Editorials

Dodgers Legend Eric Karros Discusses Joc Pederson at First Base

Eric Karros knows a thing or two about the first base position after playing over 1,500 games there for the Los Angeles Dodgers from 1991 to 2002.

Joc’s Foundation

Karros talked to JP Hoornstra of The Orange County Register about Joc Pederson’s conversion to a first baseman/outfielder and his expansion on his versatiltiy. EK had nothing but positive things to say:

“It’s an athletic position, you’re involved in almost every play, and with the way the game is now, you have to be athletic. Joc is athletic. The only thing he’s lacking is experience.”

Although Karros might be being generous in his assessment of Joc Pederson’s athleticism, he is exactly right. Nine games at a new position is not enough of a sample size to judge Joc’s move to first base. Sure, he has made some errors, mental or physical, at his new part-time home, but he is learning.

Karros on Joc

Karros continued on:

“For me, Joc’s looked pretty good and he’s done as well as anybody could expect. He’s learning at the big league level.”

Inside of the article, the longtime first baseman discussed the ‘little things’ of playing first base and explained that as Joc logs more innings at first base, the more they become second nature and the better he will be defensively.

Although the early results are not promising in the “Joc Pederson, First Baseman” experiment, time will only help. Eric Karros having faith in Pederson should force us to give him time as well.

Heading into Wednesday night’s game, Joc has played just 66 innings at first base this season — and in his major-league career for that matter — and has made 2 errors and has been worth just -1 DRS. It could be worse!

Daniel Preciado

My name is Daniel Preciado and I am 19 years old. I am a sophomore Sport Analytics major and Cognitive Science and Economics dual minor at Syracuse University. When I am not in New York, I live in Whittier, California --- not too far from Chavez Ravine. I am pretty old-school for being an analytics guy and I will always embrace debate. Also, Chase Utley did absolutely nothing wrong.

2 Comments

  1. So far, Joc has not hurt us in his on the job training. Got to give credit to Roberts and upper management on this one. His mistakes have been just like Karros said ” to be expected”. We just keep winning and this gives us better flexibility.

  2. As fans we all called it a failed experiment rather quickly this is a great article to put it into a better perspective, maybe it wasn’t such a failed experiment to learn any position at the big league level has to be tough and it really was, to small of a sample size to say so given more time at the position who knows how well Joc does.

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