Crawford’s Batting Stance the Reason for Struggles

When watching Carl Crawford step into the batter’s box, it gives me anxiety. Not because Crawford has struggled (although he has), but because his batting stance just looks wrong and uncomfortable. This is nothing new, he had a similar version of his batting stance throughout his time in Tampa Bay, but it seems to have gotten even more exaggerated, leading to his issues with hitting balls on the outer-half of the plate. Let’s take a look.

Looking at the picture below, you can see the seemingly over-exaggerated stance Crawford has had this year.

After watching many videos of Crawford in Tampa, his right leg in Boston appears to be even more stretched out and has a larger distance between the back and front legs. Crawford brings his feet closer to straight before he swings, but because there is a larger distance to travel. He doesn’t seem to be in as much control of his balance when he steps forward and in turn, looks off-balance when swinging at pitches he has to stretch for on the outside part of the plate. Opposing pitchers now have a simple recipe to get Crawford out: pound the outside part of the plate with breaking balls. If he is off balance already, then a breaking ball will only throw him off a little more, making it impossible for him to make contact.

One of Crawford’s biggest weapons throughout his career has been his ability to hit the ball where it is pitched. He could slap the ball to the opposite field if it was on the outside part of the plate, something the Red Sox were familiar with before he switched AL East teams. As soon as he made contact with a pitch, he immediately because a threat with his speed, so he was focused on just making contact. In 84 games this season, Crawford has struck out an astonishing 63 times. He has at least 1 K in 6 of his last 7 games played and now has 12 multi-K games this season. By not making contact, he has not had the opportunity to use his dangerous speed nearly as much, making him a less significant piece of this offense. Opposing teams don’t have to focus any attention on a guy they can easily get out.

Fixing a swing or batting stance mid-season is much easier said than done. It takes time and repetition to get comfortable with a new swing, but if Crawford wants to live up to his gigantic contract and hit above .250, he will need to make a change. By closing his stance and being more controlled throughout, he will at least be able to foul off pitches on the outside part of the plate and prolong at bats. It’s a simple formula: The longer an at bat, the higher likelihood he will see a pitch to hit. There is a big adjustment when moving from one team to another, but that transition period is over. Now it is time for Crawford to make an adjustment and increase his offensive contribution for the stretch run.

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