Jacoby Ellsbury or Coco Crisp — who’s our CF?

Yesterday, I asked if Terry Francona should start Coco Crisp over Jacoby Ellsbury in Game Three, as Coco ended the season hot and Jacoby has been ice cold. Jacoby has shown that he can disrupt pitchers and when he is hot, he directly impacts the games that he plays. If he can ever put it together over a string of 162 games, he’ll be one of the most talked about players in the league. Until then, however, he is what he is: a rookie. He’s a great one and is a playmaker, but we have someone on the bench in Coco Crisp that is hot. So why keep Jacoby playing? It could be that Francona wants to keep throwing Jacoby out there so that he can get hot and make an impact. But why lead him off? If Coco and Jacoby had swapped spots in Game Two, we likely win the game due to Coco being on base (whereas Jacoby was… not). As TC said in the comments, Ellsbury looks overmatched most of the time. His slashing swing hasn’t been producing many hard hit balls. He’s often ... (link)