Prospect Profile: Justin Crawford (Exclusive: Day at the Park Edition)
“At the park, we wanted Crawford to put the ball in play in order to show off his athleticism. He did just that. Justin went 2-4 with two infield singles. Each time he got on base; he was a menace on the paths. He stole second base almost instantly, and scored a run shortly after. Crawford looks like the ideal leadoff playmaker.”
By Sal Corso: May 7, 2024
This profile is a bit unique. Justin Crawford plays for the Jersey Shore Blue Claws (I know, elite team name). The Blue Claws play about 15 minutes from where we both live. They happened to be playing the Bowling Green Hot Rods (I know, another great name), which also happens to be the team that 2 The Bigs favorite Xavier Isaac plays for.
It only made sense that Chris and I made our way down to the ballpark to get a glimpse of these two prospects in-person. Check out three minutes of fun that we had while at the game with our first edition of “Day at the Park with 2 The Bigs”:
We’ve covered Isaac plenty already. He’s struggled to start 2024, but we’re not too concerned. However, we were wildly impressed with the 20-year-old Phillies outfield prospect, Justin Crawford.
His K-rate is a bit high this year, so our goal for the day was to see Crawford put the ball in play, in order to show off his athleticism. He did just that. Justin went 2-4 with two infield singles. Each time he got on base; he was a menace on the paths (snippet below). He stole second almost instantly, and scored a run shortly after. Crawford looks like the ideal leadoff hitter and playmaker.
The lefty centerfielder jumps out of the box on contact. However, we can see where he needs improvement with his plate approach. Justin was behind on a 2-0 fastball down the middle. In High-A, we want to see him in attack mode, especially ahead of the count. That approach is why he’s hitting the ball to the opposite field more than half the time this season (54 percent). That’s not a bad thing, but it’s why he’s seeing higher K-rates as he’s not capitalizing on these at-bats when he’s ahead. His BABIP (batting average on balls in play) is identical in ’23 and ’24 (.367). This shows the upside of what Justin can do when he puts the ball in play.
At only 20-years-old he’s impressing at the High-A level. And at 6-foot-2 and 190 pounds, the Phillies will likely help develop the strength and power to his game. Speed isn’t an issue, as he tallied 47 stolen bases in 2023 and 11 already in 20 games this season.
His Blue Refractor and Atomic Autos (/150 and /100, respectively), are going for around $200-$250. That’s not cheap, but not overpriced either. His .314 career average and high-.300s BABIP show the tremendous upside that Crawford has. We like him a lot, and seeing his athleticism in-person only helped the matter.
Subscribe to our prospect newsletter to see our latest profiles
Designed with WordPress
Leave a comment