Coco is the Core!

[Alex]

What I wrote on another forum BEFORE the season started about a proposed Randy Wolf (pitcher for the Phillies now on the D.L.) for Coco Crisp.


COCO IS THE CORE!!! Some of you are into fantasy baseball wayyyyyy tooo much.

If you watched Indians baseball last year YOU WOULD NEVER EVEN DREAM OF TRADING COCO. He is Mr. Baseball of the new millennium. I hope to god he hasn't done steroids because he is the brashest combination of chisled skinny strength you will ever see.

He's part goofball with a bigtime student heart. I hope to God Eddie Murray threatens to punch out Shapiro's lights if they even dare to trade Coco, flak jacket or no flak jacket.

You don't trade ballplayers who improve month after month, and Coco is the kind of player that spiderman would have become once spiderman decided to make a living wage.

Coco is the core of the Tribe, along with Travis Hafner and Vic Martinez. Anyone who advocates trading any one of those three is a mole from another sports team, pure and simple.

[Alex]

Later in that same thread, I wrote....

Coco flies under the radar a bit.. Coco flies under the radar a bit unless you watch all the games.

I got to see most of the games even though I am outside of Cleveland via the digital baseball package. I felt virtually game after game Coco contributed something, either with the bat, or with his glove, that wasn't always evident in the box score.

Coco has good speed, and whether or not he is able to get a lot of stolen bases, I still like Coco's speed as it relates to his ability to get to balls in the outfield, score from first on a double, and move 2 bases on a single from first or second. Coco's RBI's are deceptively high for someone who is viewed as a Kenny Lofton type.

And Coco is a freak! He occasionally does goofy stuff, but it's over so fast you have to watch for it. He once took his bat and waved it at someone on the bench like he was going to throttle them, (I think Coco had just struck out) but Coco did it so fast that if you weren't watching you'd miss the moment completely. It was almost like comedy schtick. (I wish I had copied that at bat, dang it). The moment was soooooo anti Milton Bradley, the complete opposite to how a Milton Bradley would handle any situation that comes up during a season. Somebody probably taunted Coco and he in an instant just kind of said, "Aw shud-up" and it was over.

That alone is almost reason to make him an untradeable commodity. When someone comes along who is a breathe of fresh air compared to what Bradley was, and does an excellent job of replacing Bradley so we don't miss a beat in productivity, it's a cause to celebrate, and someone probably headed towards being a fan favorite.

(The Indians should do a compare and contrast commercial between Bradley and Coco, boy that would be a trip and a half!)

And Coco bounces off of the stadium fences, I think he's very rugged, (aka the reference to spiderman), and Coco was regularly making sportscenter highlights for his catches WITHOUT getting injured.

Keep in mind Coco doesn't get any hit by pitches, so as a result his OBP is 10 to 20 points lower as a result, but the bonus is Coco doesn't get "nagging" injuries that frequently occur from getting HBP, again, a rugged player who won't fall apart on you as the season progresses.

A true keeper who may keep improving on already acceptable numbers.

[Alex]

Later in that same thread I wrote...

The Advantage of the stolen base is found just as much in the threat of the stolen base. The increase in the number and predictability of a fastball being thrown.

Runner on first, the pitcher, to prevent a stolen base, throws more fastballs. The end result at the end of a season is the pitcher, to keep the base stealer at under 70-75% success rate, has altered his pitch selection to a juicier fastball for the next couple of hitters in the line-up.

Coco might make a very good number nine hitter.

I think Coco could work in the 2,3,6,7,8,9 spot.

[Alex]

and finally...

Alexy
Registered User
Posts: 1274
(2/26/05 2:27:41 pm)
Re: Dealing Coco? This talk of dealing Coco is really dumb. I really hope Shapiro isn't dangling Coco for any amount. The reason being we really don't know what Coco's upside is because he kept going up all year long last year.

If it turns out that Coco is a .320 hitter with 20 homer power and a lot of speed, why would you ever trade that? I'm telling you the guy appears to be really good in the outfield and just his body make-up seems to help him when it comes to making great plays without injuring himself.

Players like Jim Edmunds, Alex Escobar, even Matt Lawton, periodically injure themselves from playing the outfield. Coco is able to make dive after dive and crash into a wall and bounce back.

There was one play last year where he just slammed into the wall and Coco appeared stunned for a few seconds, got up, finished the game. It's possible that the outfield of the future is Sizemore, Gutierrez and Coco. I'm cool with that.

But lets at least see where Coco settles as a seasonal player before dealing him.

I can't believe the Indians would trade him for ANYBODY because his upside is still not known.