Look At The Little Guy Cleaning Up

It's about time someone does. For his entire career, almost everyone except Terry Francona, Theo Epstein, and the rest of the Red Sox brass has doubted his abilities and looked the other way. Their reasons? Dustin Pedroia, all 5-foot 9 and 180 lbs. of him, has heard them all. Either he was too small, too weak, too slow, not a good enough defender, his swing was too big, or it was a combination of everything. It is about time somebody has looked his way because Pedroia has officially proved all of his doubters wrong.

The little guy with the big swing is the hottest hitter in baseball now. Ever since becoming the cleanup hitter for the Boston Red Sox on August 30th against the Chicago White Sox, an 8-2 win, Pedroia is hitting .620 with 3 doubles, 3 stolen bases, 2 home runs, 8 runs batted in, and 6 runs scored in 5 games. The little guy has raised his batting average to .333, good enough for the best in the American League and his on-base percentage to .378.

The little guy without any power now has 17 home runs, second-most for second baseman in the American League. He has raised his slugging percentage to .505, also second among AL second baseman. Pedroia has knocked in 76 runs, tied for the most among AL second baseman. To put it simply, Dustin Pedroia has become one of the best all-around hitters in baseball.

For those that thought was too slow and not a good enough defender to play in the Major Leagues, Pedroia has proved them wrong as well. He has a respectable 17 stolen bases this season, and has scored the most runs in the Major Leagues with 110. On defense, Pedroia likely will win a Gold Glove once the season is done. He has made just 6 errors on the season, and owns a .991 fielding percentage, tied for second among AL second baseman.

The little guy that once was an afterthought because well, some people thought he was too slow, too small, too weak, not a good defender, and had too big of a swing, has become a candidate for American League Most Valuable Player. Quite frankly, Pedroia should win. There is no American League player having a better season than Pedroia is. No one plays harder than Pedroia and absolutely no one deserves the AL MVP Award more than this fiery, scrappy second baseman. It is time for MVP voters to start looking at the little guy. It turns out Dustin Pedroia can play.