Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
October 11, 2008
Crisper Lineup

Coco Crisp replaces J.D. Drew in Saturday night's Red Sox lineup:

Drew is 1 for 7 with three strikeouts and a walk in his career against Tampa Bay starter Scott Kazmir. Crisp is hitting 9 for 30 against Kazmir with three doubles. That, really, is what it came down to.

"I really wanted Coco to play," Francona said. "I didn't want to take [Jacoby] Ellsbury out of the leadoff spot. So we can have J.D. sitting over there kind of knowing that they're going to use Balfour. Maybe at one of the most pivotal points, having J.D. sitting over there will make them think twice. Maybe it won't. I just think, [Kazmir] is so tough on lefties, we had to play a lefty more than we would like. But I don't want Ellsbury out of the leadoff spot."

Both are real small sample sizes. Drew, as a lefty, owns a higher career OBA and slugging percentage against lefties than Crisp does as a righty. Maybe there is something about Kazmir that works to a Drew weakness, but I'd rather have J.D. in there.

One caveat is that Francona knows how to use batter vs. pitcher data. He often goes to video and looks at why the hitters are doing well or poorly against a particular pitcher. I can believe Terry saw something that he didn't like in the Drew/Kazmir matchup.


Posted by David Pinto at 07:31 PM | League Championship Series | TrackBack (0)
Comments

Whew, when I saw Drew missing from the lineup, I was worried he was hurt from last night's HBP.

Posted by: Mecha-Shiva at October 11, 2008 08:23 PM
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