Carl Crawford, Boston Red Sox: 7 Years and $142 Million? Worth It!

Who else is having fun watching Carl Crawford rake after a historically awful start to the 2011 season? 

It was tough to see him at the plate early this season.

You could tell he put an insane amount of pressure on himself to live up to the expectations that a seven-year, $142 million contract creates.

It is almost as if you could see him chafe under the intense media scrutiny. Watching him get a ton of grief from the media and fans made no sense to me. 

We shouldn't rip on Crawford for not living up to his contract so far. If anything, we should tear into Red Sox management for handing out that much money to a guy that's neither an elite slugger nor a No. 1 starting pitcher. 

If you take emotion out of the equation and look at Crawford's career statistics, you'll come to one conclusion: He is certainly fun to watch, but does not fit the saber-metrics template the team swears by. 

It's easy to fall into the trap of bashing a player if he doesn't live up to our expectations.  I've made that mistake hundreds of times, but there are a few things we have to keep in mind.

Is it Crawford's fault that interest in the team was waning after they missed the playoffs and that John Henry needed to splurge on an exciting player?  Hell no!

Signing Carl Crawford was probably not the smartest way for the Red Sox to use their money.  Frankly, I wish they would have tried to get Cliff Lee instead. 

What would have had more of an impact: Adding Carl Crawford, or another No. 1 starter, like Lee? 

I'd say Cliff Lee, but that's in the past. 

Thank God the Red Sox are a large-market team who can easily absorb Crawford's contract. 

One question keeps gnawing at me though: Where do you put him in the lineup? 

You can't hit him leadoff, because he doesn't walk that much and his career OBP is just .335. Right now he can't really hit third, fourth or fifth, because he doesn't have the OBP/SLG/OPS pedigree that Gonzo, Youkilis and Ortiz do.

Once you think about it, putting him in the No. 6 hole makes the most sense. 

He's not going anywhere, so we have to ask: How do you best utilize Crawford's skills? 

I'd say teach him to bounce doubles off of the Monster, give him the green light to terrorize catchers on the base paths and use his speed to stretch singles into triples. Hopefully, Dave Magadan can improve Crawford's batting eye. 

He's already a great defensive player with the speed to cover a lot of ground, so there's no problem there.

One of the big cliches in pro baseball is that it takes time for a hitter to develop a power stroke. If that's the case, will Crawford become a free swinging 30-30 player like Alfonso Soriano was? I'll be thrilled if that happens. 

According to baseball-reference.com, Carl Crawford is similar to Roberto Clemente at this point in his career. I'll take that! 

Hell, if the Sox can get at least five All-Star years out of Crawford, then the decision to sign him has to be considered a good one.