Late May is a long time ago on the calendar, but it feels even longer in the context of what Brandon Crawford's done at shortstop for the Giants lately.
On May 23, Crawford had a whopping 10 errors and there was some discussion as to whether or not he'd end up sticking at short.
Now that idea is laughable. Crawford has 15 errors on the season and is drawing rave reviews
“I don’t know who is playing better defensively,” Bruce Bochy said recently, via Alex Pavlovic of the San Jose Mercury-News. “I don’t.”
The stats back up Crawford's play as well: the Giants shortstop ranks in the top five for shortstops in Utility Zone Rating (UZR) over at FanGraphs.
Not a stats fan? How about quick-moving pictures instead?
Then there's this: per Pavlovic, Bochy says other coaches and managers are talking about Crawford's work in the field.
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That's huge news for Crawford's chances of picking up some hardware, an idea that he relishes.
“It would be awesome,” Crawford said. “It’s something that I don’t even know how the reaction would be. I’m not really even thinking about it, but just to be talked about would be awesome. Defense is something I take a lot of pride in.”
Defense is also something that's critical when you've got a team whose strength is starting pitching: a bad shortstop leads to more earned runs and less victories. Crawford's proved to be well worth the Giants trust in him this season.
