How Bobby Crosby Went Poof.
It’s easy now to forget how excited the A’s once were about Bobby Crosby, but he was going to be the next Miguel Tejada. Remember? It seems like a million years ago. In some ways, for the A’s, it really was.
Crosby came blasting out of Sacramento and the minor-league system as the next great thing at shortstop, a late-season call-up to Oakland in 2003 who clearly was going to make the A’s roster in ‘04. Tejada, a free agent, wanted MVP money. The A’s were the A’s. End of negotiation.
It all set up so beautifully. Crosby, son of a former big-leaguer, batted only .239 in 2004, but he had pop – 22 home runs – and he led all rookies in hits, doubles and walks. So what if he struck out nearly once a game? The A’s had found their man, and he was the AL Rookie of the Year. It was going to be so great, Crosby and Eric Chavez on the left side of the infield. It was set in stone.
You almost forget, seeing the way Crosby’s career has diminished and now faded, that the A’s actually had strong winning teams in those first few years post-Tejada – 91, 88 and 93 victories from 2004 to 2006. But after his rookie campaign, Crosby had less and less to do with any of it. Constantly injured, bafflingly unable to take his game to a higher level, he stands today as a 29-year-old backup, a career .239 hitter who just lost his job to Orlando Cabrera.
Miggy? He made out OK. Baltimore threw $72 million at Tejada, who promptly delivered them 150 RBI in 2004. The mechanics of his offensive production have been loudly questioned – Tejada’s name has surfaced in almost every steroid conversation of the decade – and he played for terrible, terrible teams, but the checks all cashed. Tejada only occasionally lost his good humor, even when ESPN exposed him as having lied for years about his true age.
Today, Tejada is playing out the string in Houston; he last reached 100 RBI in 2006. Crosby, meanwhile, said this week he’ll ask the A’s to trade him to a place where he can be the starting shortstop. Hate to say it about a guy who arrived with such promise, but it’s hard to imagine where that place might be.
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March 4th, 2009 at 9:54 pm
That was a tough article for a couple lucky guys playing ball.
thx cgII