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Coco Crisp

John Sickels of Minor League Ball has a feature on Coco Crisp up. Of course the major question with him is whether he'll develop some consistent power to go along with his other tools. Let's not forget that Crisp is only 25 years old; theoretically his peak years are right around the corner.

On a team where there was no other option for center field, this question wouldn't be much of an issue. But the Indians do have a better center fielder in Grady Sizemore, so they've moved Coco to left field, where his arm strength does seem to suit him. Coco has outstanding athletic ability; if you've watched enough Indians games you'd see that. He has exceptional closing speed, and can turn doubles into singles by cutting off balls hit in the left field gap. His arm strength is, charitably speaking, below average, but in left field you can deal with it.

On the offensive side, the walks seem to come and go, as does the power. We know he has at least doubles power, which is fine for where he's hitting in the lineup. He's shown a huge platoon split this season, hitting .326/.372/.491 against right-handers but only .225/.273/.343 against left-handers. In 2004 the splits were pretty much equal average-wise, but he hit for more power against left-handers.

Crisp's career could go one of several different ways at this point. He could develop some more power and turn into a Jacque Jones/Rondell White type of player. He could become more of a singles hitter with speed like Scott Podsednik. He could regress to the point of being a fourth outfielder. Or he could stay at this level of production for the next several years. I really don't know what he's going to do, because there isn't one tool or one ability that defines him.