Phillies' Justin Crawford has an inexplicable problem

Phillies' Justin Crawford has an inexplicable problem originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here.

Justin Crawford has a problem.

He's fast, but he's a terrible centerfielder.

The Philadelphia Phillies gave Crawford their Opening Day job out there in the hopes that the whole package would come together.

Instead, the metrics are almost opposite one another.

This chart below shows that Crawford is one of the fastest players in the league while also being one of the worst defenders in the league, too:

Clearly, playing the outfield is about more than speed. But it's still quite the contract.

Justin's father, Carl, was never a great fielder, which is why he spent most of his career in left field despite usually being the fastest player on his team.

That may be the destiny for Justin, too, because those numbers are brutal.

It reminds somewhat of Rays outfielder Chandler Simpson, again one of the fastest players in MLB, but also a terrible defender, especially last season. Simpson worked hard and made improvements and is better defensively now.

A player's instincts likely won't allow them to go from zero to hero in those defensive stats. But if Crawford could even get to a league average level, that'd be a big boost for the Phillies from where he is right now.