00:00And I'm looking at these guys and I think to myself, who's the sneaky one to lead this entire team
00:06in F4 besides the pitchers?
00:09And I landed on Justin Crawford.
00:11So Johan Rojas is suspended for 80 games, which certainly helps, right?
00:17If that wasn't the case, was Crawford going to get enough playing time in order to lead my rookie team
00:25in F4?
00:26Probably not, but this opens up a lane.
00:29And can he just be better than Johan Rojas, who was putting up a 590 OPS with great defense?
00:36Can he be better than that to win the job?
00:39I think he can, right?
00:41It's chance for plus defense with his speed, and he could also steal 30 plus bases.
00:46He hit well over 300 in the minors, and he hits the ball pretty damn hard.
00:51The issue is he puts the ball on the ground a ton, but can he overcome that with speed?
00:56And when he does put the ball in the air, can it result in enough production to end up with
01:01a balanced offensive profile with everyday reps?
01:04And I also want to throw you a comp season, and I also want to ask you if this constitutes
01:10a breakout.
01:11Can he do what Xavier Edwards did last year?
01:16Xavier Edwards hit 283, 343, 353 slug.
01:23It was a 95 WRC plus.
01:25It was three home runs, 27 stolen bases, and a two and a half F4.
01:31Like, is that out of the realm of possibility for Justin Crawford on the Philadelphia Phillies?
01:37I don't think so.
01:38I think the big factor is going to be the defense, and he is capable out there, and it just
01:44comes down to, like, is he going to play the plus defense that he's capable of, or is he going
01:49to look more closer to average, which has looked like through stretches?
01:53I think that's going to be the big factor.
01:54And then the other is, you know, how much is he elevating?
01:57He does not need to elevate the ball a ton.
01:59He definitely needs to cut down on a 60% ground ball rate, which he did at the end of
02:05last year, just closer to the low to mid-50s, and that turned into a lot more, you know, slug
02:11in terms of doubles, snuck out some more home runs.
02:14But the thing is, is he has been kind of that brain breaker type of player as well, because you
02:18look at the batted ball data, you say, how is he so productive?
02:22But he has continued to be at every single stop.
02:24He just did it as a 21-year-old in AAA.
02:28It's becoming harder and harder to doubt Justin Crawford, but I have a little bit of doubt just because I
02:33think the swing, like, he's going to get busted inside a lot, see how he does.
02:36But he has just continued to make it work and make it happen, and he's going to steal backs.
02:40He's going to get runway.
02:41He's going to be, I think, a guy that's not going to be asked to do much more than, you
02:45know, bat in the back of the lineup and, you know, just try to get on base and create runs.
02:49And he's going to have a lot of infield hits and steal those, like, easy, easy bags, I think.
02:54I do think it could be Xavier Edwards-esque if he can get the ball in the air a little
02:58bit more.
02:59The son of Carl Crawford, Justin Crawford, is plus 2,200 on BetMGM to win National League Rookie of the
03:05Year.
03:05I think there is some value there.
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