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PAWSOX PROSPECT : JACOBY ELLSBURY PATROLLING CF AT McCOY?

Maureen Mullen

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. – Sitting in the visitors’ dugout at Scottsdale Stadium on Halloween night before a recent Arizona Fall League game, Jacoby Ellsbury laughed as he told a visitor of one of his more memorable Halloween costumes.

“It was pretty funny,” said Ellsbury, 23, the Red Sox first pick (23rd overall) in the 2005 draft out of Oregon State University. “It was two years ago, when the Red Sox won the World Series. My buddies thought it would be funny if I dressed up as Johnny Damon.”

And, why not? Ellsbury had the baseball pants and shoes. All he needed was a Red Sox hat and No. 18 jersey. And, of course, a long-haired wig and fake beard to complete the transformation into the then-hirsute, then-Sox center fielder.

That Halloween two years ago while still a student at OSU ago may not be the last time Ellsbury is compared to the man who patrolled center field for four seasons for the Red Sox. They’re both left-handed center fielders, speedy with some power, have similar frames and striking physical resemblances. For a time, too, they overlapped as members of the Red Sox organization.

But, a comparison to a two-time All-Star, owner of a World Series ring, author of a best-selling book? Is that fair to do to a young player who has just completed his first full professional season, with just 50 games as high as the Double-A level?

“No, I don’t think it’s fair to ever compare a Double-A player to a guy that’s an All-Star, and a very accomplished major league player. I don’t think it’s fair to either,” said Mike Hazen, Red Sox director of player development. “But, if Jacoby Ellsbury turns into Johnny Damon or like Johnny Damon as a big league player, then I think we’d be very happy with that.”

Ellsbury, who was rated the sixth-best prospect in the Sox system by Baseball America before the 2006 season, began the year with Single-A Wilmington, where he hit .299 with four home runs, five triples, and 25 stolen bases in 61 games, earning him a promotion to Double-A Portland, where he hit .308, three home runs, three triples, and 16 stolen bases in 50 games.

He is now honing his craft with the Peoria Javelinas of the elite Arizona Fall League, hitting .255 with three triples and seven stolen bases in 10 attempts in 23 games through Tuesday.

Typically, players are sent to Arizona with specific instructions for improving a particular aspect of their game. For Ellsbury, the goals in Arizona include working on his bunting and learning to take advantage of his speed – which is likely the best in the Sox’ system and which general manager Theo Epstein said last spring is just a couple of ticks behind that of Coco Crisp.

“[His bunting is] coming along great,” said Luis Alicea, manager of the Javelinas who also manages in the Sox system, including Single-A Greenville in 2006. “He’s able to show bunt, and not actually bunt at the ball. But it helps because it brings the infielders in and he’s able to hit the ball right by the first baseman for a triple. He’s giving quality, quality at-bats. Bunting is great. It’s a tool for him that, I think, is definitely going to help him. He can drive the ball, but he’s got so much speed, and they have to honor that. And, think it’s going to work both ways for him. He’s going to be able to hit the ball through the infield because they’re playing shallower.”

And, that’s where Ellsbury’s speed will come in.

“Definitely, I think speed comes into play every day,” Ellsbury said. “You can have power or you can have all the good tools. But I think one thing that’s there all the time is speed. I try not to make that the sole part of my game. Just base my game around speed. But it’s such a crucial gift that I have, you try to take advantage of it anyway you can.”

One way is to give the opposition something to think about.

“Speed kills, even in cars,” said Alicea. “The more speed you got, the more money your car’s worth. That’s just how it goes. The more speed he’s got, the better for him. Talking as [a former] infielder, every time you had guys who could run, you knew you had to be perfect. You had to cut down your range. You had to get rid of the ball. A perfect example is Ichiro. He’s so fast and he can hit the ball anywhere on the field. And to get him at first base, everything has got to be clean: the exchange, a couple of steps either way, you got to make sure you make a good throw, a strong throw.”

Ellsbury is working on refining that speed, especially his base stealing. His 64 stolen bases in 84 attempts in his two pro seasons give him a 76 percent success rate. But, that rate fell to 67 percent (16 of 24) in Double A.

“[His speed is] a tremendous advantage,” Mike Hazen, Director of Player Development, said. “You look across baseball, there’s not a lot of guys that run like he does.

“Stealing bases at a 75-percent clip is going to be what’s needed in order for him to continue to get the green light and continue to run as he needs to and to continue to make an impact on the bases. Being a base stealer isn’t something somebody is born with. It’s definitely a skill. Some people have better instincts but there are things that need to be learned. Some intricacies of the art of base stealing that hopefully Jacoby is picking up and will continue to learn to make him an even more impact base stealer, with working on all the other things just with repetition, with defensive work and positioning, and offensively, those little aspects of the game that we’re focusing on here with the fall league.”

Ellsbury, who is half Navajo – his mother is full Navajo – and lived on a reservation in Oregon until he went to kindergarten, has also been focusing on his Native American heritage in Arizona, visiting reservations and speaking to kids – and finding a new role for himself.

“I have three younger brothers and I know they look up to me and I try to do the best as far as setting a good example for them,” he said. “But now that I’ve been doing a little bit of talking and talked to some kids, definitely, I can see that they pay attention. They see you’re a professional athlete and that just gives you that much more power to help someone else in their situation, whether it’s sports or grades or what it might be, if you can help them out in any way, you feel like you’ve done your part.

“I can see myself in their situation, looking up to an idol I guess you could say or a role model, that sort of thing. The thing is, you don’t have to be somebody on TV. It could be anybody, whether it’s your parents or somebody in the community. So, I try to emphasize that as much as I can, that it doesn’t necessarily have to be a celebrity to be a positive role model.

“They asked a bunch of questions. A lot of [the kids] were Native American. They asked if I spoke Navajo -- I understand Navajo a little bit. My mom can speak it fluently but I haven’t really been around it enough, and it’s such a tough language, not many people speak it. I definitely want to keep on learning it. What clan I was from. What age I started playing baseball at. How long have I wanted to play pro baseball. Those type of questions.”

Ellsbury will soon return to Oregon for the offseason. In January, he’ll come back to Arizona to prepare for spring training at the Athletes’ Performance Institute, and plans to be in Fort Myers early, “so I can get familiar with the coaches again and what they want me to do.”

As for next season?

“I go into this offseason with a plan not only to get better as a baseball player but to get stronger, work on the little things,” Ellsbury said. “I think that’s the thing that separates guys now from Double-A, Triple-A, to the big leagues is doing the little things. The little things are now what’s going to get me there. Doing the things that I know will help me advance.”

Hazen would concur.

“We don’t necessarily have where he’s going to be playing mapped out right now,” Hazen said. “What we see is for him to kind of pick right up where he left off this year and continue to build on that and put himself in a position to be in the big leagues here. I hate to put a timeframe on it because we don’t like to put a timeframe on any player. But, he has an opportunity to impact the big league club at some point in the near future.”

Maybe that will be when Ellsbury will share the pictures from Halloween 2004 with the man he impersonated.

“I think if Damon saw one of the pictures, he’d probably laugh himself,” Ellsbury said.