 |  |
|
DETROIT -- Jacoby Ellsbury went 0-for-5 here Monday night, showed up Tuesday and wasn't in Boston's lineup.
No benching. No punishment. No orders for extra work.
|
|
| Jacoby Ellsbury hasn't done much wrong since reaching the bigs, yet he occasionally gets benched. (US Presswire) |
Boston's Embarrassment of Riches program continues. You win with depth, and the Red Sox, who whomped Detroit again Tuesday 5-0, are deep. Really deep. Clubs like San Diego and Florida can't find a decent center fielder, and the Red Sox push forward with two.
They've yet to trade Crisp, which makes not enough innings for him and Ellsbury and keeps Francona on his toes finding enough playing time for the two.
In many other places, Ellsbury, 24, would be well on his way toward becoming a star by now. Are you kidding? This kid is as natural as a Whole Foods market.
Red Sox fans developed a crush on him last September and completely fell in love when he batted .438 during the World Series. Red Sox players wish they had his tools. Red Sox legends swoon.
"Ellsbury could be the next Ted Williams," Johnny Pesky, a former teammate of Williams, told me this spring. "He runs better. He throws better. I like his makeup. He wants to do everything properly.
"The thing with him is he works on stuff he needs to work on. You look at him and think he's the perfect player. He runs good, he's got a good bat, he's a great outfielder. But he works."
Take Tuesday. Not in the lineup, Ellsbury took his normal rounds of early hitting. A video junkie, he studied each of his at-bats from the night before (a pop to short, ground ball to third, two whiffs and a fly ball to deep center he absolutely crushed).
"I look at the game film to see what I did right and what didn't go so well," he said. "And you build from there."
When he isn't playing, he spends his time in the dugout intently studying the opposing pitcher -- Tuesday, it was Detroit's Nate Robertson -- because he figures he'll be facing the guy later in the season. He also studies the positioning of the outfielders, whether the defense shifts at all -- however slightly -- with two strikes on the hitter, is the hitter trying to move the runner over and assorted other things.
"Subtle adjustments," he said. "That's what's going to separate the average guy from the great guy."
This routine is completely different for him, because the last time Ellsbury played on a baseball team when he was not regularly in the lineup was ... hmmm, let's see, that would be ...
"Never," said Ellsbury, who holds Oregon State's record for runs scored in a career and hits in a single season.
And to find a time when he even had to compete with another guy for playing time?
He thinks. Thinks some more.
"Maybe my freshman year of high school," Ellsbury said. "Or my freshman year of college."
Ellsbury was Boston's first-round pick in the 2005 draft, and the story about what helped sell him to Red Sox scouts already is the stuff of legend.
Oregon State's baseball team was playing in San Diego the spring he was to be drafted, but it was raining. So the Sox scouts, in for one of their final looks, took Ellsbury inside the gym to evaluate a few things. A basketball was sitting there on the floor, and Ellsbury picked it up and dunked from a standing jump.
Sold.
A native of Madras, Ore., he's believed to be the first Native American of Navajo descent to play in the majors ("I think it's a privilege, an honor, to have Native Americans see me as a role model," he said). He's long, lean and lanky. At 6-feet-1, 185 pounds, Ellsbury has an explosive first step, high-octane afterburners and a variety of ways to beat you.
"He creates runs. He puts a lot of pressure on the defense. We have three guys who can run now, and that's not something you usually think about with the Red Sox," Jed Hoyer, Boston's assistant general manager, said of Ellsbury, Crisp and Julio Lugo.
There will come a time, everyone believes, when Ellsbury's star surges into one of the brightest in the baseball universe.
For now, though, despite his starring role in place of Crisp in the 2007 World Series, he still hasn't officially graduated from his apprenticeship.
As Francona delicately (and deftly) works his daily lineups, so far, Ellsbury has started 17 games in center field and Crisp 18. Ellsbury also has started four games in right field and three in left.
"It's kind of what I thought it would be," Ellsbury said. "He's getting us both some playing time. It's kind of what I expected coming in. The biggest thing is to be prepared to play. When I'm not in there, I'm still getting in in the late innings."
"He's handling himself real well," the manager said. "He's doing a good job of helping us win games. He's taking walks, and he's helping us win games with his legs."
Exhibit A came in the first inning Sunday, when Ellsbury started the game by legging out an infield single. Tampa Bay pitcher Scott Kazmir, clearly distracted by Ellsbury's presence at first, threw over once during Dustin Pedroia's at-bat before yielding a walk. From there, Ellsbury stole third and scored on Kevin Youkilis' sacrifice fly.
"He puts a lot of pressure on the pitcher, defense ... nothing is really routine with him," Red Sox third baseman Mike Lowell said.
So far, Ellsbury is hitting .275, with three home runs, 12 RBI and a .396 on-base percentage. He has stolen 11 bases in 11 attempts. And even though he's still not an everyday presence in Boston's lineup, Ellsbury was tied for second in the AL with 25 runs scored -- ironically, with the Yankees' Johnny Damon, with whom he has drawn the most comparisons.
"I've been compared to guys, but I'm really trying to be my own player, play to my own abilities," Ellsbury said modestly. "I'm just trying to be as good as I can be, basically."
How good that might be, well, this is where imaginations run wild. The next Ted Williams? As good a guy and as well-meaning as he is, Pesky might need to settle down a little bit on that. Still, point made.
"He's one of the best athletes I've ever played with," 12-year veteran Sean Casey said. "He's so fast. He makes everything look so easy. How he runs, his smooth swing, he's a lefty. His legs are so good."
"I wish I could cue a ball off the end of my bat to shortstop and wind up at first," Lowell said.
"Let me feel what he feels just once," Casey begged. "Let me get on first and feel what he feels just once."
The sky is the limit. The possibilities are endless. Well, they will be once Boston finds a new home for Crisp. Whenever that is.