You and your numbers. You are still associating value with numbers. Let’s say we put Crawford on the Angels, his likely destination. Are they now a world series contender because Crawford is there? If you say yes, you will lose all credibility because it’s not true.

I’m not arguing that Crawford is not talented, but he’s a speed demon playing LEFT FIELD. He should have been a Center Fielder years ago but he “wasn’t comfortable” and asked to play left. That’s not valuable to anyone. What you are doing is taking away a left field position where you can put a weaker fielder who is a phenomenal hitter (think Ryan Braun or Jose Baustista based on last year). Whatever team Crawford is on, you can’t have that because you have to have Crawford there. This brings his value WAYYYY down.

However, if you have a Jayson Werth on your team, he can play anywhere in the outfield. Thus, you can have your Bautista, Braun, or whoever else can’t play anywhere in the field, and still have an outstanding outfielder in one of the other two positions. Plus, if you want to get into stats, with Werth you get a little lower average with more power and a higher on base percentage. Don’t believe me numbers man. Crawford has a lifetime .337 OBP (which is very poor for a top of the order guy), while Werth has a career .367 OBP. That’s a pretty substantial difference and it gets even more laughable if you only take the last 3 years since Werth has come into his own.

Crawford will give you good numbers, and if you are into that because you are a fantasy guy, that’s fine. I’m taking the guy who busts his ass and has shown significant growth as a player over his years. If the game is on the line, I’m taking Werth 100 times out of 100 over Crawford.