Rice started his career as the DH as his fielding skills were somewhat questionable. Through hard work, he became a master of playing left field in Fenway. I am not sure if Yaz spent much time with him, but Rice became a solid fixture in LF for the rest of his career.
I was pleased to read that Crawford, a gifted fielder, was seeking out advice from Rice. It demonstrates that Crawford has the right attitude and work ethic. His presence in LF should take some pressure off of Ells and allow him to "cheat" toward the triangle (as recently reported by NESN) and enable Drew to patrol closer to the RF line.
Drew is the weakest link in the OF now given his history of injuries and the hamstring issue he has now. Ryan Kalish is the heir apparent to RF and maybe he'll play some there this year given Drew's history.
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Definitely kudos to Crawford for trying to figure it out before he gets to Fenway's LF. I would suspect that it will take our boy a few tries at Fenway before he gets the hang of the Monster and that LF corner, but he's a good outfielder and should figure it out quick enough.
ReplyDeleteIt is the best thing at Ells is returning to center. I really thought that whole switcharoo last season was the worst thing ever. If they would've left well enough alone, Ells wouldn't have gotten hurt by the Wrecking Ball and perhaps things would have gone slightly better for the Sox. It makes total sense to have that boy in center.
Although we know that if the wind blows hard Drew's going to come up lame, he is a fairly adept right fielder with a pretty good arm. The key, as it is every season with him, is keeping him healthy. Kalish proved his versatility and we still have Cam. Daniel Nava's around too. We can mix and match outfielders and still have a lot power at the plate and good defense in the field.