Coco Crisp Just Wants to Play

One must feel for Coco Crisp. After slumping in last season's playoffs, the Boston center fielder spent most of the World Series on the bench, ceding his spot in the lineup and fielding duties to darling wonderkid Jacoby Ellsbury. (If you remember, part of the time on the bench he spent talking about Taco Bell with Royce Clayton. Cool!)

So as spring training gets underway here, one would expect a bit of a healthy battle for center between Crisp and Ellsbury. Well, you'd only be half right on that assumption. Because Crisp doesn't think he's going to get a fair shake. And if so and he's on the bench to start the season, he'd rather be shipped elsewhere.

"Honestly, I think so because I want to play," Crisp said before his spring training workout. "I wouldn't be happy sitting on the bench."

He's not even certain he'll get an equal chance in the competition for the job. Manager Terry Francona said Wednesday it would be.

"I'm not sure," Crisp said calmly when asked if the battle for the job with the prized prospect will be fair. "I'm not sure how everything's going to break down. I'm really unsure of a lot of things this year."

This is a bit of a tickler for the Red Sox. On the one hand, Crisp still has value at 28 years of age -- there's a team or two in Chicago in need of a leadoff hitter at the moment -- so if they decided to trade him, they might be able to pick up a few prospects or another bullpen arm. But trade him and have the largely unproven, small sample size Ellsbury falter and they might be kicking themselves.

Although, this is a team from Boston. As of late, nothing bad seems to happen to them.