Center Fielder Falling Down, Falling Down...

As if it weren't bad enough that he's only 5 for his last 45 at-bats, now the newest - sorry, fastest - member of Red Sox Nation has decided to practice for his USA Soccer tryout while in the middle of Sox games. Ok, ok. I'm definitely being a little too harsh. I really do feel sorry for the guy, so sorry, in fact, that I traded away Brad Wilkerson for him in my fantasy league... a Wilkerson who, even while slumping, is worth more than our local commercial darling. The Soxblogosphere is filled with two people: the optimists who think he'll turn it around eventually (find me there), and the naysayers who think this is just karma teaching the front office a lesson for failing to go the extra mile for Johnny Damon. Neither side is really right, in my opinion because, as usual, the answer is likely somewhere in the middle.

First of all, let's look at his track record. Anyone can look up his lines at Baseball Reference, so lets just talk about them instead of simply staring. He has upward-trending categories are AVG, HR, Ks, BB OBP, SLG, and ISO, so his dropoffs this year seem to be uncharacteristic of a very young, above-average outfielder, leading one to, at the very minimum, infer that something just isn't right. It is very unlikely that his extended slump is indication of a downward trend in his career, but rather that it's the result of some other factor. So what could it be?

After a relatively hot start (8 for 22, .333 AVG, 2 SB, 6 RBI), he broke his hand sliding headfirst into third in the final game at Baltimore of the opening road trip. After that, he didn't resurface until May 28, and he's been anything but hot since. A broken finger is nothing to laugh at when you make your living swinging a giant piece of wood at a ball, but by all accounts Crisp took his rehab very cautiously, returning only when he felt the most ready. For a while, it was feasible that he was simply going through his April later than everyone else, but now that we're into the end of July, that argument won't hold water. And now we're seeing more than just a lack of success at the plate, but a lack of concentration or confidence in the field as well.

The way Crisp has been dancing in center field leads me to believe that there's something else there. My guess? The pressure. Crisp has yet to be demonized by the Knights of the Keyboard, and he's still a likeable-enough character to avoid the worst kind of booing from the peanut gallery during home games, but everyone knows he's pressing. When Damon was traded and we acquired Crisp, the majority of journalists snapped him up as the Next Big Thing for the Sox OF. All of his stats pointed in the right direction, and he had yet to hit his prime, being only 26. He was exactly the sort of player the Sox wanted to build around. All the attention showered on him catapulted him out of the gate, but his injury brought his momentum to a screeching halt. Thing is, his media attention didn't decrease with his injury. In fact, it increased. He signed a 3 year extension and featured in several commercials for the Sox.

That's the worst possible combination for a Sox player when he's not producing. In my opinion, it's all this media pressure to perform to such a high level that's causing Coco to press on the field. The slump hasn't broken, and no amount of clichés has helped him string the hits together. We're now seeing what looks like a slow deterioration in Crisp's focus, something he's going to need to regain with (maybe) some time off. The game against Texas on the scheduled off-day didn't help, but we're not too far removed from the All-Star Break, so it shouldn't matter that much.

Then again, this could simply be a case of freak occurrences. Either way, let's hope Crisp recovers.