Crawford, All in Order

It looks like Carl Crawford has solved my earlier questions about where the Red Sox should put him in the batting order. He likes to be at the top.

Crawford has been getting a little bit of heat for this revelation. Half the people seem to be wondering why he didn’t come out and say this last year. If that would have fixed everything, just tell Francona and go on your way. I think the answer lies with what the other half of the people are saying today. “Just shut up and hit.” Can you imagine if Crawford had come out last season and said he was having trouble because he wasn’t hitting second? They’ll call for his head. How dare he ask to be moved up when he’s hitting .220? He’s lucky to be in the line-up at all. So, he stuck with it. He battled. He didn’t whine. He tried to do it. He just couldn’t.

I think he was a big mess last year. New contract. New fans. New expectations. He couldn’t play up to his salary in the minds of most people, but he still tried. It was just a huge spiral. Hopefully, he’s decided that there’s no reason to do all that. There’s nowhere to go but up. He can just go out and be Carl Crawford again.

So, what about where to hit him? First or second. I still like Jacoby at the top. So, today I’m leaning towards:

Ellsbury

Crawford

Pedroia

Gonzalez

Youkilis

Ortiz

Ross

Salty

Iglesias

There are some options. Do you move Ells behind Pedroia? Not a bad idea.

This is going to be fun.