the guy batted eighth and managed to win a batting title…He made way less than you. Suck it up and as you said”just play with the talent that god gave you…

  • Chairman12347

    shut up Kirk ..you sack of worthless crap .. I am so sick of you 

  • RI Fan

    I suppose if they decide to move Ellsbury to 3, Crawford could bat leadoff. But, that seems like a huge stretch based on last year.

  • BFD

    Carl has said in the past he isn’t as comfortable batting lead-off either.

  • Mimi

    Crawford has NOT been making excuses. He’s taken responsibility for last year’s collapse. He’s worked hard the entire offseason. He’s arrived early to Spring Training. You can’t seriously blame him for being open about his concerns.

  • Jack

    I’m not a big Minihane fan, especially on the radio, but he’s spot on about Crawford.  Mark my words, Crawford is a whiney wimp, who is certainly not being wooed by MENSA as a candidate for membership.  At least last year he kept his mouth shut.  It seems that this year he’s going to blame everyone for his lack of production.  He hit it right.  A team vastly overpaid for someone who had peaked and is now on the way down.  This guy will have people longing for the days of  good contract values like J.D. Drew.

    By the way, why can’t this guy, with his blazing speed, play right field?  He doesn’t reallly need much speed to play left at Fenway.

  • Chairman12347

    yeah because it is so easy to just switch positions at the major league level when you have played one place for 10 years … totally different angle of the ball and put him in the toughest RF in baseball to play?  Yeah just stick him there .. this is where all you JD haters will miss how solid he was.  Crawford does not have a strong arm to play RF…why not move Ells there..oh yeah we tried that in LF ..how did that work out?  Youk is a rare player that can move around and you think you can plug guys around like a video game…Crawford too is a real wimp … so wimpy that while in Tampa he grabbed Pat Burrell by throat and choked him in the locker room for his attitude in front of the whole team.  He sucked last year he said it ..he wants to move on ..so move on … it is 2012 when he walks into the box he is at .000 0 0 and has a fresh slate same with Ellsbury/ Ortiz / and the rest. Leave the BS behind Crawford and Pedroia are the best leaders on this team as baseball players with heart, work ethic, and personal accountability. 

  • Stephen Leahy

    think the media should just lay off, if he cant play well cause of the media bothering him and cant handle boston leave him alone to see if he finally plays like he did in tampa but if he is just the same as last year and the media is off his back, then you know to trade him or do something

  • Billy

    Crawford is a leader????  I suppose you think a “community organizer” is also a great president.

  • talk is cheap

    Bobby V will give him all the rope he needs. If he fails Bobby V will tell it like it is. Hope he gets better but all the talk in the world will not make it happen.

  • Shennessey

    Crawford’s a leader? Heart? Work ethic? Personal accountabilty ? I heard no accountabilty from him just a bunch of excuses, why didn’t he just say i had a awful year and i look forward to earning my money. instead he blames everything except himself. This guy has no shot of coming close to that contract he has never hit more then 19 homer’s and has never driven in 100 runs. He has averaged 10 homer’s a year for his career. he did say he sucked but he took no credit for that saying it was because of were he was in the batting order. this guy is a complete bust.

  • Anonymous

    The old “Big fish, little pond, little fish, big pond”. He is NOT as important to Boston as he was in Tampa Bay. He needs to get over ALL those immature thoughts and just play the game. A truly good hitter doesn’t care where he is batting = they just hit. That said, I think he will have a better season this year because he did have wrist issues that were kept hidden for most of the last season.

  • Chairman12347

    You must not have been listening he said he was awful and said he was all out of whack.  Maybe Francona should have managed him instead of hammering pain pills and it would have been different.  Also did it occur he may have been injured? Which it may have been on year of seven does not say what a man is.  Drive in 100 runs hit more than 19 home runs?  He was paid to be Carl Crawford  .290 35 doubles 10 triples 15 Homeruns 80 rbi’s 35 bags  and play solid defense.  That is who he is, it is not his fault they gave him 144, if you expect him to hit 30 HR you are an idiot.  But the man has heart and cares, nobody in the organization works harder, and he flat out came out and said he sucked.  What more do you want?  Did Francona apologize for being an awful manager looped on pills?  Did Beckett accept responsibility?  Gonzalez?   Crawford is a leader with his actions not his words and he is a quality ball player who had a bad year.  Judge him on his merits not his contract and your definition of value.  And as Carl said he sucked last year.  

  • King_messier

    ahhh, Kirk….I think Crawford was trying to say that when he was hitting 7th, he tried to do too much.  I don’t think his point is that he was embarrassed.  And you’re right – you can’t have it both ways (players say too much or not enough) – so pick one and stick with it.

  • King_messier

    don’t fall into this minihane trap.  crawford was saying he tried to do too much in the 7th slot.  not that he was embarrassed by it.  It changed the way he approached hitting.

  • PVS53

    If Crawford showed any sign of life batting seventh, then he would have been moved up in the line up. No one thinks about hitting just homeruns just because they are batting seventh, eighth, or ninth. Just get a freaking hit and make a difference! His big ego had better be left at home when he gets on the field.

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