Red Sox Scoop Up Pedroia until 2014

The fate of “Tek” has still yet to be decided by the Red Sox organization, and who knows who will be behind the plate for Boston once Spring Training rolls around.

However one thing is for sure, 25 year-old Dustin Pedroia will be in the 4th spot for many years to come wearing the infamous Boston red.

Pedroia went from being the 2007 Rookie of the year last year, to becoming the American League MVP, winning a Gold Glove, and a Silver Slugger award all in 2008.

The only piece missing from the puzzle at the end of this year’s season was the security of prolonging his career in the city of Boston.

However on Wednesday, that all changed and Dustin Pedroia’s future with the Red Sox was secured like a gem stone from South Africa. Pedroia and the Red Sox reached a 6-year $40.5 million deal possibly keeping Pedroia in a ‘Sox jersey until 2014 and possibly costing Boston more money than one of those gem stones.

This past season, Pedroia tallied 213 hits driving in 83 RBI’s and maintained a career high batting average of .326. The decision of keeping Pedroia could not have been any easier for the Red Sox.

What does the future hold for this multi-talented superstar in the twilight of his career? I guarentee the Red Sox will have another ring over the next few years and part of their success will come from the acquired gem at secondbase.

The All Time Best VORP for Second Basemen Since 1954

A reader of mine recently asked me if Boston Red Sox 2B Dustin Pedroia had the best VORP at his position this year (2008) than any other player before him. But before I go further, some of you might be asking, “What in the world is VORP anyway?”. According to Baseball Prospectus, VORP stands for Value Over Replacement Player, which is broken down as the number of runs contributed beyond what a replacement-level player at the same position would contribute if given the same percentage of team plate appearances.

VORP scores do not consider the quality of a player’s defense. Researching this was a bit tedious, but well worth it! The Baseball Prospectus database has gone as far back as 1954 in calculating VORP. What I found out is that Pedroia, depsite all of the MVP talk he’s getting, just beat out the Phillies’ Chase Utley by a tenth of a point in VORP this year, 63.3 to 63.2. In comparing him to the all time leaders at second base, he didn’t even finish in the top 20.

The top player at this position with a VORP of 98.8, which is 35.5 points higher than Pedroia, was Chuck Knoblauch in 1996. For the remainder of the top 20, please see the chart below. So much for Pedroia having the best VORP ever by a second baseman!

In fact, Utley, for all of his offensive hype, just made the top 20 with his stellar performance in 2007 with a score of 68.8 (the same score Ryne Sandberg had in 1984)! Between Pedroia’s 63.3 and the top 20 list provided below there are 10 other higher scores from 4 players who are already in the top 20 and 4 others who are not (Bobby Grich, Willie Randolph, Mark Loretta and Jose Vidro).

Therefore, the bottom line is that Pedroia’s 2008 VORP of 63.3 ranks only 31st on the all time VORP list for second basemen. I hope that helps give people some perspective, but don’t let this conclusion fool you. Pedroia still had a very good year, but it just goes to show you that you shouldn’t jump to conclusions about how great of a year a player either is having or has had without digging a little deeper into past performances.

Year    Player                           VORP
1996    Chuck Knoblauch 98.8
1976    Joe  Morgan 94.2
2000    Jeff  Kent                      92.7
1975    Joe  Morgan                  91.6
1996    Roberto  Alomar 85.1
2001    Roberto  Alomar           81.6
1998    Craig  Biggio                80.5
1997    Craig  Biggio                79.8
1974    Joe  Morgan                  79.8
1999    Roberto  Alomar           77.9
2002    Jeff  Kent 77.7
1973    Joe  Morgan                  77.7
2001    Bret  Boone 77.4
2000    Edgardo  Alfonzo 76.9
1974    Rod  Carew 76.5
1975    Rod  Carew                   75.4
1993    Roberto  Alomar           75.2
1972    Joe  Morgan                  74.1
1977    Joe  Morgan                  71.8
1995    Chuck  Knoblauch        71.6
1991    Julio  Franco 70.1
2007    Chase  Utley 68.8
1984    Ryne  Sandberg 68.8

Peter Schiller also writes for BaseballReflections.com, which he started in October 2007. To see more of his work over the past year, please follow the link

provided. He also writes for Seamheads.com once a month.