Carl Crawford put his winter emphasis on hitting left-handed pitching:

And while Crawford continues to insist it hardly matters where he bats in Francona’s lineup, he knows the Red Sox often will feature five left-handed hitters. Thus, his detailed offseason sessions with personal hitting coach Sid Holland have centered on becoming more comfortable facing left-handed pitchers, against whom he batted only .256 with a .312 on-base percentage last season for the Tampa Bay Rays.

“Boston’s getting a tremendous athlete, but they’re also going to see how hard he works,” said Ray Bourn, Crawford’s youth coach. “Most kids with phenomenal talent, they want to be pampered and what have you. Carl always wanted to improve. He wants to be No. 1. He wants to get better. When Boston signed him, I said it was well worth it.”

Carl hit lefties well in 2006-2007, but otherwise he’s been lackluster. He did face them 224 times in 2010 (including two catcher interference calls!), and I’m not sure he’s going to see more in 2011. There just aren’t that many lefties to throw against Boston, and the LOOGYs are more likely to face the bigger bats.