Brandon Crawford's third home run Thursday put him one off his career high and made him the No. 3 shortstop in standard Head-to-Head leagues so far this season, behind only Jed Lowrie and Troy Tulowitzki. Yet as much as I'd like to believe it's at least halfway legitimate, I don't see any evidence of it.
I've scoured the Internet looking for explanations but can't find anything concrete. Some sources point to his improvement in the second half last year, but he still produced only a .697 OPS then, which would relegate him to the bench for just about any other team. Apart from the heavy-hitting California League, where his numbers were as silly as everyone else's, his OPS was right around .700 throughout his minor-league career as well. I'm thinking that's who he is.
For now, I'm dismissing his early-season production as an aberration, but I'd love to hear any theories suggesting otherwise.