From Mitchell's newsletter today:
—I take back what I said about Joc Pederson being in the lineup.
Let’s discuss Pederson for a moment.
Here’s a guy who is the biggest cheerleader on the bench. No matter how well he did in a game, he was always the first to applaud and jump up and down if a teammate drove in a run or hit a homer.
He was basically the starting center fielder for two years. He gets off to a good start this season, but falls apart in the second half, hitting .162/.278/.303. But he continues to pull for his teammates.
Then the Dodgers send him to the minors and trade for Curtis Granderson.
Pederson doesn’t complain. He just goes to the minors and puts his work in. Granderson hits worse than Pederson, but Pederson doesn’t complain, he just keeps putting in his work.
Pederson isn’t in the first wave of September call-ups, but he doesn’t complain.
They finally call him back up on Sept. 6. But he doesn’t play much, buried on the bench behind Granderson. But he doesn’t complain. He keeps cheering everyone on.
In the final game of the season, a spark appears. He goes two for three with two doubles. He gets left off of the NLDS roster. He doesn’t complain.
He gets on the NLCS roster and goes one for five with a double in the series. But, if you watched the game, you saw a lot of Pederson, because he was the first person to greet a teammate in the dugout.
Then the World Series comes and when the series moves to Houston, Dave Roberts puts him in the lineup in Game 2 and has him as the DH for Games 3 and 4. Doofuses like me wonder why he is in the lineup instead of Andre Ethier.
So what does Joc do? He doesn’t complain, he just goes 3 for 9 with a double, two homers and four RBIs.
I like Joc Pederson, and I am glad he is making me look bad. I won’t complain.
