Jimmy Piersall, Lyman Bostock, Willie McGee, Johnny Damon, Carlos Beltran, Randy Winn and Mark Kotsay all have in common?

They are close (top 20) Pecota comps for Coco Crisp.

Of this list, Piersall, McGee, Damon, and Winn have all had volitility in their careers. Their power/discipline tends to be tied up to batting average, and although they have decient periphs, they go up and down based on the location of a few bleeders and bloopers that a defense gobble up.

Beltran and Kotsay were much more stable going foward until they both had dips in 2005.

Bostock was dead by the time he was 27.

Best player by age:
20: Piersall
21: Damon
22: Beltran (Crisp 6th out of 6)
23: McGee (7th out of 7)
24: Beltran (5th/8)
25: McGee (3rd/8)
26: Bostock
27: Beltran
28: Kotsay
29: Damon (note…Damon’s age 29 season would have been the 5th best if he had it in his age 28. All 5 players (minus Crisp and Beltran who aren’t there yet, and Bostock, who was dead, declined from 28-29)
30: Damon (They all bounced back, minus Kotsay, who is entering his Age-30)
31: Winn

From 32 on, McGee and Piersall ceased to be good baseball players, and instead were 4th outfield types. When McGee was 33, he had a big spike before he declined to his 40s.

In something unreleated to Crisp, Beltran probably will bounce back in 2006. I’m guessing the Age 29 decline came a year early.

What this tells me is that if the Sox get Crisp, there is a really good chance:
1. He will be a good 4th to 7th best hitter on a good ball team type
2. He will be decent defensively, enough not to hurt the team
3. He will have volitility of performance, but probably not big enough to be detectible considering he’s going from the best pitchers park in the AL (in 2005) to the 3rd best hitters park.
4. He will probably suck balls when he is 29…the year before he’s a FA.

As a note, I’m guessing that age 29 was the first year their collective speed started to decay. Less infield hits…triples become doubles things like that. In their age 30 year, they start to walk more and start getting those “old people skills” that James talks about, and their career gets a few years of that before they turn into guys that hang around and spell the starters.