Beyond the Box Score: Anderson: What’s Bugging Carl Crawford?

Carl Crawford is doing to my fantasy team what Johnny Crawford is doing to my record collection…HE’S FREAKING KILLING IT!

For years Carl Crawford has been the face of the Tampa Bay Rays organization and this year, unlike others, he actually has a talented team around him. Despite the infuse of talent and abundance of early season victories Crawford’s .281/.322/.392 line is hardly impressive and his 4.6 VORP is an astonishing seventh amongst positional players for the Rays. An initial look reveals some surprising items.

Crawford’s strikeout rate jumped from the mid-teens to 19.2% last season, this year it rests comfortably at 12.4%, just shy of his 14.9% career average. Meanwhile his walk rate is actually the highest of his career, although only 6.5%. With a line drive percentage of 21.6 Crawford’s BABIP should be around .336 and not .306. All of Crawford’s percentages otherwise play out almost exactly the same as last year with one notable exception: infield hits.

...Another problem could be Carl’s hack-tastic approach this season. Yes, he’s striking out less, but still only seeing 3.27 pitches per plate appearance, last year he saw 3.59, and in 2006 3.54. A first pitch hacker for most of his career nothing has changed this season, except Carl doesn’t seem to mind swinging on 0-1, and swinging a lot.

Thankfully for the Rays Crawford’s speed doesn’t appear to be lacking and despite Gabe Gross of all people having a higher OPS Crawford should come around to normal even if it ends his consecutive progression in the slash stats.