OAKLAND — Brandon Crawford played more at shortstop than any player in San Francisco Giants history. He put his body through 1,617 games of diving, charging, throwing and taxing every fast-twitch muscle fiber. When you’ve logged 13,597 2/3 innings, even the compounding act of jogging on and off the field that many times can feel grueling.
It didn’t take Crawford long to discover the value of a “less is more” approach in his pregame work.
And now, a few weeks into a unique backup and mentorship role with the St. Louis Cardinals, the 37-year-old shortstop is quick to understand the reverse is also true.
“I’m trying to do as much on-field stuff as I can,” said Crawford, splashed in red workout gear as he stood in the visiting dugout at the Coliseum on Monday. “Before when I was playing every day, I’d take groundballs the first day of the series, but after that it’d be more machine and cage work to keep my legs fresh for the game. Now that I’m not playing for three or four days, I want to get as much work on the field as I can and make it as game-like as possible so I’m ready when it’s time to play.”
Crawford’s return to the Bay Area this week is notable mostly because it makes him conveniently accessible to the scribes and broadcasters (including this one) who covered him for more than a decade in San Francisco. Otherwise, it’s not much of a grand homecoming. There’s not even a guarantee that Crawford will play an inning in his final series at a stadium where he grew up attending games.
The Coliseum crowds for this series are the antithesis of the packed houses that confronted Crawford every time the Giants would cross the Bay Bridge for a rivalry series against the Oakland Athletics. Crawford only left tickets for his parents and his two sisters. The ticket requests were much more overwhelming this past weekend in Arizona, where Crawford makes his offseason home.
“I played that series for free,” Crawford said, smiling.
Not that Crawford is complaining about his ticket invoice. Or the fact he has started four of the Cardinals’ first 16 games. He’s fine with the fact he hasn’t been used off the bench once so far, either. The Cardinals don’t pinch hit much, they have other lefty bench bats, and the one player who might be a candidate to be lifted for a late-inning matchup, shortstop Masyn Winn, was hitting .349 before doubling in his first at-bat Monday night.
This is precisely the role Crawford signed up for when he agreed to a one-year, $2 million contract in March. He is here to support Winn, not to challenge him for playing time. Yet in a sense, it means the Cardinals have two shortstops — one young, one seasoned — who are learning the ropes of a new role in the big leagues.
“It’s definitely a new challenge to take on this role,” Crawford said. “It’s tough to get any timing at the plate and, really, in the field, too. I definitely have a lot of respect for guys who have made a career out of this role. Not complaining at all — it’s what I was planning on doing and what I want to do. At the same time, it’s definitely tougher.”
Winn grew up a Jose Altuve fan in Houston, but he was all too familiar with Crawford’s defensive reputation. He’d seen all the YouTube videos of Crawford’s acrobatic and creative plays from Crawford’s time coming up in the Giants’ minor-league system. When the Cardinals signed Crawford in the spring, Winn called up those videos and watched them all over again.
“He’s one of the best to do it at the position,” Winn said. “The stuff he was doing back in the day, the trick plays, some of those made it into the game. I don’t know if you were watching 20 minutes ago, but he threw a flip behind the back, which I thought was pretty good. For him, that’s another day at the park.
“The biggest thing is just how professional he is. I adopted his ground-ball routine going into a game. He gets out there real early and takes 30…
This article was originally published by a theathletic.com . Read the Original article here. .