Editorials

Minor League End Of Season Evaluations: Outfielder Joc Pederson

With the minor league season over, we’re in our third installment of minor league player reviews as we take a look at Dodgers top outfield prospect Joc Pederson.

Pederson is a highly touted prospects, but with four capable outfielders on the big league roster already, it remains to be seen how the Dodgers play out this situation.



NAME:  Joc Pederson

POSITION: Outfielder

HEIGHT: 6-1

WEIGHT: 185 LBS

SEASON IN REVIEW

After Yasiel Puig joined the Dodgers, Joc Pederson, a 22 year old outfielder from Palo Alto, Ca. became the Dodgers’ top prospect in their farm system. Pederson spent this year in Double-A playing for the Chattanooga Lookouts where he stood out as not only the team’s most consistent player, but also their best player.

Pederson played in 123 games where he hit for an average of .278. He had 439 at-bats and hit 22 home runs, drove in 58 RBIs and scored 81 runs while stealing 31 bases and working 70 walks.

The numbers that Pederson put up this season had a lot of fans wondering if the Dodgers were going to possibly trade him at  trade deadline in exchange for another starter to anchor the back end of the rotation. However, the Dodgers did in fact elect to hold on to him in hopes that he can one day pan out to be the player that he looks like he can be.

Pederson was so impressive this season that he got an invitation to the 2013 Futures Game at Citi Field as he’s surprised many with his all around talent.

FUTURE GOING FORWARD

Pederson will most likely continue to be the Dodgers’ top prospect while he plays in the minor league system. I can only imagine that Pederson will receive an invite to big league spring training and try to really get some experience under his belt before he most likely moves up to Triple-A next season.

If Pederson can prove that he can in fact succeed at the major league level, which he certainly looks capable of doing, it opens up endless possibilities and flexibilty for the future of the Dodgers outfield. The way it looks right now is that the Dodgers have their main four outfielders with Matt Kemp, Yasiel Puig, Carl Crawford, and Andre Eithier, but after that you have Scott Van Slyke, Alex Castellanos and I think Pederson is right behind them.

We can all agree, having seven major league talent outfielders is not a recipe for success and while there are injury concerns, the depth might need to be traded. I’m not saying that the Dodgers should trade Pederson at all, but to solve the crowded outfield situation, some form of change will need to happen.

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In case you missed it, here’s the Dodgers pool celebration, PLUS Yasiel Puig’s celebration dance off!

http://youtu.be/LknQOqL7uME

Staff Writer

Staff Writer features content written by our site editors along with our staff of contributing writers. Thank you for your readership.

4 Comments

  1. One thing’s for sure you’re hanging a lot of hope on those young plyraes continuing to improve like Avila, Hosmer, Valencia, Maybin, and Stubbs. I like most of those guys, but it’s not likely that they all continue to improve this year. However, I like your team offensively. If you can get some bounce back years from HanRam and J. Morneau with Kinsler Tulo staying healthy all year and those young plyraes keep improving, then you’ll be doing well. You’re a little more balanced than I like my teams, but it’s pretty clear you drafted offensively and let your pitching slide. I would plan on being competitive on this side of the ball all year long.Your pitching is a little suspect. I incorrectly picked Weaver as the AL Cy Young winner last year, although I was close. My pick for this year in the NL is Gio Gonzalez. I think he’s going to tear it up in the NL East. Chris Sale is moving to the rotation and is a good pick up as you can throw him into your RP position but still get starting stats. I will hand it to you that you picked up a couple good starters and you probably got them for a good value in Bumgarner, Sanchez, and Hudson. I don’t value closers very much as they are one-trick ponies. I’d probably keep Broxton on the bench and put in Sale as you’re going to need help to stay competitive in Wins and K’s. I would probably keep an eye out for other starters who qualify as RP’s and continue to pick them up if you can find them. To summarize, I think you’re team has a LOT of promise. You’re young across the board. Don’t drop anyone early in the season just because of a bad spell. However, your team could falter for the same reason. If these younger guys don’t flourish like you need them to, then you might be spending a lot of time searching the waiver wire to find replacements. You can plan on some breakout campaigns this year as well. Good luck in your fantasy season!

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