The Slanch Report

Dustin Pedroia did it! In his first year he gets the Rookie of the Year, in his second he adds a Gold Glove, a Silver Slugger AND the MVP. That’s a hell of a way to start a career for a guy who is the same size as me. When you think about how the initial comparisons to Pedroia when he was drafted was a slightly better David Eckstein (mostly because he was a small scrappy white guy) to where he is today, pretty damn impressive. Beyond the stats, which were impressive, watching him play every day is a delight, Pedroia is the tough as nails guy that we all know who goes all out in everything he does and somehow succeeds despite never being the best. When the Red Sox needed him, Pedroia carried the team, hitting a ridiculous .350/.398/.485 for July and then, when the team needed offense after the trade of Manny Ramirez, Pedroia hit a RIDICULOUS .374/.425/.635 with an OPS+ of 177(!) in August. Wow. The only thing I simply don’t understand is that one of the writers somehow didn’t list Pedroia on his ballot AT ALL. OK, you don’t think he’s the MVP, fine, but you’re saying that he’s not even on the BALLOT? That’s ridiculous. According to WEEI and Lou Merloni, the writer who left him off the ballot was Evan Grant from the Dallas Morning News is the guy who didn’t list him. WTF? UPDATE: The Boston Globe confirmed that it was Grant who left him off, and he responded with his reasoning, most of which is lame, but at least he knows what OPS is, so that’s something…

With the possible departure of Jason Varitek, I wouldn’t be surprised to see Pedroia, despite only being a big leaguer for 2 years become the next captain of the Red Sox. Also, for fun comparison sake, after the jump the last Red Sox MVP.

You know, know that I think about it, Youk is kinda like the white Mo… I wonder how Youk feels about the Foxy Lady…