MVPedroia by Jared Carrabis
Dustin Pedroia wins the American League Most Valuable Player Award


Was there ever any doubt? After receiving 16 of the 28 first place votes, Dustin Pedroia has been named the American League Most Valuable Player. I can just see the wood on the top shelf of his trophy case bending into the shape of a “U”. First it was an American League Gold Glove award, then came his Silver Slugger award and finally on Tuesday, November 18, 2008 Dustin Pedroia was named as the Most Valuable Player in the American League ahead of the Twins’ Justin Morneau after receiving a total of 317 points to Morneau’s 257 in the MVP voting.

Pedroia may not be the stereotypical figure that the MVP award normally is associated with such as your every day power-hitting RBI machine, but when the Red Sox needed someone to step up in 2008, Pedroia answered the call. Throughout the 2008 season, Pedroia exemplified what value to a team was all about. With injuries to some of the biggest names on the 25-man roster, the second baseman filled those holes any way that he knew how.

He did it with Gold Glove defense, he did it with Silver Slugger worthy offense and he did it with MVP-like leadership, production and enthusiasm. The last Red Sox player to be awarded the MVP trophy was the 6’1’’ 240 lb. power-hitting first baseman, Mo Vaughn in 1995. While Pedroia is listed at 5’9’’, the media guide may have given him an inch or two. But don’t let his height deceive you because it is not the size of the dog in the fight, rather it is the size of the fight in the dog and this dirt dog has nothing but fight in him.

Pedroia’s record setting sophomore season was all for not in his eyes as anything less of a championship is a failure. The former Arizona State Sun Devil wants nothing more than to win the World Series every…single…year. He has said time and time again that he could care less about the personal awards; he is all team and no self. Pedroia homered in Game 7 of the 2008 ALCS but his shot off of Matt Garza was not enough to propel the Red Sox to their second straight World Series. If Pedroia could trade all of the awards he has won this offseason for a win in Game 7, you can bet your life there would be no hesitation on his part in doing so.

His .326 batting average in 2008 placed him as the runner-up for the American League batting title just four points behind Joe Mauer. His 17 home runs and 83 RBI were both career highs for the second baseman. On a more impressive note in 2008, Pedroia scored 118 runs, sprayed 218 hits, led all of baseball with 54 doubles, hit .326, accumulated 322 total bases and smoked 73 extra base hits: all of which were single season records for a Red Sox second baseman.

Personally, my favorite Dustin Pedroia stat for 2008 was his 20 stolen bases. Pedroia is not known for his speed one bit, but apparently he was doing something right as we was tied for second on the Red Sox with as many stolen bases as the speedy, Coco Crisp. Of course Pedroia was 30 stolen bases shy of Jacoby Ellsbury’s mark but what may surprise you would be the fact that Pedroia was only caught one time (ten less times than Ellsbury).

What the future holds for the second baseman for the Boston Red Sox is anybody’s guess, but all I know is that I can’t wait to see what else the 25-year-old Dustin Pedroia can amaze Red Sox Nation with. So it is now that I will take the time to congratulate Dustin Pedroia on winning the 2008 American League MVP award, but with my congratulations comes a question. What’s next? You’ve been in the league for two seasons and you have already won Rookie of the Year, a World Series, a Gold Glove, a Silver Slugger and now an MVP. Falling just four points short of a batting title at the age of 25 leads me to believe that finishing first will be on his to-do list before his playing days are done but as I stare at his trophy case I can really only see one thing missing: Pedroia for Cy Young in ’09?

Published on November 18, 2008

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