Forever Giant

It looks like Brandon Crawford SS is going to do something very few players get to do, play his entire career with one team.  Yesterday, the Giants announced a contract extension covering 2 years for $32 M.  Those will be his age 35 and 36 seasons.  Based on comments he has made about how he wants his career to end, he will likely retire after that.  This news comes as he puts together what might be the best season of a terrific career at age 34.  Crawford's late career resurgence comes after it looked the Giants might even consider letting him go before the contract was up after a very weak 2019 season.  At that point, most Giants fans and possibly FZ himself were counting the days until the Giants could get out from under his contract and spend the money on cheaper and better options.  The turnaround can be attributed to Crawford's willingness to accept advice from the new young and aggressive coaching staff brought in with Manager Gabe Kapler.  He made changes in his swing and stance which he credits to his success at the plate the last two seasons.  

It was the spring of 2009.  The San Jose Giants were playing the High Desert Mavericks in Adelanto, CA.   Most Giants fans were still disgruntled with the work of Brian Sabean, but there were hopeful things going on in the minor leagues, particularly in San Jose.  Buster Posey C was on that team as was Madison Bumgarner LHP.  The shortstop was Crawford who the Giants had picked in the fourth round after a difficult junior season at UCLA.  Before that, he had been ranked as a potential top 5 draft pick.  I and my family drove up Cajon Pass and out to Adelanto.  We managed to meet up with a dude who went by the screen name of Tacklebox and set about to scout the Giants future.  Tacklebox attended the previous game and was impressed by Crawford's ability to "scoot around" the infield.  At some point, a ball got loose down the LF line and into the bullpen area.  Crawford went after it, picked it up and in one motion threw an off-balance throw that carried on a line all the way to Posey to just miss nailing the runner at home.  TBox and I just looked at each other and said, "yeah!"  Not THAT was a major league play and a major league arm!  

Posey and Bumgarner got to the majors in time to play in the 2010 World Series.  Crawford did not make his MLB debut until 2011 but was a major contributor to the 2012 and 2014 championship teams.  His bat has had its ups and downs and his mobility has been questioned at times, but the arm has been rock solid.  The arm allows him to make plays other shortstops don't make.  It's the one part of his game I doubt will ever be replaced after he retires.  

So, less than two years after it looked like his career was winding down we've gone from counting the days until his contract expires to a two year extension with a nice yearly pay raise to boot, and well deserved at that!

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On a related note, I was looking up Brandon Crawford's game logs.  I did not realize he hit .455 for the month of July and is hitting .349 so far in August.  .455 for a whole month?  That is stupendous!  His power is down since the All-Star Break with just 1 HR, but pitchers are staying away from the inner half of the plate with him.  In the past, he would keep in trying to pull the ball and end up with a ton of groundouts.  Now he's going with the location and punching the ball to the opposite field with spectacular results in his BA.