Baseball Musings
Baseball Musings
October 08, 2008
Slump Buster?

One hit does not bust a slump.

Manager Terry Francona pointed out that, given Pedroia's regular season, pitchers had begun to work him differently. There weren't quite the same opportunities, nor was he seeing the same pitches he had seen in the season. Pedroia agreed with his manager, to a degree. Not that he thinks it should stop him.

"A little bit," Pedroia said. "I'm walking a little bit more. I'm making my adjustment. I'll find a way to get it done. I don't really care what I hit in the postseason, as long as we win. That's the biggest thing."

So the opposition found a way to get Pedroia out. I suspect Dustin and the Boston staff will figure out the new pitching pattern at some point. We'll see if Joe Maddon and the Rays have something different in store for Pedroia as well. I suspect Joe still has friends in the Angels organization that might let him in on Dustin's weaknesses.


Posted by David Pinto at 07:32 AM | Players | TrackBack (0)
Comments

If this is Pedroia during a slump, watch out when he gets it together. He's been smashing the ball all over the place... right at fielders. He's fine.

Posted by: amos at October 8, 2008 08:16 AM

I think everybody in baseball knows how to pitch Pedroia - down and in and away. The problem is he makes a lot of contact and if you miss up like Lackey did he levels at the ball shoulder high and crushes it. Pedroia needs to let more balls go by and hit the outside pitches up the middle - when he gets in trouble is chasing balls off the plate and trying to pull everything.

Posted by: Bandit at October 8, 2008 08:27 AM

If someone pitches him down and in and away at the same time I want to see that.

Posted by: Rich at October 8, 2008 10:45 AM

Generally they try different locations on different pitches

Posted by: Bandit at October 8, 2008 12:39 PM

I think there is some truth to the fact that the league is beginning to pitch Pedroia differently -- but it is not necessarily a bad thing.

Throughout his career in the minors Pedroia's OBP was 75-100 points higher than his BA. His first two years in the majors it has been 50-75 points. I think the league has been throwing him lots of strikes because he is smallish and has a long swing; he's responded by hitting balls hard. Probably harder than the league expected. Now they are throwing him fewer strikes. Hopefully the 1-for-15 post season series was nothing more than random variation, but I do expect that he'll see a bit fewer pitches to hit now that he has established himself. If his discipline is the same, he'll walk more, still hit the balls he puts into play hard, and not be any less valuable.

Posted by: Steverino at October 8, 2008 07:49 PM
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