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The Second Base Situation

By Zach Hayes | May 3rd, 2007

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Back in March, I made a promise to myself: Exerting patience with Dustin Pedroia would be vital. I expected early struggles and was fully prepared to pace myself with the development of the new second baseman. After all, Pedroia’s game is entirely based on making contact and occasionally hitting balls into gaps, and in no way is he a home run slugger by any stretch of the imagination. So for Dustin, timing and adjusting would be key.

Yet today on March 3, Dustin Pedroia is reeling more than I could have predicted. I was expecting around a .225 average by now with 70 AB or so. Instead, all Pedroia can show is a .172/.294/.224 line with 3 doubles, 0 HR and 2 RBI in 58 AB. To go along with the struggles of Pedroia, utility man Alex Cora, who discovered Neptune and invented the periodic table, is off to a raging start to the year. Through Tuesday, Cora is at .321/.387/.714 with 2 triples, 2 HR and 8 RBI in 28 AB. Along with those freakish numbers, Cora has chipped in with clutch hits against the Yankees on three occasions.

Red Sox fans are not the only people in confusion over the second base situation. All week Tito Francona has dodged addressing clearly who will be the starter at second base in the near future. Finally, yesterday Francona came to the conclusion that he would still start Pedroia on an everyday basis and just plug in Cora when he had previous success against the starter or Dustin needed a day off. With only 58 AB in the young season, Francona has decided to stick with the young kid over the hot bat.

I’m sure the decision had a lot to do with the front office. It was Theo and his boys that decided to let the reliable veteran Mark Loretta walk to a bench role with the Astros and felt it was the appropriate time to insert the 2006 Red Sox Minor League Player of the Year Dustin Pedroia into the daily lineup at second. I really couldn’t complain about the decision at the time. I loved Loretta with all my heart (I don’t care if that sounded weird), but Pedroia delivered on every minor league level and we all know Theo loves the opportunity to plug in his much-adored prospects when ready. It definitely appeared like Pedroia was ready.

With Pedroia flailing at balls outside of the strike zone with his enormous swing trying to balance with such a small stature, and every Alex Cora RBI base knock in the 8th inning, the questions will linger. Right now, Cora can seemingly do no wrong when he’s in the starting lineup. While he is sure to hit a rougher patch in the grass and fall back down to earth from that unbelievable slugging percentage, will it get to the point where Pedroia over Cora is actually costing the Red Sox runs?

58 AB into the year, the Sox are sticking with Pedroia. I definitely feel this is the right move as the situation currently stands. Number one, it’s May 2nd, way too early in the season to start making drastic lineup changes with a small sample size. Two, the only way Dustin Pedroia is going to get fully accustomed to major league pitching and get his timing down to their level is more opportunities and at-bats. The vow I made before the season to be patient for the first two months is really testing, but it’s a time where this young prospect needs our support.

Anyone who has watched Pedroia in college at Arizona State, or in the minors from Portland to Pawtucket knows damn well that while Dustin is height-challenged, his bat makes up for it. With Pedroia as our every day second baseman until he transforms into a red-hot hitting machine, smoking balls all over the field and slowly but surely raising that average, we not only have a young man to appreciate at the position, but also a backup who you know will get the job done off the pine in Alex Cora.

The Sox made a good move deciding to stick with Pedroia. Give him more at-bats and good things will happen.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 3rd, 2007 at 12:01 am and is filed under Alex Cora, Dustin Pedroia, Boston Red Sox / Zach Hayes. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

10 Responses to “The Second Base Situation”

sabes says:

May 3rd, 2007 at 12:32 am

agreed. what do you guys think of the fact that mike timlin is still both on the pitching staff and being used in important spots?
hynes says:

May 3rd, 2007 at 12:34 am

The kid’s a rookie. A number of players struggle out of the gate when first starting out in the bigs. Yount, Sandberg, and Brett to name a few. I think to many fans nowadays place enormous amounts of players out of the gate. Some players react well to that (Youk, Paps), but others need time to develop.

I agree, give the kid more time to develop. He’s shown that despite starting slow last year at Pawtucket, he can turn things around. He’s produced at every level. Given time and patience, I think he’ll show the same here.

