PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. (AP) -Carl Crawford stood in front of his locker, fiddling with a bat and talking about how nice spring training feels compared to the past six he’s spent with the Tampa Bay Rays.
No one has played more games for the reigning AL champions than the two-time All-Star outfielder, which also means no one endured more losses before the franchise finished with a winning record for the first time in 2008.
“It feels different,” Crawford, a four-time stolen base champion preparing for his seventh full season in the major leagues, said. “We’re used to coming in with people expecting we’d lose 100 games. We’ve got a little respect now.”
confident they have what it takes to get back to baseball’s biggest stage.
Especially with the 27-year-old Crawford healthy again after missing seven weeks with a finger injury last summer and playing the entire 2008 season with a hamstring problem caused by a 2006 ankle injury that’s finally healed.
“I feel fast again,” said Crawford, who returned for the final weekend of the regular season, then hit .290 with two homers, three doubles, eight RBIs and seven stolen bases in the playoffs and World Series.
Concerned about the toll playing more than half his games on artificial turf can take on his legs, Crawford changed his offseason program. After training the past few winters on turf in Arizona, he prepared on a natural grass field in his hometown of Houston.
He’s confident the adjustment will help him stay on the field in 2009. He missed 43 games because of injury last season and hit .273 with eight homers and 57 RBIs in 443 at bats, the first time his batting average didn’t increase from one season to the next.
“Just knowing you want to be on top of your game because we’re going to have a good team and a chance to go back to the playoffs definitely made you want to work harder this offseason,” Crawford said.
just have to see when the season starts.”
Manager Joe Maddon likes what he’s seen.
“I think you’re going to see a very motivated, focused young man,” Maddon said. “I’m already getting that from him.”
The Rays averaged 98 losses and finished higher than last place in the AL East just in Crawford’s first five-plus years in the majors. They had never won more than 70 games in a season before winning the pennant last fall.
The speedy leftfielder, set to earn $8.25 million this year, said he was nearing his threshold for losing.
“It was starting to have an effect on me. … I was right there at the line. I was glad we turned it around. I think we all needed it,” Crawford said, adding that he’s also excited about the moves the team made to improve the roster this winter.
In addition to bolstering the bullpen with Joe Nelson and Brian Shouse, the Rays signed slugger Pat Burrell and brought in Gabe Kapler and Matt Joyce to compete for the starting job in right field.
“With the upgrades other teams have made, we still feel like we’ve got something to prove,” Crawford said. “We’re going to come in and play hard and see what happens. But it definitely feels a little bit different.”
Add A Comment