I liked the Crawford signing but I had a feeling ( I think we all ) that he was going to struggle early on, new team / big market and I know it wasn't a Theo signing but FO signing to amaze the fans and bring up ratings

Do you realize Holiday is older, doesn't field his position like CC, can't run like CC, and would be a riskier long-term signing? Do you realize he had his worst year in the A.L. west - against A.L. competition?

oakland is probably the worst hitters park in the AL.  Holliday is proven .300 25 100 guy.  what happens when crawford loses his speed in during his later years ? ill tell you a slash of .285 15 75 for $21 m per year. 

Did you all realize that we could have signed Matt Holliday a very good right handed hitter who also plays left field for way less cash than Crawford ! He would have been perfect for the 4 hole ! Also a sidenote, instead of signing Lackey we could have tried to sign Lee, a lefty and a Yankee eater !! If my math is right it would have been less cash instead of Crawford n Lee !

I may be wrong here, but wasn't Holliday a Free Agent last year, not this year.  So to say they could have signed Holliday instead is a little incorrect.  They signed Cameron instead, who was much cheaper and a shorter term contract.  And wasn't Lee a FA this year while Lackey was a FA last year.  Not to mention that Lee turned down more money from the Yankees than what he signed for.  What makes you think he would have signed with the Sox?

The issue is that we didn't have a shot at either via Free Agency.  Via trade maybe but Lee would have walked.  Also, when Holliday was available we also had Bay at the time.....So the timing would not have worked.

In Response to Re: Different scenarios...:


yes i know it was last year , and thats my point, instead of signing lackey we could have signed holliday to patrol left field and make less cash than Crawford ! a bad year for Holliday is a good year compared to Crawford ! remember Lee didnt sign with the yankees because he thought their "team was old " whatever that means. 

at the end of the day i hope crawford n lackey dont become Busts !!

In Response to Re: Different scenarios...:


Did Rickey Henderson lose his speed at ages 34-36?

What happens when Holliday spends half his time on the DL as he ages?
Who's the better athlete?

I remember being so upset when Epstein traded away Nomar.  A few months later, I forgave him (after Foulke recorded the last out of the World Series).  lol

In Response to Re: Different scenarios...:

Holliday is signed to age 36, Crawford to age 35.

Top WAR since 2008:

Pujols    25.4
Utley      20.9
Long.     19.6
Holliday 19.2

Crawford 13.9 (22nd)

TOP OPS since 2008:
Pujols, Votto, Youk, Miggy, then...
Holliday a .932
Crawford is 80th at .787

That's + .145.

thank you moonslav59 .

like i said before this was not a Theo move, it was a front office signing to make us fans happy.  Holliday signing instead of Lackeys would have been great last year.

In Response to Re: Different scenarios...:
Interesting points made in this thread. But I am not sure that Crawford was a FO signing and not Theo's.

Clearly Theo does not have the authority to sign a player to a $147M contract without FO approval. But Theo probably had his reasons for liking Crawford.

Age for one. He is buying more prime years than he would with lot's of signings, something that A-Gon also brings to the table.

Forgetting the traditional metrics of high popularity for a second, perhaps Epstein sees the game emerging in a post steroid era and found that the highest OPS wasn't as critical to his view of the game emerging dynamics as he was taken with a good OF OPS , combined with exceptional defensive skills and great speed.

I never thought the RS would sign Crawford for anything close to what they did but with Beltre off of the table (via the A-Gon trade), Werth isgned by the Nats for a ridiculous amount of money and VMart never a serious consideration, they needed to do something more than platoon Cameron and Kalish, not just for the fans BTW but to maintain a 800 plus run offense. The issues were baseball and business operations for the RS IMO. 

Everyone can forget Cliff Lee. If money rather than familiarity was a priority, Lee would be a NYY right now.

Just my take 

The FO has had their eyes on Crawford for many years. They were waiting for his FA availability.

A player can't be an asset unless he's healthy and plays.
And if you watch the PT for both Holiday and CC in years to come, I think you'll see Holiday will be on the DL far more often.

We'll see.

As I have said many times, a Cam/Kalish/Nava/Linares platoon would have probably come close enough to Crawford's numbers that the $20M spent elsewhere could have way more than outweighed the slight loss in LF.