After the 2010 Major League Baseball season outfielder Carl Crawford was a hot commodity. Crawford had just finished his ninth MLB season with the Tampa Bay Rays as he was preparing to enter free agency. With the large amount of money that Crawford was expected to warrant on the free agent market, the Rays wouldn’t be in the running to retain him as Crawford would leave Tampa as the franchise’s leader in numerous offensive categories such as stolen bases (409), triples (105), and hits (1,480). Crawford hopped on Interstate-95 and headed north to sign with the Boston Red Sox as he agreed to a seven-year, $142 million contract. However, Crawford’s time in Boston quickly turned into a nightmare. The Red Sox failed to make the postseason and Crawford never hit. 300 and he only stole 23 bases in two seasons. While recovering from Tommy John surgery last summer, Crawford was traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers as he would look to revitalize his career.
The city of Los Angeles is the second largest media market in America, but it hasn’t slowed down Crawford like the pressure that he faced in Boston did. With a quarter of the MLB season in the books, Crawford is on pace to shatter his numbers that he accumulated during his entire Red Sox tenure.
This season through 43 games, Crawford is batting .302 with a .364 on-base percentage. Crawford also leads the Dodgers in home runs (5), hits (48), and stolen bases (9). These are the numbers that everyone who is involved with Major League Baseball are accustomed to seeing Crawford produce which made him a four-time MLB All-Star as a member of the Rays.
Crawford has 15 multiple hit games this season including a 2-for-4, 2 runs batted in, stolen base performance in the Dodgers 9-2 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers this past Wednesday.
The Dodgers have floundered in last place for most of the season while they haven’t been above .500 since April 15, but you can’t put that at the feet of Crawford. If the Dodgers get back into things and ultimately make the playoffs Crawford will be leading the way as he appears to be back on track in Los Angeles.
Source:Baseball-reference.com
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