Watching Carl Crawford come into MLB as a potential game changing star on a team full of potential but competing in one of if not THE toughest division in all of baseball, the AL East. The division features the Red Sox, Yankees, Blue Jays, Rays, and the sad Orioles. Being a Sox fan has been pretty easy the last decade, pretty much since they won that first world series in 86 years. For some reason there has always been this little gnat that just would't go away, at first it was just an annoyance but it eventually got much worse.
That gnat was the Tampa Bay "DEVIL RAYS". Armed with a Hideous name, uniform, and the fair weather fans to match they always seemed to be picking 1st in the draft(since they had the worst record for like 128 years straight) They had some pretty damn good picks back in the day but now their scouting department and GM have done even better developing a farm system that constantly feeds great young stars into the pros and gets the most out of them possible before they reach that point where earnings outweigh statistics.....at least as far as a team with a budget like the Rays are concerned.
Do you know who was the most annoying, frustrating, obnoxious gnat of all??? CARL CRAWFORD. END OF STORY. FLIP THE PAGE. THERE IS NO ONE ELSE WHO EVEN COMES CLOSE. NOT EVEN SOMEONE IN THE SAME ZIP CODE, AREA CODE, STATE, REGION, COUNTRY, PLANET, i'll give you Universe....maybe universe.
While it may have taken time for Crawford to develop into the 5 tool gold glove centerfielder that he was in the last few years with the Rays, even from the beginning you could see this was a guy that was just blessed with such athletic ability that it looked way too easy for him. I remember a game I was at Fenway when the Sox and Rays had a day game and I was in the right field bleachers just a few rows up from the wall.
Crawford was shading way over towards the right field side and JD Drew sliced this line drive that right off the bat you could tell it was going to be right in that deep part of the park by the time it was done curving. Crawford covered so much ground I looked away just to say something to a friend and expected to see a man on second and literally didn't believe the guy next to me when he said that he caught it. The way he can move in space is just amazing and then when you combine that with his arm....it's really something to see. But so far, we haven't seen much of anything out of him in Boston.
These trade scenario's don't sound terrible but I still say let's give Crawford some more time to get healthy since he's been hurt over half the time he's been here, he's adjusting to a completely different type of city, fans that know what being real fans means and remember he's always played in the AL East, he WILL get back to playing good baseball, let's not get pennies on the dollar...
ESPN.com article link
That gnat was the Tampa Bay "DEVIL RAYS". Armed with a Hideous name, uniform, and the fair weather fans to match they always seemed to be picking 1st in the draft(since they had the worst record for like 128 years straight) They had some pretty damn good picks back in the day but now their scouting department and GM have done even better developing a farm system that constantly feeds great young stars into the pros and gets the most out of them possible before they reach that point where earnings outweigh statistics.....at least as far as a team with a budget like the Rays are concerned.
Do you know who was the most annoying, frustrating, obnoxious gnat of all??? CARL CRAWFORD. END OF STORY. FLIP THE PAGE. THERE IS NO ONE ELSE WHO EVEN COMES CLOSE. NOT EVEN SOMEONE IN THE SAME ZIP CODE, AREA CODE, STATE, REGION, COUNTRY, PLANET, i'll give you Universe....maybe universe.
While it may have taken time for Crawford to develop into the 5 tool gold glove centerfielder that he was in the last few years with the Rays, even from the beginning you could see this was a guy that was just blessed with such athletic ability that it looked way too easy for him. I remember a game I was at Fenway when the Sox and Rays had a day game and I was in the right field bleachers just a few rows up from the wall.
Crawford was shading way over towards the right field side and JD Drew sliced this line drive that right off the bat you could tell it was going to be right in that deep part of the park by the time it was done curving. Crawford covered so much ground I looked away just to say something to a friend and expected to see a man on second and literally didn't believe the guy next to me when he said that he caught it. The way he can move in space is just amazing and then when you combine that with his arm....it's really something to see. But so far, we haven't seen much of anything out of him in Boston.
These trade scenario's don't sound terrible but I still say let's give Crawford some more time to get healthy since he's been hurt over half the time he's been here, he's adjusting to a completely different type of city, fans that know what being real fans means and remember he's always played in the AL East, he WILL get back to playing good baseball, let's not get pennies on the dollar...
ESPN.com article link
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