Carl Crawford's Drop Marks The Rise of The Rays & The Fall of The Red Sox

He was the crown jewel of the free agent class, and last night Carl Crawford played a vital role in crowning the 2011 American League Wild Card winner. Unfortunately for the Red Sox, Crawford did not play the part that General Manager Theo Epstein envisioned when he laid a $142 million dollar deal at the left fielder’s feet this past off-season.

It seemed more appropriate than anything in recent Red Sox history for Crawford to drop Robert Andino’s sinking line drive capping off a 2-out rally by the Baltimore Orioles that sent New Englanders racing into their barns in search of snow shovels and storm windows. Crawford’s drop coincided with Evan Longoria’s game walk-off home run in the bottom of the 12^th inning down in St. Petersburg that vaulted the Rays into the post-season 3^rd time in the last 4 seasons.

To his credit Crawford was there to take the bullet in the clubhouse after the game. The left fielder told reporters:

“If I should have got it I would have caught it, but it was a tough play. I tried to do the best I could. I thought I had a good play on it, but it was a tough play and unfortunately I didn’t come up with it. It was just one of those things where you have to go for it.

"It was low, so I knew that I had to just try to slide. I couldn't dive. I had to try to get up under it, and I wasn't able to. I had to try to make a sliding catch. I couldn't come up with it, though."

Despite posting a statistical season that would’ve gotten most Red Sox outfielders optioned to Pawtucket, Crawford has only recently begun feeling the heat. Mixed in-between an awful April & a downright sinful September the Red Sox were baseball’s best team in 2011, showing the kind of offensive firepower that marked the club’s successful summers of 2003, 2004, & 2007.

Crawford was banished to 7^th in Terry Francona’s lineup, a place that seemed like an ideal hiding spot for most of the summer. But just like Whitey Bulger, Crawford and his $142 million dollar contract couldn’t hide forever. The rise of The Rays and the fall of the Red Sox all lead us back to Crawford. Tampa is the working class family of the richy rich neighborhood of the American League East. The pressure to keep up with the Jones’ (i.e. Boston & New York) always seemed destined to cripple the low budget Rays, and when Crawford shipped up to Boston this past winter it finally looked as if Tampa had been buried.

Rays general manager Andrew Friedman is as bright as they come. With all apologies to wunderkind Theo Epstein, it’s the Rays boss that looks much more like a genius at this hour the Yale bred Epstein. In an era where small market teams with tight wad owners seemed to get boxed out by cash rich clubs the Rays just keep winning in baseball’s toughest division. Fans in Cleveland, Pittsburgh, and Oakland must be wondering why their teams don’t draft and develop like the Rays do.

Somewhere last night maligned baseball commissioner Bud Selig was smiling. The regular season ended with some of best the non-post season games in recent memory, and another small market club reached the World Series tournament leaving another big market club with a large tab for unfulfilled season. The Red Sox will spend again this off-season while other low payroll clubs will look to the Rays for inspiration. Just the way Bud Selig drew it all up.