Brandon Crawford has never hit much for the San Francisco Giants, but has a line of .271/.349/.521 with five home runs, five doubles and two triples this season.
Bruce Bochy moved Crawford up to the second spot in the lineup on Wednesday.
The sample size is small, but there have been some signs that his improvement could be real.
- Crawford's walk and strikeout rate have both improved.
- His home runs are a bit of a fluke as 25 percent of the fly balls he's hit have left the park.
- He's actually been hitting a lot of groundballs -- 8 percent more often than last season.
- He's swinging at fewer pitches outside the zone (about 4 percent less) and making more contact within the zone (6.5 percent more).