The slide pretty much began on a hot night in Cincinnati. It was July 30th, and the Giants were facing the Reds for the second time in a road series. They had just played a 13 inning game the previous night and lost to Edgar Renteria and his walk-off single. In the bottom of the 6th, the Giants did a double switch and had Affeldt replace Casilla and had Fontenot come in for Brandon Crawford. I happened to be sitting in the stands that night, and was disappointed to see Crawford trot back to the dugout. Later that night when we were back at our hotel, I became extremely sad about it. It had just been reported that the Giants had acquired Orlando Cabrera from the Indians for minor-league outfielder Thomas Neal. That was the last of Brandon Crawford until roster expansion in September, and it was the beginning of the Giants fall to second place in the NL West. Now Orlanda Cabrerror- excuse me, Cabrera- was going to try (and fail) to fill the Giants "gaping hole" at the shortstop position.
But hold on a second, folks. With Crawford there, was there really a "gaping hole" at shortstop? Every Giants fan knew that he was an excellent defender, and made plays that Tejada, Cabrera, and Fontenot could only dream of making. But Crawford was constantly harped on for his lack of production at the plate, and the Giants acquired Cabrera to get a slight boost offensively as well as veteran leadership. Cabrera finished the season hitting .222 and Crawford had a batting average of .204, neither of those very good at all. What some people didn't notice was that while Cabrera had the better batting average, he had an OBP of .241 while Crawford's was .288. Crawford showed much more patience at the plate than Cabrera, and provided much better defense than Cabrera (hence the name "Cabrerror"), who helped lose what turned out to be an important game against the Braves by committing an error in the bottom of the 9th. Let's not go into that right now, though. With Crawford's better glove at shortstop, the pitchers could find a little more comfort in the fact that they don't have to have a minor heart attack every time the ball is hit to short. After Crawford was sent down, the Giants lost 21 games from July 31st to September 5th, until Crawford made his next big league start. They had fallen to 2nd place in the division, and wouldn't recover.
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| *Sigh* Fail. Epic, epic fail. |
While Crawford was exiled to Fresno, the Giants lacked a solid defensive shortstop which, along with other things, cost them down the stretch. Crawford was added back to the roster when it expanded on September 1st, which was a poor move. By doing that, Sabean had made it so that if the Giants made it to the postseason, they could not add Crawford to their postseason roster. That would leave Cabrera to play shortstop in the playoffs, which by now everyone knew would not work. Bochy didn't start Crawford again until September 5th, and after that the Giants did not lose a game in which Crawford started from that night to September 18th. Some people seemed to forget that Crawford was just a rookie, and were placing way to much blame on him, when he didn't do too terrible of a job in his first year. He was called up from A ball after Buster's accident, and after he hit his historic grand slam people expected him to fill Buster's shoes. That was a task that was impossible for anybody, because it's Buster Posey they're trying to replace, which just can't be done.
Brandon Crawford, while not an excellent hitter, helped the Giants out in many ways in 2011, which Bochy and Sabean failed to see. When they sent him down, the Giants also went down. They crashed down in a huge, fiery, injury-stricken wreck.
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| Maybe Bruce Bochy will actually look at Crawford next season, and see the talent he has right in front of him. |
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