Baseball America editor John Manuel caught heat from some Phillies fans when he said this week on Jim Salisbury's "At the Yard" podcast that he no longer views shortstop prospect
J.P. Crawford as an "impact player."
Manuel relied on some of what he's seen and a lot of what he's heard. On Thursday, ESPN's minor-league expert, Keith Law, said similar things about Crawford.
"I got nothing but negative reports on him from scouts and execs this month," Law wrote in the live chat that accompanied his Midseason Top 50 prospects list.
"I heard unanimous downgrades on his defense at short, and multiple scouts say he's swinging for the fences too much and becoming much less disciplined at the plate. I'm alarmed, and I've been a big fan of his since high school.
"I don't know if he's sulking, or if he thinks hitting bombs will get him promoted, or maybe I was just wrong about his ability, but this doesn't sound like the guy I've seen every year for the past four or five years."
Crawford clearly read or heard Manuel's comments and tweeted Thursday: "All it is is motivation."
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