User blog comment:Meganoide/Comparison between Whitebeard's and Shanks' crew/@comment-2163016-20100921012639/@comment-3060121-20100921190140

in ep 207(the ep where foxy is 1st introduced) when usopp sees the remaining fang toad pirates he says they have an unusually small crew. There were only 8 members left. At the time the straw hats had 7. So with that being said I am still pretty sure that having a small # of pirates is only done by the straw hats because Oda doesnt want it to be too much for the readers to take in at once. Example Capone has a large crew so if every member was about franky's strength the straw hats wouldnt have a chance.