Crawford's Excuse

Crawford has been putting it out there that his problems last year were caused by two things. One, that his stance got out of whack, and he was opening up his hips too much, which was caused by "thing two".

Two was where he was batting in the Red Sox lineup. He said as a 6th/7th hitter he couldn't be himself. He has slow guys in front of him (Ortiz/Gonzalez), and he felt that he needed to hit for power, causing him to mess up his swing.

To a certain extent I'll buy it. Crawford was a man without a spot in the lineup. A lot of that goes back to "why the hell did we sign this guy", because he really doesn't fit in this lineup. He wants to bat 2nd. That's awesome, but that's where Pedroia hits. So to fit Crawford into this lineup they are going to have to push Pedroia back to 3rd, which then pushes Gonzalez to 4th, Ortiz to 5th, Youk to 6th.

That makes the lineup L, L, R, L, L. That was a big no-no in the Francona system, but maybe that won't be the case here.

Moving on from endless lineup changes/ideas, is if that will be enough? How long will be Red Sox be able to bat him there is he isn't producing. Let's say that after a month Crawford is once again batting like .240, can they move him without him throwing a fit?

I don't disagree at all with Crawford is doing. It makes a lot of sense. Throw the manager who isn't here anymore under the bus (right or wrong), say he has fixed his swing, and lobby for his "correct" spot in the lineup. I am actually fine with all of that, as long as he turns back into Tampa Bay Carl Crawford.

All we can do is sit back and hope.