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I too think this is a no brainer, go with Ellsbury and that isn’t a knock on Crisp at all. Ellsbury has everything Crisp has and more. Crisp’s arm kills me, as did Damon’s. Ellsbury has a stronger arm, appears to have just as much range out there, will sacrifice his body (as displayed in game 1 which was an incredible catch) and has a more consistant bat!! If Crisp wants a starting job, which how can you blame him for? Than he should be traded. Its a good problem to have, Crisp would fit in great for some other teams, he still has many good years in him but I don’t see how you can pass on Ellsbury, he has proven he is more than ready for the big dance!!

I think Ellsbury should be given the job — but I don’t think it’s the slam-dunk you do. It’s more like a 52-48% decision. I think at the moment Crisp is light-years ahead of Ellsbury defensively, and Ellsbury’s hot streak last fall has raised expectations way too high for him offensively.

For the defense — I think Ellsbury’s terrific catch the other day is actually a demonstration of how much he has to learn. It was a terrific catch, no argument, but the reason he had to make a terrific catch, instead of a merely good one, is that first, he wasn’t in great position in the first place and had to go a long way, and second, he misjudged the wall (there’s no warning track in that stadium, so it’s understandable, but nevertheless it was a misjudgement). What we saw last year with Crisp was not only the spectacular catches like Ellsbury’s, but more importantly everything that even came close was gobbled up, often making it look routine.

Ellsbury is athletic enough that he can make up for his rookie misjudgements a lot of the time, but I think Crisp is still much better defensively.

Offensively, the Ellsbury we saw last fall was a lucky, lucky, kid on a hot streak. He turned a lot of soft nubbers into base hits, and he didn’t have all that many really hard-hit, convincing hits. Credit to him for using his speed, but you can’t rely on getting on base from soft infield hits on a long-term basis. Several of those could easily have been taken away from him and he’d be left with a pedestrian (Crisp-like) average.

On the other hand, at this moment it does look as if he has more potential than Crisp. I think this year Crisp and Ellsbury would be a wash — or Crisp will be better. But Ellsbury is ready for the majors, and it looks like once he gets seasoning here he will be better than Crisp, next year or the year after. The Sox are in this for the long run. I think having Ellsbury up this year doesn’t significantly hurt the Sox’ chances this year, and improves their chances over the next couple years.

To all:
Very good discussion. Ian, though, I believe you are being way too hard on Ellsbury. He misjudged his leap, sure, but he made the catch.
I am not 100 percent sure Ellsbury will be a star this year, but my argument more focuses on Crisp’s inability to hit. I feel bad for him at the plate. He is confused too often, guessing wrong a lot.
I was wrong about Crisp. I thought he was going to be a perfect fit here as a leadoff guy and star fielder. His defense has been up to snuff, but not his bat, which really killed the Sox last year (he and Lugo). But their pitching and hitting was good enough, as well as Dustin Pedroia’s ascension to make up for Coco’s weak bat.
Ellsbury is better, right now, overall, I believe. My guess is there will be a week-long, 5-for-34 stretch in there for Ellsbury, but he will overcome it.
Again, nice posts.

I think crisp is one of the best centerfielders in baseball defensively.I think Jacoby is 1-2 years behind him in that aspect of the game. I have to wait and see Jacobys sophomore year at the plate. Hitters always look better when pitchers have never seen them so lets wait and see this year. Jacobys aggressiveness on the bags is much better but i feel incredibly secure with coco playing in the outfield especially in Fenway. Can coco play defense and Ellsbury hit for him? That would be fair!

Jim
It’s one or the other. You seem to be on the fence, at least for now. Coco or Ellsbury, right now?