Justin Crawford’s first Spring at-bat was a 390-foot statement
The Phillies lost their first Grapefruit League game to the Blue Jays 3-0 on Saturday, and nobody really cares because Justin Crawford ripped a 390-foot double off the left-center field wall in the very first plate appearance of the game and that’s the only thing worth talking about.
It was a six-pitch at-bat against Blue Jays lefty Eric Lauer.
Justin Crawford showed bunt on the first pitch just to keep the infielders honest, took a called strike, nearly went yard twice, and then laced a cutter at 104 mph off his bat into the gap.
He thought both balls that stayed in the park might leave. The wind had other plans. Either way, the Phillies’ center field job is his to lose and he made that abundantly clear in the first at-bat of day one.
“That definitely feels good to get the first one in the first at-bat like that,” Crawford said.
Yeah, we’d imagine.
Justin Crawford Leadoff Double to Start Spring Training
Here’s the part that matters more than the double.
Phillies first base coach Paco Figueroa gets to the ballpark at 5 AM every spring morning. Last year he noticed someone out on the turf field before sunrise, headphones in, working alone. Took him a few days to figure out who it was.
It was Justin Crawford.
The kid gets to the park around 7 AM every day with a routine he doesn’t skip. First stop is with Single-A Threshers bench coach Shawn Williams to work on bunting. He hasn’t missed one session. From there he works with Figueroa on his outfield play.
Then he gets in the cage. This offseason he went to Arizona to work with former Reds star Eric Davis specifically to improve his outfield game. He also adjusted his hand position late last season at Triple-A to get quicker to the ball and it showed up on Saturday.
Rob Thomson watched all of it and said simply: “He acts like he deserves to be here.”
The skeptics will point to his 59.4 percent ground ball rate at Triple-A last season and wonder if that translates at the big league level. That’s a fair question.
The Phillies think it does, and Crawford’s approach at the plate, using the bunt threat to open up the field and create room for his speed, suggests he’s already thinking about how to make his game work against better pitching.
It’s one spring training game.
Justin Crawford knows that. But between the work ethic that has coaches raving before a single pitch is thrown and a 390-foot double in his first at-bat, the first impression could not have gone better.
March 26 against the Rangers at Citizens Bank Park cannot get here fast enough.
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