Red Sox sign Carl Crawford

[BCVM22]

7 years, $142 mil, says the Boston Globe by way of Rosenthal.

 

http://twitter.com/#!/Ken_Rosenthal/status/12728109514100736

Edited December 9, 2010 by BCVM22

[ChiCubsFan]

Wow. I envy that organization so much (although im certain he's going to be overpaid).

[17 Seconds]

holy hell thats an awful contract Edited December 9, 2010 by 17 Seconds

[Cubbies622]

If the Yankees miss out on Cliff Lee as well, who is left out there that can make an impact?

Red Sox adding 2 all stars (Gonzo and Crawford), if their pitching gets their act together they may be the favorites in the East again.

[ChiCubsFan]

wow. so overpaid. pujols is going to get 100 million per year

[The Logan]

I [expletive] hate the Red Sox

[haubrich91]

Now the Yankees will get Cliff Lee. I wonder what the Angels think of this.

[TruffleShuffle]

crawford picked a good time to become one of the best OF in baseball. the position as a whole is pretty down right now, which makes crawford's performances look great by comparison.

 

it's too much money but the red sox and yankees pretty much have a printing press, so whatever.

[hawkeyecub]

Terrible contract but it's not like they'll really be hamstrung. The Red Sox and Yankees are so annoying on so many levels.

[bleedingblue]

I love when the Red Sox or the Yankees don't make it to the playoffs.

[Southpaw191679666239]

Can't wait to hear Harold Reynold's reaction or see his his head explode.

[Northside Blues]

They just gave 142 (20+ per) to a LF with a career 781 OPS left fielder who is a bad fit for Fenway and probably will age poorly once his legs lose some speed. Crawfords career OPS in Fenway is 708, and he's had a relatively healthy sample there playing in the division his entire career. plus the wall in LF wont help him. pesky's pole may. for comparison, when the Cubs signed Soriano he had a career 836 ops, 50 pts higher.

[MembersOnlyJacket]

Hardcore. I'm glad the Cubs signed Carlos Pena in his prime today for half the price of Crawford per season.

[TruffleShuffle]

They just gave 142 (20+ per) to a LF with a career 781 OPS left fielder who is a bad fit for Fenway and probably will age poorly once his legs lose some speed.

 

speed really doesn't age that poorly. big guys with marginal bat speed and marginal athletic ability age poorly.

[UMFan83]

In 2002, the Red Sox dared to call the Yankees the "Evil Empire" because of how they unfairly were able to afford a $200 mil payroll and sign basically anyone they wanted.

 

Now the Red Sox might be worse than the Yankees. I hate everything about the Red Sox, especially how I cheered for them to win a World Series in 2004.

 

Anyways, awful contract.

[Northside Blues]

his entire game is built on speed. players with old player skills don't age poorly because of old player skills. they age poorly because theyre one dimensional. he's going to lose his batspeed (which isnt great to begin with) and he won't have the strength to replace it with an increase in power. he's going to lose some BABIP which is a ton of his value. his triples are going to become doubles and his doubles are going to become singles. not to mention he doesnt walk. his offensive value is batspeed and footspeed, the two are highly susceptible to the aging process and he doesn't appear to have the strength and patience to offset their decline. speed is not stolen bases. he may not fall of the map like richie sexson, but he's not going to be anymore useful than soriano is when he hits soriano's age 33/34. Luckily for the Sox, he's probably going to be fine for 4-5 years of the 7 since he signed his contract when he was turning 29 not 31.

[XZero771679666304]

Overpaid, but you knew it would happen when Werth signed that ridiculous contract.

 

The AL East has to belong to Boston now. I like this simply because I hate the Yankees so. I hope they miss out on Lee so I can see the heads of Yanks fans explode.

[UMFan83]

So as of now their lineup is something like

 

LF - Carl Crawford

2B - Dustin Pedroia

1B - Adrian Gonzalez

3B - Kevin Youkilis

DH - David Ortiz

RF - JD Drew

CF - Jacoby Ellsbury

C - Jarred Saltalamacchia

SS - Marco Scutaro

 

The bottom of that lineup is still not great. They basically replaced Victor Martinez and Adrian Beltre with Saltalamacchia and Gonzalez and then added Crawford.

[TruffleShuffle]

his entire game is built on speed. players with old player skills don't age poorly because of old player skills. they age poorly because theyre one dimensional. he's going to lose his batspeed (which isnt great to begin with) and he won't have the strength to replace it with an increase in power. he's going to lose some BABIP which is a ton of his value. his triples are going to become doubles and his doubles are going to become singles. not to mention he doesnt walk. his offensive value is batspeed and footspeed, the two are highly susceptible to the aging process and he doesn't appear to have the strength and patience to offset their decline.

 

there have been plenty of fast, low-walk players who stayed productive well into their 30s. ichiro and lou brock come to mind immediately.

Edited December 9, 2010 by TruffleShuffle

[davearm2]

Wow between Uribe, Jeter, Werth, and now Crawford, MLB is sure doing its part to signal the recession is over.

[Northside Blues]

there have been plenty of powerful, high-walk players who stayed productive well into their 30s. mcgriff and mccovey come to mind immediately.

[Northside Blues]

Wow between Uribe, Jeter, Werth, and now Crawford, MLB is sure doing its part to signal the recession is over.

heh, and lee hasn't even signed.

[TruffleShuffle]

there have been plenty of powerful, high-walk players who stayed productive well into their 30s. mcgriff and mccovey come to mind immediately.

 

neither one of those guys was big and bulky and neither one had bad bat speed, as evidenced by their batting averages. mccovey had a decent BA but it was negatively affected by his late 30s/early 40s.

[Northside Blues]

i can assure you that big bulky hitters have more batspeed than carl crawford.

[17 Seconds]

So as of now their lineup is something like

 

LF - Carl Crawford

2B - Dustin Pedroia

1B - Adrian Gonzalez

3B - Kevin Youkilis

DH - David Ortiz

RF - JD Drew

CF - Jacoby Ellsbury

C - Jarred Saltalamacchia

SS - Marco Scutaro

 

The bottom of that lineup is still not great. They basically replaced Victor Martinez and Adrian Beltre with Saltalamacchia and Gonzalez and then added Crawford.

 

that lineup is stacked. i fully expect gonzalez to put up a 1.000ish OPS also, which is about where he's been away from petco the last few years