While Jacoby might have been a little peeved upon hearing the news that his CF role has been usurped by a 37-year-old man, it’s not exactly unprecedented for the league’s fastest man to play the least-challenging position in the outfield.  Since 1980, the league leader in stolen bases has more often than not (56% of the time, to be exact) been a left fielder.

That statistic is driven by four guys: Rickey Henderson, Vince Coleman, Tim Raines (maybe headed to Cooperstown today?), and Carl Crawford.  Those are four of the most prolific base stealers of the past 30 years.  If you want to go even further back in time, Lou Brock is the gold standard for this phenomenon.  You would think that the fastest guy on the field would naturally be a fit in CF, but often times that isn’t the case.

This isn’t to say that Jacoby can’t revisit CF once Mike Cameron’s time is done here.  I’ve gone on record saying that Ellsbury is a better defender than his horrid UZR indicated last season, and I stand by that.  In fact, I’d guess that he’ll play at least 20 games in CF this season while Cameron rests and Jeremy Hermida plays in LF.

If anything, the move to LF might allow Ellsbury to concentrate on the other tasks required of his role: getting on base, and once there, advancing rapidly.

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