...improving a particular aspect of their game. Ellsbury needed to work on his bunting and learning to take advantage of his speed, tools which general manager Theo Epstein said last spring were just a couple of ticks behind those of Coco Crisp.
“[His bunting is] coming along great,” Luis Alicea, manager of the Javelinas and newly-tapped Red Sox first base coach. Alicea also managed Ellsbury in 2005 with Single-A Lowell in the Sox system. “He’s able to show bunt, and not actually bunt at the ball. But it helps because it brings the infielders in and he’s able to hit the ball right by the first baseman for a triple... It’s a tool for him that, I think, is definitely going to help him. He can drive the ball, but he’s got so much speed, and they have to honor that. And, I think it’s going to work both ways for him. He’s going to be able to hit the ball through the infield because they’re playing shallower.”
“[His speed is] a tremendous advantage,” Hazen said. “You look across baseball, there’s not a lot of guys that run like he does.
Ellsbury knows this strength, and plays up to it.
“Definitely, I think speed comes into play every day,” Ellsbury said. “You can have power or you can have all the good tools. But I think one thing that’s there all the time is speed. I try not to make that the sole part of my game… But it’s such a crucial gift that I have, you try to take advantage of it anyway you can.”
Alicea believes that Ellsbury will definitely be giving opposing infielders something to think about.
“Talking as [a former] infielder, every time you had guys who could run, you knew you had to be perfect. You had to cut down your range. You had to get rid of the ball… Everything has got to be clean: The exchange, a couple of steps either way, you got to make sure you make a good throw, a strong throw.”
Ellsbury is working on making that speed pay dividends in his base stealing. His 64 stolen bases in 84 attempts in his two pro seasons give him a 76 percent success rate. But, that rate fell to 67 percent (16 of 24) in Double A.
“Stealing bases at a 75-percent clip is going to be what’s needed in order...
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