Brandon Crawford: the most underappreciated shortstop in baseball
SAN FRANCISCO — Madison Bumgarner commands attention in everything he does, so when he walks across the room and wants to tell you something, you listen.
“I remembered something else I want to tell you,” the Giants ace says.
This is the type of loyalty that Giants shortstop Brandon Crawford, one of the most underrated players in baseball today, inspires among his teammates. They’ll even seek out reporters to praise him.
Crawford, whether by eye test or number crunching, deserves to be an MLB All-Star this season. Yet when the rosters were announced Tuesday, he wasn’t. He didn’t win the fan vote. He didn’t get in on the players’ ballot nor was he selected by NL manager Terry Collins.
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So while Bumgarner understands baseball’s All-Star process isn’t as simple as the best players making the team, he’ll go out of his way to stick up for Crawford.
“I feel like this is a big reason he doesn’t get as much recognition as he should,” Bumgarner says. “He makes the hard plays look easy, unlike a lot of guys who make the easy plays look hard. They make it look flashy so it stands out to people. He tries to make the hard play look easy and he does, so it doesn’t catch your eye. I’m not talking bad about those guys, but that’s how good he is.”
Crawford has the Gold Glove at home to prove that. And he has a Silver Slugger award from last season that shows he’s not a one-dimensional player. In an era of fantastic young shortstops, Crawford, 29, is a bit older and far more overlooked. The All-Star voting proved that.
Wins Above Replacement, the stat in baseball that attempts to assess a player’s overall, has Crawford as the second best shortstop in the NL this season behind Corey Seager and tied for fourth in MLB. The two AL players ahead of him, Manny Machado and Xander Bogaerts are both All-Stars. As is Francisco Lindor, whose 3.3 WAR is equal to Crawford’s.
Addison Russell, the fan-voted starter at short in the NL and part of that Cubs infield sweep, has a 1.8 WAR. Trevor Story, the Colorado Rockies rookie who among the five players in MLB’s Final Vote contest for the final roster spot, has a 1.5 WAR. By those numbers alone, it’s obvious Crawford is one of this year’s biggest snubs. But he’d never say that. He’s not the type. He won’t brag about himself either.
“Seager definitely deserves it,” Crawford says. “Personally, I voted for him. He’s having a great year. Not surprised at all the players voted him in.”
There was no surprise for Crawford when the results were announced. He’d watched the voting updates and he knew Russell had a sizable lead. He knew that Story was second, Seager was next and his chances were slim.
“The voting system is the way it is,” Crawford says. “There’s nothing you can do about that. It definitely would be nice to be recognized an as All-Star, but it didn’t happen this year.”
That’s about as down-in-the-dumps as you’ll hear Crawford get on this subject. Don’t expect him to throw himself a pity party. So it’s good that the people who watch him play every day are so happy to praise him.
“I don’t think he gets enough credit for how good he is or enough attention,” says Giants manager Bruce Bochy. “He’s as good as anybody in the game at short. Then you look at what he does with the bat.”
Yes, let’s look at that, because that’s one of the most underrated parts of Crawford’s game. Though he had a rep as a defensive-first shortstop, his bat has come along wonderfully over the course of his six years with the Giants. Crawford, 29, has seen his OPS climb each season. The Giants were happy when Crawford, with that glove, was a .246 hitter with 10 homers and 69 RBIs in 2014. They were thrilled last season when he improved to a .256 hitter with 21 homers and 84 RBIs.
This year? He leads all shortstops in RBIs with 53 (he’s actually tied with Machado, who also plays third base). He’s hit eight homers thus far and is currently carrying a .270 batting average with a .345 on-base percentage, both of which would be career highs if they stick. Meanwhile, Fangraphs has him as the top defensive shortstop in the game for the first half of the season, and while that’s a smaller sample, it’s certainly in line with his reputation.
So the conversation really shouldn’t be confined to the All-Star game. Crawford isn’t just an All-Star snub, he’s actually one of the most underappreciated players in baseball, snagging balls and knocking in runs on the West Coast, where there aren’t always as many viewers to marvel at him.
“He’s better than a lot of people realize,” Bumgarner says.
There’s actually a possibility that Crawford still ends up on the All-Star team. Players fall off the roster every year, including pitchers who start on Sunday. One of those this season could be Bumgarner. It would be fitting if Crawford took Bumgarner’s spot. Though, the NL added another shortstop to its roster Thursday in Aledyms Diaz of the St. Louis Cardinals, who is taking Matt Carpenter’s place because he’s hurt. There may not be much more room for shortstops.
Even if Crawford isn’t added to the team at the 11th hour, he says the praise from teammates is enough.
“That’s who you’re playing for,” Crawford says. “You’re playing for your teammates. If they think I’m an All-Star in their eyes, that’s all I can ask for.”
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Mike Oz is the editor of Big League Stew on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at mikeozstew@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter! Follow @MikeOz
