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SAN FRANCISCO — The tricky winds of a shot vocation ne'er bothered Brandon Crawford. He’s been to Candlestick Park.
He was determination done wins and losses and flying hot-dog wrappers and wide desolation. The San Francisco Giants were a household hobby. He sought autographs from Willie Mays (successfully) and Barry Bonds (not).
He was drafted successful the 4th circular by the Giants, a classical illustration of mediocre velocity but large location.
The Dodgers? “I was taught astatine a young property to not similar them,” Crawford said Friday.
But familiarity breeds respect and, besides, the Giants didn’t truly person to woody with the Dodgers erstwhile they bushed the St. Louis Cardinals doubly and the Philadelphia Phillies once, successful the National League Championship Series that led to the 2010, 2012 and 2014 World Series championships.
Now they do, and erstwhile Game 1 of this 213-win NL Division Series came astir Friday night, Crawford was successful the midst of each conversations.
“Stud,” Trea Turner, the Dodgers’ shortstop and MVP, replied erstwhile asked astir Crawford. “He’s ever been a bully player, unbelievable defense, but this twelvemonth he’s a feline you privation to avoid. You don’t privation to spot him travel up determination successful immoderate situation, really.”
“Am I biased due to the fact that he’s a Bruin?” said Dodgers manager Dave Roberts, besides a UCLA man. “Yes. Does that adjacent retired that he’s a Giant? Yes. So I’m astatine net-neutral with Brandon, but he’s made adjustments this twelvemonth connected things he’s ne'er truly covered.”
That was an upset successful itself. The aboriginal 30s weren’t benignant to the erstwhile UCLA shortstop.
He deed .228 successful 2019, and helium didn’t person an extra-base deed successful the archetypal 20 games of the pandemic-shortened season, and his Gold Glove days seemed over. Crawford is 34 now, and this was the last twelvemonth of his contract. He was hardly a footnote successful the Great Free Agent Class of 2021-22.
Now? Crawford conscionable bagged a two-year, $32 cardinal declaration hold and helium is inactive drastically underpaid. He deed .290 with an .895 OPS, managing 24 location runs and 90 RBIs. All of those are vocation highs.
“And he’s inactive a magical shortstop,” said John Savage, his Bruins coach.
In a reasonably fluid NL Most Valuable Player race, it’s hard to disregard the beating bosom of a squad that zoomed from a .483 triumph percent to .660.
“You ne'er get excessively aged to marque adjustments,” Crawford said. “I made immoderate plaything changes, and Buster (Posey) and Brandon (Belt) besides made immoderate adjustments that weren’t rather arsenic obvious. You person to property that to the coaching staff, being capable to find things that worked retired for each of us. That’s a testament to the 3 hitting coaches we have.”
Yes, three. Thirteen coaches overall. The Dodgers besides person 3 hitting coaches and 10 overall, including a “game plan” coach.
Remember this during Basic Agreement negotiating season, erstwhile the owners volition beryllium pretending to instrumentality Uber gigs to marque ends meet.
Whether the extravagance and the micro-management are strangling oregon enhancing the crippled is an ongoing debate, but some Crawford and Giants pitcher Kevin Gausman cited the benefits of other eyes connected Friday.
Crawford besides played 138 games, debased for a afloat season, and stayed fresher. Other theorists noticed that Crawford, Posey and Belt each feasted connected mid-plate pitches, acknowledgment to their experience. There are less pitchers successful today’s crippled who cognize however to alteration speeds and prime astatine the edges, and acold much who heave arsenic hard arsenic they tin for arsenic agelong arsenic they can, which usually isn’t long.
Crawford mightiness person been a higher draught prime if helium hadn’t declined to play a 2nd twelvemonth for Team USA, since helium was being platooned with Zack Cozart. Instead, helium went to the Cape Cod League, with wood bats and immoderate of the champion assemblage pitchers, and struggled. That followed him into the draft, but 3 years aboriginal helium was lasting astatine shortstop, wherever Rich Aurilia and Edgar Renteria had stood earlier him.
“He’s conscionable a magician with a baseball,” Savage said. “You tin spot immoderate of the things helium does connected YouTube. At UCLA helium loved to play defense, to the constituent wherever we’d person to march him to the cage to enactment connected offense. That’s 1 of his goals, to commencement his vocation astatine shortstop and extremity it there. With those feet and that arm, helium should person a chance.
“We’d spell implicit to the shot signifier tract immoderate days and messiness around, and he’d look similar a Pac-12 backmost retired there. He’s conscionable 1 of those athletes.”
The harder immoderate Giants fall, the quicker they rise.
— MLB (@MLB) October 9, 2021
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