He’s been doubted his entire life.
He’s too short. His swing is too much of an uppercut. He can’t run. He lacks range.
There were times where those doubts may have seemed legitimate: September of last year, when he would show up to work with a bag of McDonald’s for lunch while recovering from a wrist injury and hitting .191. This April, when he got off to a .182 start and Alex Cora was hitting triples at the same pace as Curtis Granderson. Even Jerry Remy was questioning his ability to play at the major league level.
Funny thing happened, though. He shut up his critics and inserted himself as the frontrunner for Rookie of the Year honors and has to be viewed as a potential and future Gold Glove winner.
And now? Dustin Pedroia is such a valued part of the club, that he hit in the third spot in the order the other day … the spot David Ortiz normally inhabits.
Hitting .327/.391/.452 going into the Yankees series, Pedroia provides Boston’s answer to New York’s second baseman, Robinson Cano (.301/.350/.480) … and really, could these two mirror their respective cities any better?
Calm. Reserved. Efficient. Fluid. Burst on the scene, captivating a city. Jim Johnson: “A ball up the middle, Cano glides over to it, nips it up and seems to lob it over to first and it always gets there because of his arm strength.”
Gritty. Hard-nosed. Emotional. High-Energy. Struggled in the outset, being labeled an underdog his entire life. Jim Johnson: “Pedroia explodes towards the hole, [does an all-out] dive and creates an explosion of dirt, does a somersault to his feet and guns the guy out at first.”
Both invaluable.
Pedroia, who attended Arizona State University, was a finalist for the 2004 Golden Spikes Award (think college baseball’s version of the Heisman trophy, the 2004 version went to Jered Weaver, Los Angeles Angels pitcher). He made the First-Team All-Pac 10 three times, and was co-Player of the year in 2003 (.404/.472/.579, 83 runs, 34 doubles, three triples, four homers, 52 RBI in 68 games) along with Ryan Garko, now first-baseman of the Cleveland Indians. Pedroia, who has only made five errors on the year, comes with a defensive reputation intact, having won the Defensive Player of the Year in 2003 as well.
He is the fourth player from Woodland High School (California) to make the majors, following Steve Andrade, Tony Torcato and Mike Griffin (who was also the pitching coach for the Pawtucket Red Sox before being reassigned after this season; also a former Yankee rookie who was part of the Dave Righetti for Sparky Lyle trade in 1978). He left his stamp of lore in Woodland, once hitting four homers in a game, and now is the starting second-baseman for a club that has a shot at winning 100 games (prior to the Yankee series, the Sox were projected to win 99).
Pedroia, who turned 24 on August 17, stands at 5’9″, one of the reasons why he has been doubted for much of his life. When you couple that with a swing that could take him out of his shoes at any time and pays homage to Ted Williams’ rather blunt assertion that if anyone wants any shot at hitting to hit with an uppercut … well, people tend to have their doubts.
And yet … Pedroia’s hitting .327. His On-Base Percentage is .391. He is tied for the fifth-hardest man to strike out in baseball, having whiffed only 40 times all year, tied with former BoSox Mark Loretta and Sean Casey. Just ahead of him, tied for fourth, are Jason Kendall and Luis Castillo. The top three, in order, are Placido Polanco (25), Juan Pierre (34) and Kenji Johjima (37).
As the Red Sox hurtle towards the postseason, which the Sox missed last year, one of the pieces the Sox can cite as integral t their postseason hopes is Pedroia. Pedroia is firmly entrenched into the second-spot in the lineup, and as a person who derives much of his value from doubles, represents perhaps the best definition of a two-hole hitter one can find (exempting speed): an affinity for getting on-base and doubles power. The fact that he constantly puts the ball in play only enhances his abilities as he is able put runners in motion and pull off hit and runs. Pedroia could be our two-hole hitter and second baseman for a long time; a decade, maybe longer. It would give us our first long-tenured second baseman since Marty Barrett. What, you doubt that?
He’s been doubted his entire life.
No one is doubting him now.
The results of the most recent poll has Jason Varitek winning. Again. This means he’s won the fight to bat seventh or eighth. Now that I’m convinced sanity has taken place, we’ll award him the eighth slot. He won 61 percent of the vote, beating out Kevin Youkilis (27 percent) and Julio Lugo (11 percent).
This means, that if we slot Youkilis in seventh and Lugo ninth, as sanity would declare, our perfect lineup is this:
CF Coco Crisp
2B Dustin Pedroia
DH David Ortiz
LF Manny Ramirez
3B Mike Lowell
RF J.D. Drew
1B Kevin Youkilis
C Jason Varitek
SS Julio Lugo
I like this lineup going into the playoffs. As Jerry Remy said (and I agree) … don’t count on Ellsbury playing over Manny, Coco, or J.D. in the postseason. He will be a weapon off the bench. So, new poll. Assuming that Ellsbury comes off the bench, do you like the perfect lineup? (No cop-outs! Ellsbury can’t start!) Yes? Problem solved. No? Tell us why in the comments!
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