Three months ago, I cringed at the sound of Coco Crisp's name; whether from the announcer at Fenway, the SportsCenter anchors or my own voice in my head, reading an article in the Globe. Unfairly, I usually get down on players that are mired in slumps, whether it's verbal disgust or mental. It's hard to remember that for every slump, there's usually a hot streak on the other side of it, days, weeks or months down the line.
It's not Coco's offensive surges that have put me in an alternate state of mind as of late. The glove he wields in center field, night in and night out, far outshine any offensive output he could ever have from the 7,8 or 9 hole.
It's nice to see Coco on webgems, or on the SportsCenter top 10 plays of the night for some 9.5-in-difficulty catch he pulled in. But the affect it has on a team as a whole must be put into perspective over the accolades received. Coco may not be the catalyst in our offense but a run-saving play carries the same weight as a run scoring single on many levels, and in some cases it carries more weight. How many nights may or may not have been shortened for a Sox pitcher had Coco not come up with miraculous grab to end an inning or prevent further damage? I look at a Curt Schilling, who, at over 40 years old, doesn't have a ton of starts left in him. If a play in center or at any position saves him 5, 10, 15 pitches in his outing, it's huge. It's huge for his arm, for his ERA and most importantly, for his psyche. With many pitchers, poor performances get inside their heads and can cause a domino effect of bad pitching. When the guys who play behind them make great plays to save runs, those plays could very well serve as disaster aversion. But you don't see that in a stat line. When a guy like Jon Lester, who stands to be negatively effected in every start he makes at this point, gets a break from a great play in the field, it does wonders for his confidence. Of course these occurrences aren't going to be very common but that's what makes them so valuable. We will never know the woulda-coulda of these situations, but I have to imagine that they're entrenched in negativity. Volatile situations that aren't averted turn out terribly; hence volatile.
Coco might be looking at his first Gold Glove in center if he wasn't up against guys like Ichiro and Gary Mathews Jr. His arm isn't the strongest out there and that works against him in that race. However, he might be having the best year in center that a Sox player has had ever, and that's saying a lot. He has the speed, the grace, the athleticism and the will to make every catch known to that position. But his best trait might very well be that he does it quietly.
2 comments:
Well said, sir. I would like to add that Coco always seems to be enjoying himself in the field. How many players take pleasure and pride at being the best at their position defensively. He seems to love making those diving catches.
On a sidenote, my two year old has already claimed 'coco cisp' as his favorite player. To the point where my seven year old will say, 'Big Papi is up!' and two year old will respond with 'No!! Coco cisp!'.
The best reason to admire Coco Crisp's defensive play in Center is because he makes Red Sox Nation forget that Johnny Damon EVER played here!!! Could there be a better reason??? I think not!
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