Age: 22
Born: August 17, 1983
Resides: Woodland, CA
Height: 5-8
Weight: 180
Bats: Right
Throws: Right
Drafted: 2nd round, 2004
How Acquired: Draft
College: Arizona State
High School: Woodland HS (CA)
ETA: mid-2006

Scouting Report: Small infielder had a tremendous career at Arizona State. Average power for a middle infielder, with good bat speed and excellent plate discipline. Loves the game and has fantastic instincts. Plays top-notch defense up the middle, named the 2003 National Defensive Player of the Year. Very scrappy; a great teammate. Moved to second base prior to the start of the 2005 season; Boston hasn't ruled out moving Pedroia back to shortstop.

ASU: Put together three of the best seasons in Arizona State baseball history... completed his career with a .384 (298-for-777) batting average to rank tied for seventh in the record books... was also fourth with 71 career doubles and fourth with 298 hits... came only two hits shy of becoming the first Sun Devil player to reach 300 career hits in only three years... started all 185 games of his Sun Devil career... a three-time First-Team All-Pac-10 selection... joins Alvin Davis, Don Wakamatsu and Andrew Beinbrink as the only Sun Devils to earn three All-Pac-10 awards... recorded 98 career multi-hit games and had a career .972 FLD%... sixth in school history with 212 runs scored, averaging 1.15 runs scored per game during his career... hit safely in 155 of his 185 (84%) career games... two-time USA Baseball National Team starting shortstop... three-time On Deck Circle Team MVP... described by head coach Pat Murphy as a throwback style of player... gave back his scholarship after his freshman season... described by former UNLV and current TCU head coach Jim Schlosnagle as the "Pete Rose of College Baseball".

High School: A 2001 graduate of Woodland High School in Woodland, Calif... was a three-time All-Delta League selection... hit .448 with 12 doubles, one triple and two home runs his sophomore year... was named to the all-state (underclassman) team by CalHi Sports... was the starting shortstop sophomore year and named team MVP... earned the Gold Glove Award while playing for Team USA in an Australian tournament... ... hit .459 as a junior to repeat as an all-league, all-metro and all-state selection... hit 17 home runs and batted team-best .432 for Carson (Nev.) Capitols over the summer... named to all-star team at 2000 Area Code games in Long Beach, Calif... hit .445 with 18 doubles and five home runs during his senior year to capture league MVP honors... he was also the Metro (Sacramento) Player of the Year and was recognized by the Sacramento Bee as the area player of the year... named a preseason All-American by Fox Student Sports.

Personal: Was an interdisciplinary studies major at ASU... parents are Guy and Debbie Pedroia of Woodland, Calif., who rarely missed a road or home game during Dustin's career... his father runs a tire shop in Woodland... has one older brother, Brett (24), who played baseball for two years as a catcher at Shasta Junior College in Redding, Calif... describes his best individual athletic performance as a game at the National High School Classic where he was 3-for-4 with a home run, a double and recorded three RBI in a 4-3 win... he also stole home to win the game... also recruited by national baseball powers Miami (Fla.), Texas, Florida, Cal, Long Beach State and Tulane... enjoys playing golf... favorite team is the NBA Sacramento Kings... his Little League team fell one game short of qualifying for the Little League World Series when he was 12... full name is Dustin Luis Pedroia... born August, 17, 1983 in Sacramento, Calif.


2005 Pawtucket Red Sox
Through 8/19/05

I haven't been following Dustin as close as I wish I was, but wasn't he hitting around .230 in Pawtucket at the All Star Break? I guess he's over the wrist?

If you're looking for historic info back to 2004 on Pedroia, it's in this thread.

For anyone that missed it, Cambridge had a great interview with Dustin at the beginning of the season.

Dustin Pedroia - Red Sox IF prospect, interview by David Laurila aka Cambridge

2005 Pawtucket Red Sox
Through 8/20/05

Dustin was 1-4 with a single and a strikeout in Pawtucket's 3-2 loss to the Rochester Red Wings last night. He also committed his second error of the season with the Paw Sox on a grounder in the 4th.

2005 Pawtucket Red Sox
Through 8/26/05

2005 Pawtucket Red Sox
Through 9/3/05

Any chance you could break down his season for us? That is, post the numbers prior to injury, during the injury, and then post injury? Try and give us a better idea of what to expect from his healthy months?

I really don't have the time or inclination to undertake that sort of breakdown but if you'd like to, have at it.

What I can tell you is that Dustin was in injured in his first AB of his 6th AAA game and was hitting .263 at that time. As to the exact date he was declared 100% recovered, that is hard to tell but he was hitting .246 on 7/17 when the injury caused him to miss 14 more games. If you assume that he returned healthy on 7/31 then he's raised his average .008 up to now (although he was hitting .286 on 8/18).

