See Craw Hit, See Craw Run

By batted ball types:

Despite skittish walk rates, Crawford's slash stats have always been decent thanks to the aegis of his high batting average on balls in play. In 2008, he beat out less grounders, had less flyballs land, and had a few extra liners caught. This reinforces what we expected before while giving us some reassurance that Carl's ability to hit didn't suddenly disappear. Which brings me to a point raised in the Crawford community projection post: will C.C. break out this year?

That question has been asked more recently than the one where you genuflect, but it's worth discussing again. Crawford is -- amazingly -- only 27 and the best defensive left fielder in the game. He has his hiccups like everyone else in the lineup, and at times I put too much weight on his lack of plate discipline. He is what he is, and that's an amazingly valuable commodity that we've began to take for granted.

We're looking at a guy who hit the ball the hardest of his career, and yet had the worst luck of his career within one season. Offensively, Carl's going to bounce back next season, and he's going to bounce back hard. Depending on where Manny Ramirez lands and how Matt Holliday adapts to the American League, Crawford has a legitimate chance to be the best left fielder in baseball next season, at which point it might be time to start extension talks.