Coco Crisp Heads To Oakland Athletics

If you need any further proof that baseball is making a dramatic shift from building a team with slugging DH-types to pitching and defense, all you need to do is look into what the A’s are doing in Oakland.

As we all know, A’s GM Billy Beane was the focal point of the book Moneyball. The “Moneyball” philosophy was to build a team around sluggers, who walked a lot and of course, hit for power. Speed and defense was not part of the equation.

Now that is all changing. Beane is building a team in Oakland that is becoming–in a word–athletic.

Recent case in point–the signing of OF Coco Crisp. Yesterday, the A’s signed Crisp to a one-year, $4.75 million contract. There is also a club option for $5.75 million for 2011.

Crisp, along with speedster Rajai Davis and Ryan Sweeney should give the A’s a very athletic outfield in 2010.

I had the opportunity to watch Crisp play every day as a member of the Boston Red Sox from 2006-2008 and I really felt sorry for the guy.

Crisp looked like a breakout star in 2005 when he hit .300 with 16 home runs and 15 stolen bases with the Cleveland Indians. Crisp really started to look like a breakout star when he got off to a great start in Boston hitting .333 in April.

Then Crisp broke his finger and it was all down hill from there.

Crisp never recovered from that broken finger in Boston and he never lived up to expectations. Jacoby Ellsbury started to emerge as the center fielder of the future in Boston and Crisp was shipped off to Kansas City for reliever Ramon Ramirez.

Crisp’s one year stay in Kansas City was uneventful as best. Crisp played in only 49 games for the Royals hitting a pedestrian .226. His season was cut short when a shoulder injury ended his season.

Crisp is healthy now and should be the A’s starting center fielder in 2010 with Davis moving to left. Scott Hairston will either move to the bench or be traded. There doesn’t seem to be a spot for him on the A’s roster right now.

Crisp will be 31 next year and has a lifetime .277 average with 137 stolen bases in eight major league seasons

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