2005 Pawtucket Red Sox
Final Stats

Congrats to Dustin on a good season at AAA while overcoming an injury in only his first full season of professional ball. We hope to see him fighting for a spot in the bigs come March.

Dustin was named the #5 prospect in the Sox system for 2006 by Baseball America as well as:
Best Hitter for Average
Best Strike-Zone Discipline
Best Defensive Infielder

I just came across something very interesting regarding Pedroia's AAA season.


He had a .261 BAPIP in AAA. That's roughly comparable to what Mike Lowell did in the Majors this year (i.e. absurdely unlucky). Look for a very good rebound next year.

Dustin was ranked as the 42nd best prospect entering into 2006 by Baseball Analysts.

42. Dustin Pedroia - 2B/SS - Boston Red Sox - 22 (AAA)

Introduction: We knew the day of the draft that Pedroia was a steal. So, pardon me, for if in the future I go back and criticize teams for not taking Dustin at a higher slot. Forget that he was an older college player with limited potential. This is a guy that had hit .400 in his sophomore season, and topped a .500 OBP in his junior season. In his final two years at Arizona State, Pedroia's OPS was over 1.050. He struck out just 47 times in all of college. Ian Kinsler was blocked because Pedroia was just too good. Yet Dustin slipped to the 65th pick because the best comparisons he could muster were David Eckstein, just because of his tiny height. It's really too bad for all these teams, because by missing out in Pedroia, they missed out in one of the 3 safest picks in the draft.

Skillset/Future: There has been a lot of talk about Dustin this winter, now that the Red Sox middle infield situation is questionable. With Hanley Ramirez now out of the system, and Edgar Renteria traded, it's quite possible that Pedroia will move back to shortstop this season. As a result, the Red Sox will likely fill that hole with just a part-time solution (maybe just Alex Cora), as they wait for Dustin to get a little more seasoning in AAA. They will find he won't need much, as his poor 2005 Pawtucket line can really be blamed on an unlucky .261 BABIP. When that returns to normal levels, expect Pedroia to continue to post high batting averages while showing some of the best plate discipline in professional baseball. Oh, and he has a little pop, too.

The Pawtucket Times reports that Pedroia will be out for a while:



(See Anni's news links for the rest of the excellent article.)

This would seem to eliminate any chance of Alex Gonzalez being cut and Pedroia starting 2006 with the team, if such a chance ever existed. Here's hoping that Pedroia gets better and starts the season playing well in AAA.

I found it interesting that Pedroia went in to play shortstop in his first action of the spring. Of course, that is right after he looked dreadful in that at-bat, possibly because of the injury.

RedSox.com

A little off-topic but is anyone else concerned with Pedoria's health risk?

Not sure why he'd be a health risk - just seems like he's had some bad luck. The wrist injury in 2005 was from being drilled. He played through it for a bit and his performance dragged enough that the club sat him down for a bit. It's a possibility that that could hamper him longer term, but more probable that he gets through it fine - he recovered nicely at the end of 2005 without problems (and hasn't has wrist problems in ST). As for the shoulder tweak, it doesn't sound particularly bad, and I would doubt it recurs - plus it's not even his throwing arm. I'm not worried about it any more than your average player.

I'm not so sure I agree with your positive outlook. The fact that he just wrenched his shoulder in the first ST at bat and has since missed all of ST (1.5 months) does worry me. There was an article that Margo posted yesterday I believe that talked about the FO's only concern about Pedroia was his offseason weight maintenance. Last year he went from 195 down to 162 during the season. This year he showed up at camp at 190 and is already down to 182. You don't lose that much weight if it's due to muscle gain. This guy seems to be showing the same bad dietary habits as Trot for many years and we see how his career never really amounted to what it could've due to injury.

I think, unless Pedroia really commits himself to staying in shape and growing his muscle base, he may suffer from the kind of oft-injured career that Trot has. That is much more devastating to a team if he is an everyday infielder than it is for an outfielder. I still have hopes that Gonzo will put together a reasonable season (.250/.290), but if he is cooked, we could have a hole here.

We have 3B protection with Choi and Youks able to replace Lowell. We really don't at SS. While Cora may turn out better than Gonzo, it certainly isn't a bright picture if we have to trot him out everyday in the #9 position either. If TB weren't so disfunctional, I might believe that Lugo in a trade were a possibility.

Gumbo, do you have a link for those Pedroia weights? I'm not doubting you--I'd just like to have the full article.

I read somewhere that because of his size, swing (he just swings from his ass), and playing style, that he was a lot more prone to injury than others, and that he's more likely to have continuously nagging injuries. I'll try and find a link.

I think this article from Friday's Globe is what gumbo was referring to: