He is the little engine that could. He is the little guy with the big swing.
Dustin Pedroia followed up his Rookie of the Year with a Gold Glove, a Silver Slugger Award, and now an MVP.
Pedroia becomes only the third player in Major League history, joining Cal Ripken Jr. and Ryan Howard, to win the Rookie of the Year Award and follow it up with the MVP.
The Red Sox spark plug garnered 16 of the 28 first place votes to comfortably beat out Justin Morneau, who had seven first place votes for the 2008 A.L. MVP.
Pedroia led the A.L. in hits with 218, runs with 118, doubles with 54 (a Red Sox record), and multi-hit games with 61. He also hit 17 home runs from that compact frame and stole 20 bases. His OPS, the most telling of the stats was .915 after the All-Star break.
And with that huge swing of his he struck out only 52 times in 653 at-bats.
The numbers are good no doubt, and there were others with numbers that deserved recognition.
The numbers do not tell the entire story of this season for Pedroia. The fire that he plays with every day, every play, and every at-bat is inspirational to his teammates. In just his second year his personality and enthusiasm have even veterans like David Ortiz looking up to him as a leader on the Red Sox.
Pedroia is listed at 5'9" and 180 lbs, yet realistically is more like 5’6” or 5’7”.
After a grand slam versus the Yankees in late August this year Pedroia jokingly proclaimed to his teammates that he was “the strongest 165-pound man in baseball.”
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