Hey, it could be worse. He could be Alex Gordon (talk about pressure on a rookie!).
aklaft says:

May 3rd, 2007 at 12:43 am

Even with his abysmal batting average, Pedroia is still sporting an OBP only 15 points off of Cora’s career numbers. Pedroia right now is as good as Cora, and he’ll only get better. Cora has a couple less floaters fall in with guys on base and this isn’t even a discussion.
mouse says:

May 3rd, 2007 at 12:49 am

I agree. Pedroia, if nothing else, has displayed a quality batting eye and contact ability. The hits will come–they pretty much have too.

Remember how a year ago, Mark Loretta was only hitting about .200 and we were wondering if the Sox got jobbed on the trade? I recall he went on to hit almost .400 in May, or some absurd number like that. If Pedroia were a veteran player, I doubt there would be any debate over 2B at all. He’ll be fine.
Mo says:

May 3rd, 2007 at 1:24 am

Lester left his start with an injury. I wonder if hes been seeing Marty Miller on the side.
Daniel Rathman says:

May 3rd, 2007 at 1:30 am

Mo:

Good one. Looks like the Boss found a scapegoat…

Lester left with forearm cramps, which the Sox do not believe to be serious. He’s expected to make his next start.

Also, the Sox, based on what I’ve read from a couple of sources (including RotoWorld), have no plans to call up Lester at this point, barring injury. In fact, it’s possible that he wouldn’t be the first up even if someone did get hurt — Gabbard or Hansack might be. The Sox would be wise to bide their time with Lester and let him get all his strength back before they call him up.

Re: Pedroia vs. Cora

You’ve got to stay with Pedroia. His BABIP and contact rate portend much more success than he’s been having. Anyone notice that Cora has been ridiculously lucky this season? All of his bloops seem to drop and he’s getting hits without striking the ball all that solidly. I know good things happen to guys who play the game right, but Cora is beating the odds and then some.

Cora when the matchups dictate it, otherwise Pedroia.
Mo says:

May 3rd, 2007 at 8:17 am

I agree. The Sox are currently in a position of power, and have no reasonn to rush Lester.
Tony C. says:

May 3rd, 2007 at 1:32 pm

One thing to think about with these stats on blown saves would be the margin of error. In one sense, a blown save is a blown save. All losses are equal (though not all blown saves result in a loss). But it would make a difference in judging a pitcher if he saved 30 games with a 1-run lead vs. another pitcher who saved the same number with 3-run leads. The 1st guy could be lights-out in pressure situations, while the second could often give up a run or two and still get saves. It would be interesting to factor in this margin for error. If you were picking between a guy who closed out 10 1-run games successfully and someone who closed out 10 3-run games while giving up 10 runs in those appearances, the former would be a better bet than the latter.
Fire Brand of the American League | MVN - a Boston Red Sox blog » Blog Archive » Underappreciated: Wake And Dustin says:

May 10th, 2007 at 12:02 am

[…] Ever since I wrote the article regarding the second base situation last week, Dustin Pedroia has been tearing it up with the bat. After a .182/.308/.236 nightmarish April complete with rumors floating around that an Alex Cora platoon might be in store, Pedroia has mashed at a .500/.556/.875 mark in May to bring his season batting line up to a very reasonable .267/.368/.387. While his average was greatly suffering during that ghastly slump, he was still managing to get on base at a reasonable rate. Believe it or not, on the season Pedroia has 12 walks to just 7 strikeouts. Now that .368 OBP looks fantastic. […]
Julianna says:

June 7th, 2007 at 3:12 pm

I’m not sure I understand all the talk about “giving the kid a chance” (Pedroia) and hoping he’ll get accustomed to major league batting. All I’ve heard is folks wanting to bend over backwards to give this guy a chance as a starting player. I’m all for giving minor league players a chance, but not at the expense of a seasoned player that doesn’t deserve to ride the bench every 3-5 days in a row. No one has talked about how sitting Cora out this often is going to affect his game. Most everyone I’ve talked to or blogs I’ve read agree that Cora is a power player. Why wouldn’t it make sense for the Sox to use Cora to the full extent, while plugging in Pedroia to get him seasoned instead? Can someone better explain the idea of keeping Cora as a “utility player”? I would be able to accept this fact if I better understood the importance of this role, and knew that playing him on a utility basis wouldn’t hurt his game. I also can’t help but wonder what riding the bench may do to Cora’s ego - maybe that alone could ruin his mojo and eliminate him as a clutch player altoghether. ??