WHEN IT CLICKED RAYS LF CARL CRAWFORD

Carl Crawford had scholarship offers in 1999 to be a point guard at UCLA or a quarterback at Nebraska, but he chose baseball instead. After struggling as a 19-year-old in Class AA in 2001, he decided to spend his offseason working out with a group of elite players at the Athletes' Performance Institute in Tempe, Ariz. -- a decision the three-time all-star credits with changing the course of his career.

"It started clicking for me when I started training differently. I had all the ability to reach the big leagues, but I didn't understand a lot about the proper way to work out and condition my body for baseball. When I started training differently, that's when I became the player I am today.

"It was [before the 2002 season] that I started going out to API. I started training differently, and that definitely helped in transforming me into the player I am now. It was all about speed, quickness, building up your legs, [learning] how to keep your body in shape over the course of a full, 162-game season. Once you get that in you, it changes you a little bit.

"The next year was when I made it to the big leagues."