LooseyGoosey

Edgar Martinez should be a shoe-in if I had a vote. Having a career OBP of 0.418 is friggin' astounding! ... and people should honor the fact that he was THE elite Designated Hitter of his era - and never even suspected of steroid abuse! Last year only 2 MLB players total had an OBP>0.418 ... Votto & Josh Hamilton ... and Edgar had a CAREER average OBP that high?

On the upside ... While the Sox are obtaining solid players & improving their team ... The Rays & Yanks are not showing signs of serious improvement yet ...

Very interesting perspective example1 Quote from older Rays Blog: ... the intangibles? "From all I have seen he is a very positive person. When I am hanging around by the field before the games, he is always joking around with the players, batboys, and security staff. He is very well liked by the players ,and he is one of the fan favorites. "His work ethic is one of the best I have seen. They recently did an entire Baseball Tonight episode on his offseason workouts, and they were pretty hard core. He also works hard in BP and plays hard no matter what. "He said the other day in the newspaper here that he knows no other level than as hard as he can play."

Agreed - Zito turned out to be quite the lemon! I just hope that Crawford's best year yet (last year) is truly a sign of more to come & not a statistical aberration! Sorry if I offended those who love stats ... I was using my "tone" tongue-in-cheek to poke fun at myself too! But I would love to hear someone discuss a reasonable argument for Crawford ... MAKE ME A BELIEVER!

Alright, I'm going to be the big nay-sayer ... but here goes ... Sabermetric gurus, I challenge you to prove his worth (beyond defense, which is an unproven commodity ... look at the Mariners last year and their stellar defensive strategy) A recent YAHOO article discussed the lofty spending of owners since 2006 and it listed 10 players over $100 million (and I'll include Manny Ramirez as #11 since some compare Crawford's signing to Manny's) List: Troy Tulowitzki, Ryan Howard, Alfonso Soriano, Carlos Lee, Matt Holliday, Jason Werth, Joe Mauer, A Gonzalez (expected), Teixeira, Manny Ramirez, Crawford Certainly are some lemons in the bunch? Possibly none so sour as Crawford??? 1. Ranking On-Base-Percentage ... Crawford is 10 out of 11 (only behind dismal Alfonso Soriano, who had SLG and OPS to make up for it) ... Crawford's 0.337 average OBP trails an average OBP of 0.371 in the other 10 ... meaning that all the others get on base 20 times MORE in a given season than Crawford ... *** all those stolen bases aren't so sexy when you're not on base as much! 2. Ranking SLG % ... Crawford is 11 out of 11 at 0.444 ... 9 of the 11 have NEVER had a single full season with a SLG below Crawford's average!!! 3. Ranking OPS ... Crawford is 11 out of 11 at 0.781 ... NONE of the other 10 is even below the 0.800 line!!! 4. Plate Discipline for Base-on-Balls ... Crawford is 11 out of 11 ... the guy NEVER walks!!! He averages 1 walk every 17 at-bats ... the other 10 average 1 walk every 8 at-bats!!! ... 5. Debating the Value of Stolen Bases ... the true argument for Crawford lies in his speed on defense and speed on the bases ... The key is % success rate, which is already showing slight statistical signs of decline at the age of 29yo. ... His last 3 years he has an 80% success rate (vs) 84% the 5-years prior to that. He hardly has the elite status of someone like Ichiro who not only swiped 45 bases at age 33yo, but also did it with a 96% success rate (and swiped 43 bases at age 35yo with a 92% success rate) ... statistically, Crawford likely will never match Ichiro's longevity! ****** ALRIGHT SABERMETRIC GEEKS = I DID THE MATH!!! ********* Crawford's stealing habits DO NOT help him be more productive than the other 10 players! (using formulas from baseball prospectus) a) If the 10 other players all didn't steal when on base with none out, over 57 plate appearances they would each generate 51.96 runs If Crawford attempted 57 steals over 57 plate appearances (like last year), although his successful 47 steals would generate 55.46 runs, his 10 botched steals would lose his team 6.33 runs = for a net of 49.13 runs (2-3 runs less than his non-speedster friends) **** DOUBLE-DOG-DARE ANYONE to statistically justify a $20 million/year, 7-year contract to Crawford!!!! Did The Sox sign Crawford for his "intangibles"??? Don't get me wrong: I think Crawford is a great asset to the team - and it certainly is like a kick in the groin to the Yankees (which may actually justify the cost, depending on the degree of discomfort!) ... But, is anyone else out there even the slightest bit perplexed by the extreme $$$$ of this contract for relatively little value?