An Ode to Joc Pederson
An “Ode to Joc Pederson”
The year is 2015, the roster is set, and the outfield is comprised of; Left Fielder Carl Crawford, the electric Yasiel Puig in Right, and making his opening day debut in Center is Joc Pederson. Drafted in the 11th round of the 2010 draft out of Palo Alto High School, he made his way up the minor league system and debuted as a September call-up in 2014. Fast forward to 2015 and Joc was on his way to becoming a rockstar. Making the All-star team on the strength of one of the best offensive first-half performances from a Dodger Rookie ever and making it all the way to the finals of the Home Run Derby before losing to Todd Frazier. It seemed the sky was the limit. After that epic first half though, reality soon came crashing down, it wasn’t pretty.
Some players wouldn’t be able to come back from that kind of collapse, the mental pressures of failing to meet expectations can downright destroy an athlete. Not Joc though. Over his 6 seasons with the Dodgers Joc is a career .233/.339/.474 hitter with an OPS of .813 and 123 HR’s. He’s had his ups and downs as a hitter. Yet through all of that, he grinded his way to be someone you depend on in big spots and last season it finally appeared he had put everything together leading the way to a .249/.339/.538 slash line with a .876 OPS over 149 GP with 36 HR’s to go with 74 RBI’s.
As a Dodger he embodied everything we as fans want out of a player. He was hardworking and committed to his craft, we could see in his outward displays of frustration his deep care and commitment to always wanting to be better and never settling. That more than anything I think is what ingratiated him to fans. His epic 2017 World Series performance where he hit .333/.400/.944 with 3 HR’s was a bright spot in wake of the defeat to the Houston Astros*. In 2019 he put on one of the most exciting displays of power when he and Vlad Guerrero Jr. in Round 2 of the Home Run Derby broke into a slugfest that took regulation time, bonus time, a tiebreaker round, two swing-offs and 79 total home runs to decide. At the end of it all, it was Vlad Jr. still standing … by a single homer, 40-39.
It was moments like that which made February 5th 2020 such a bummer. Dodger fans now have to say goodbye to “Joc Pop” and watch him ride down the 5 to Anaheim where he’ll suit up in our cross-town rivals uniform for the up-coming season. Pederson was the catalyst for many great moments and leaves us with everlasting memories that will forever be apart of Dodger history which I and many other fans wish to thank him for.
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