He is considered to be the heart and soul of the Red Sox and once again Dustin Pedroia is proving just that. An ugly start for the Red Sox who are surrounded by controversy of the field along with a nasty hangover from last September, it would be easy for many of the Red Sox to mail it in this season, go through the motions and move on to next year. But not Pedroia.
The outspoken second baseman is never one to shy away when things get dicey, in fact one could argue that Pedroia elevates his game when the going gets tough. This is evidenced by his current 14-game hitting streak that he extended Sunday against Cleveland after going 1-for-4 on the afternoon in what was another offense filled outing.
To put it in perspective, during the 14-games that Pedey has safely recorded a hit, the Red Sox are only 5-9 in that stretch. While he hasn’t carried the club to more victories during that time, he is doing his damnedest to will this team to winning by any means possible. He is only one player but if you were to ask him to try and play every position at the same time while taking every at-bat, he just might try and do it.
According to the statistician guru, Bill James, Pedroia is a sizzling 95 on the temperature gauge right now, a measure of how hot or cold the hitters are. To give you an idea how far ahead Pedey is, the closest teammate who has regular at-bats is Adrian Gonzalez and his rating is only 78.
On the season, the Red Sox spark plug is hitting .319/.381/.528 with 5 home runs and 18 RBI. Typical Pedroia like numbers and considering that Bill James had predicted Pedroia to put up MVP like numbers this year, this type of start shouldn’t surprise anyone.
A lot of questions were raised when Terry Francona was rudely dismissed of his managerial post as to how close-friend Pedroia would react to the new manager. Given Bobby Valentine’s loud personality and inability to use a filter when answering questions on his players performance, we saw Pedroia react when Valentine criticized Kevin Youkilis. It’s safe to say that Pedroia is well past that encounter and has his eyes set on the prize of postseason baseball.
When former captain Jason Varitek retired this past winter it was widely speculated that Pedroia would be the next player to wear the ‘C’ on his jersey, becoming just the 20th player in franchise history to bestow that honor. But the move was never made, at least not yet. Based on Pedroia’s performance thus far in the season, it doesn’t matter if he has a ‘C’ on his jersey or not because he is the clear leader on the field and he does so by example.
It could be easy to stand up and say “where was Pedroia last September and where has he been this year?” Fair questions but ones we will never know the answers to unless we are inside that sacred clubhouse. It’s been written in the past that Pedroia may not garner the respect from some of the other teammates based on his close relationship with Francona as well as his size. While this has never been confirmed, it’s hard to imagine an ego like Josh Beckett listening to Pedey when he goes on a ‘rally the troops’ type rant. Perhaps it’s egos like Beckett that are holding this team back and it’s a damn shame this club didn’t have more mind-sets like Pedroia, a guy who plays the game the right way; gritty, hard nosed & hustling. If they did the Red Sox wouldn’t be digging themselves out of an early season hole. A hole that is slowly getting smaller thanks to the likes of one Dustin Pedroia.
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