Crawford deserves to take his shots
Giant never saw himself in Home Run Derby. But ...
Before now, there never was a conversation. Never a thought. No reason to engage in discussion.
Brandon Crawford wasn’t Home Run Derby material. That was an event reserved for the game’s elite sluggers such as Giancarlo Stanton, Aaron Judge, Bryce Harper and even Pete Alonso, who happen to be the past four winners of the midseason showcase.
Well, look at Brandon Crawford now. The man who blasted a 444foot home run at Dodger Stadium on Monday night. Who is just four homers shy of his career high. Who has more homers than everyone in the National League except for six men.
Let the conversation begin. At the very least, Crawford deserves consideration. Tuesday at Dodger Stadium, he was asked about being a candidate, and he laughed.
“I mean, I laugh because I joke around about it a little bit seeing the guys who are participating,” Crawford said, “because I have more homers than a few of them.”
That’s how good Crawford has been in 2021. Through Wednesday’s games, the Na
tional League leaders were Fernando Tatis Jr. (26), Kyle Schwarber (25), Ronald Acuna Jr. (22), Jesse Winker (19), Javier Baez (18) and Adam Duvall (18).
Crawford is tied for seventh with 17. He’s outhomering three of the four contestants already determined for the July 12 contest in Denver: Trey Mancini (14), who hit 35 homers in 2019 and missed last season while battling stage 3 colon cancer; Alonso (13), the defending champ; and Trevor Story (9), the hometown guy.
The only other player who has committed is Shohei Ohtani, the majors’ homers leader (28).
“But other than just joking around about it,” Crawford said, “I haven’t thought about it.”
Crawford is 34 and playing like he’s years younger, still a marvel at shortstop and a calming influence on the Giants’ overall defense, yet he’s also a legitimate power threat against both righties and lefties.
In fact, his homertoatbat ratio virtually is the same, 13.7 versus righties, 13.2 versus lefties.
The year he hit a careerhigh 21 homers, in 2015, he averaged one per 24.1 atbats.
Crawford might not be a derby kind of guy. He might be known more for three Gold Gloves and one Silver Slugger, not to mention two World Series rings, than for ranking among the leaders in home runs.
But there he is.
“I don’t think it’s necessarily in my game to try to hit home runs,” Crawford said. “It’s been nice, for sure, to see more go over the fence. But there are few times if any that I’ve gone up there thinking, ‘All right, I’m going to hit this out.’ It just kind of happens with good swings and good contact that occasionally they’re going to leave the park.
“But participating in a Home Run Derby would be a little different than anything I’ve done before.”
Eight hitters will compete in the derby, and four spots remain. Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Tatis and Schwarber, who rank second, third and fourth, respectively, behind Ohtani, all said they’ll take a pass. Like in other years, others probably will decline as well.
It’s not a necessity for MLB to choose four hitters from each league. In 2018, seven participants were National Leaguers. And with 10 of the majors’ top 15 home run hitters in the American League — including Oakland’s Matt Olson, an obvious choice for the derby — it could be onesided again.
Crawford has never partaken in a derby. Unless we count the final round of batting practice when sometimes the group of hitters will compete, with five swings, to see who can clear the wall the most times.
“No bubble cage. No people watching. No time limit,” said Crawford, reflecting on a typical round of pregame BP. A derby environment, he added, “would make things a little different.”
Crawford’s focus isn’t on going deep. It’s on hunting for good pitches and delivering solid contract. As was the case Monday when he hit the longest homer of his career, at least in the Statcast era, dating to 2015, the first year official home run measurements became a thing.
Crawford sent Trevor Bauer’s 91 mph fastball 444 feet to center field and was reminded by teammates, including former Dodger Alex Wood, that it was an especially impressive blow because the ball doesn’t generally travel as well at Dodger Stadium in night games.
“I was trying to put a good swing on a pitch over the plate. That’s what I got,” Crawford said. “I wasn’t necessarily trying to hit a home run. Yeah, I hit that one pretty good.”
Crawford, who played four seasons before Statcast began measuring homers, wonders whether he might have hit a ball farther. Including at Oracle Park, when rightcenter was 421 feet away and he easily cleared the big wall and several rows of seats.
A twotime AllStar, Crawford was in attendance for the 2015 and 2018 derbies when the hometown contestant slugged his way to victory, Todd Frazier in Cincinnati and Harper in Washington.
Crawford attended another derby, the one in San Francisco in 2007. He was 20 years old and home from college for the summer. He watched Guerrero’s dad, Vladimir Sr., triumph in a competition in which nobody “homered” into McCovey Cove on the fly — even though bigtime lefties Prince Fielder, Ryan Howard and Justin Morneau were involved.
“I don’t remember much about it other than it was cool to see all the players with their families hanging out,” Crawford said. “I was watching not as much as a baseball player but as a regular person. I thought that part was cool.”
That was Barry Bonds’ final season, then 42, and he chose not to join the derby, instead hosting a party that night in the city. Bonds, who won the 1996 event, is the only Giant to ever compete in a modernday derby, which began in 1985, even though folks such as Will Clark, Kevin Mitchell, Jeff Kent, Hunter Pence and Pablo Sandoval would have made nice entries.
Willie Mays was a chief participant in the original Home Run Derby, a classic madeforTV event in the 1960s also featuring Hank Aaron, Mickey Mantle and many other legends from the day.
Now we have another legitimate candidate. Crawford has earned consideration.
Let the conversation begin.