Your 1981 Red Sox Pt. 6: Steve Crawford

In this series, I will look at each player who played in 1981, the year I was born. Because, why not?

A wave of young pitchers were starting to find their way onto the Red Sox roster in the early 1980's.  The team had a terrific crop of young pitchers in Bruce Hurst, Bob Ojeda, John Tudor, Dennis Boyd, and Roger Clemens, among others, over the next several years.  One of the earliest pitchers to make the leap was Steve Crawford, who was not at the same level as the earlier mentioned names.

Crawford was signed as an amateur free agent in 1978.  He moved quickly through the minors and made his Major League debut in September of 1980, appearing in six games including four starts.  He was a fairly impressive 2-0 with a 3.62 ERA in 32.1 innings.  He started the 1981 season in the starting rotation after his encouraging debut and spent the entire season in Boston.

He started the season in the starting rotation and pitched well in his first start of the season, throwing eight innings, giving up just two unearned runs while striking out five and walking one.  He took the loss in a 5-1 game to Jim Palmer and the Orioles.  After that, he had a string of mostly less-than-impressive starts.  He was 0-5 with a 4.96 ERA when the players' strike started in June.  The team lost confidence in Crawford and he barely played when play resumed, making one start and two relief appearances in low-leverage situations.  Crawford finished the season 0-5 with a 4.99 ERA, striking out 29 and walking 18 in 57.2 innings.

The 1982 season saw Crawford return to Pawtucket for more seasoning and he appeared in just five games at the Major League level.  He spent the entire 1983 season in the minors.  When he returned to the Majors to stay in 1984, he was a relief pitcher and he had a few decent seasons, including leading the team in saves in 1985 (12).  Crawford was with the Red Sox through the 1987 season and was 19-16 with a 4.15 ERA and 17 saves.  He struck out 195 and walked 126 in 382 innings.  Crawford was never really a star with the Red Sox, despite having impressive stuff.  He had his most success out of the bullpen in the mid-1980's.  He was a member of the 1986 American League champions.

He left the team as a free agent in May of 1988 but did not play in the Majors the entire season.  Crawford re-emerged with the Royals in 1989 and played a couple of seasons.  He had a good season in 1989 before struggling again in 1990 and 1991.  He retired after the 1991 season.  

Busts Pt. 21 Carl Crawford

Sometimes, offseason acquisitions work out. Sometimes they don't. Sometimes, they are spectacular failures.

This one hurts.  I have always been a big fan of Carl Crawford, even before he signed with the Red Sox.  A big part of this is likely the knowledge that Crawford was once recruited to play quarterback for Nebraska.  Obviously, living in Nebraska, that was a big deal.  

Most of the reason this one hurts so much is because Crawford was never the player he was with the Rays.  He drove Boston pitchers and catchers nuts.  He was never that player with the Red Sox.  He started off slow in 2011 and just could never get things going.  Even parts of his game that were once strengths did not shine through.  He only stole 18 bases and was caught six times.  He made critical errors in the outfield, particularly one ball he dropped in the last game of the season that lead to Boston losing, and falling out of postseason contention.  In 2011, he was just bad, hitting only .255/.289/.405.  It was just a terrible season.

Then, in 2012 he was injured early on.  He only played in 31 games for the Red Sox, hitting .282/.306/.479 before ending his season early.  He had a decent attitude about things, it just did not work out.  

I was looking forward to seeing Ellsbury and Crawford steal 100 bases between them.  It just never happened.

Crawford was traded as part of the big White Flag trade to the Dodgers in 2012.  He has yet to play for them.  

Red Sox - Dodgers Mega Deal

First the details:

Dodgers get:
Josh Beckett
Carl Crawford
Adrian Gonzalez
Nick Punto
12 million dollars

Red Sox get:
James Loney
Allen Webster
Rubby De La Rosa
Ivan De Jesus
Jerry Sands

Now this is mostly a sign that the Red Sox are blowing up the team and starting over.  Beckett, Crawford, and Gonzalez were their three highest-paid players and potentially all had bad contracts moving forward.  The players the Red Sox received are not stars, though Webster and De La Rosa both have potential.  This was a way for Boston to clear a ton of salary.  The Red Sox will only pay $12 million of the contracts on the four players they are moving, thus saving nearly $260 million through 2017.

This is bittersweet for me.  On the one hand, I am happy they are doing something to move forward.  On the other, I have never seen the Red Sox pull this kind of thing before.  A complete rebuilding without clear replacements for the players lost.  Loney will take over at first, but his numbers are not impressive and he will be a free agent after the season.  Boston does not have a clear first base prospect in the minors after trading Anthony Rizzo for Gonzalez and Lars Anderson earlier this season.  Ryan Lavarnway or Jarrod Saltalamacchia could spend some time there and Mike Napoli will be on the market this offseason.

Red Sox to Sign Carl Crawford?

Link.

I was a little premature when I posted about the Adrian Gonzalez trade because that looked like it could have died Sunday afternoon. So, hopefully I am not jumping the gun here, but it looks like Carl Crawford is on his way to Boston. I am thrilled. Crawford is a great defender and a great hitter. His on base skills leave a bit to be desired, but he is very fast. Hopefully Ellsbury still has a job with Boston. This could be the lineup:

CF Ellsbury
2B Pedroia
LF Crawford
3B Youkilis
1B Gonzalez
DH Ortiz
RF Drew
C Saltalamacchia
SS Scutaro

That is a scary damn lineup.