Jacoby Ellsbury or Coco Crisp — who’s our CF?

Yesterday, I asked if Terry Francona should start Coco Crisp over Jacoby Ellsbury in Game Three, as Coco ended the season hot and Jacoby has been ice cold.

Jacoby has shown that he can disrupt pitchers and when he is hot, he directly impacts the games that he plays. If he can ever put it together over a string of 162 games, he’ll be one of the most talked about players in the league. Until then, however, he is what he is: a rookie.

He’s a great one and is a playmaker, but we have someone on the bench in Coco Crisp that is hot. So why keep Jacoby playing? It could be that Francona wants to keep throwing Jacoby out there so that he can get hot and make an impact. But why lead him off? If Coco and Jacoby had swapped spots in Game Two, we likely win the game due to Coco being on base (whereas Jacoby was… not).

As TC said in the comments,

Ellsbury looks overmatched most of the time. His slashing swing hasn’t been producing many hard hit balls. He’s often lunging over the plate as if he plans on taking a closer look at the pitch. The standard result is quick swing/weak contact.

The playoffs are no time to consider a man’s feelings. So do we make the move for Game Three?

Tim Daloisio doesn’t think so:

Ellsbury owns Garza, (6-13)…Coco not so much (1-9)

Fair enough. Ellsbury deserves the shot against Garza, the numbers are pretty stark.

What if, however, Ellsbury does another 0-fer? Do we then give him a day off and stick Coco in there in Game Four (he would oppose Andy Sonnastine).

I say yes. You could even bench Jacoby and Coco, as Bob suggests:

It might be wise even to go with a Kotsay, Drew, Bay outfield and start Casey at 1st, that's the best hitting lineup they can put out there.

I’m not so sure that that’s the best hitting lineup out there…you could argue for Jacoby or Coco over Kotsay. However, it’s abundantly clear that to improve our offense, Sean Casey needs to be in the lineup.

But at what cost? Defense. You’ve seen the athletic plays that Kotsay has made; are we willing to cross that off the list for Casey’s offensive dependability? It’s a double-edged sword.

There’s no easy answer to the issue of Coco and Jacoby, and it took until Game Six last year before Tito finally gave up on Coco Crisp and inserted Jacoby Ellsbury the rest of the way.

I would argue that it should only take to Game Four if Jacoby pulls another clunker against Matt Garza. He’s our future centerfielder, there’s no doubt about that, but at this point in time, we need to worry about October 2008, not 2009-2019.

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