Spotlight: Crawford Continues Rapid Ascent

CLEARWATER, Fla. -- Fresh out of Lakewood High School in California, J.P. Crawford was selected as the first-round draft pick of the Philadelphia Phillies in the 2013 MLB Draft.

Just 13 months later, the 19-year old would find himself representing the Phillies amongst the best up-and-coming talent in the game at Target Field in Minnesota.

Having recently been promoted to High-A Clearwater, Crawford was sitting at his locker on a balmy June afternoon when he received a text from a friend saying "congratulations."

"I'm like, 'for what?'" Crawford said.

The shortstop had just been named to the US team roster for the MLB All-Star Futures Game.

"(Nelson) Prada came up to me a couple minutes later and told me," Crawford says. "My stomach dropped when I heard the news."

A year removed from becoming a 16th-overall draft pick, Crawford was the youngest position player on the Futures Game roster.

On July 13, Crawford entered the game as a defensive replacement for Dodgers' prospect Corey Seager in the fifth inning.

"The first inning I went out there and just looking around, seeing all those thousands of fans, it was just mind-blowing," Crawford said. "Felt like a dream."

Crawford singled to center in the bottom of the sixth, and promptly stole second base. He would later cross the plate when Rangers' farmhand Joey Gallo blasted a two-run home run to right field to give the US squad a two-run lead.

Crawford finished 1-for-2 on the evening, grounding out to second in his final at-bat.

Upon returning to Clearwater, Crawford turned in his first three-hit performance in a Threshers' uniform, collecting singles to all sides of the field in a 3-for-3 performance.

"It just added more confidence for me just to come back here and do my thing," Crawford says of his Futures Game experience. "It got me a lot more comfortable."

When Crawford was promoted to the Clearwater Threshers on June 15, he became the youngest player in the Florida State League. Only slightly more than a year had passed since graduation at Lakewood High School.

Growing up in the baseball hotbed of California, Crawford had the opportunity to form close relationships with other soon-to-be big leaguers.

The Mets' Travis d'Arnaud, who was originally selected by the Phillies in the first round of the 2007 draft, is also a product of Lakewood High School, and the Twins' 2008 first-rounder Aaron Hicks attended a Lakewood rival, Woodrow Wilson High School.

The trio frequently reunites for off-season workouts. "We all just come together and work out at Lakewood High School, " Crawford says, "So we all just talk and they tell me a lot of stuff about past experiences."

Crawford also had the opportunity recently to learn from Reid Brignac, a seven-year Major League veteran who spent three games with the Threshers in July on a rehab assignment.

"He's like an older brother now," Crawford says of Brignac. "He's just telling me a lot about the positioning at shortstop and all the little things that help me."

After batting .295 in 60 games for the Lakewood Blue Claws, on his way to being named a South Atlantic League All-Star, Crawford has begun to settle in and adapt to a higher level of pitching.

"He has a great ability to take instruction and then take it right into the ball game," Threshers hitting coach Frank Cacciatore says.

"You're going to see J.P. just get better and better and better as we go along, as he learns the league and learns himself. And when he goes to (Double-A) Reading it will be the same thing. He'll go through a period where he has to make adjustments to that league, on and on and on until he gets his feet settled in the big leagues."

For now, Crawford is working on improving his defensive game at short.

"My main focus is on defense," he says. "Just getting my footwork a little better. That's the main thing right now, but hitting-wise I just got to stay consistent right now."

After committing 12 errors while with Lakewood, he was charged with 11 miscues in his first 33 games for Clearwater.

"I'm just trying to not stop my feet out there on the diamond," he says. "On ground balls hit to me, I've just got to keep moving my feet and not just sit back and stay flat-footed, that's what I'm working on."

As Crawford's career continues to move forward, he is presently soaking up the experience of being a teenager whose job it is to play the greatest game on earth.

"Hicks, he just told me, 'It's just baseball, so just always have fun.' It's just a game, don't get too hard on myself, just have fun.

"And I've been doing that, and I'm having the time of my life out here."