Maybe Joc Pederson Is The Future

Clearly, this is

Mark J. Rebilas-USA TODAY Sports

Famous last words. Well still, this idea interests me a lot. Many Dodger fans have an idea of who the lanky left Center Fielder is, he’s by many accounts, the top prospect in the system.

If you didn’t know exactly who he was, he sure opened some eyes last night with 2 home runs (one was a double that would have been overturned had there have been replay), including this massive home run vs the Mariners.

Unfortunately, being a Los Angeles Dodger minor league player is tough, because this team is so stacked, there aren’t any opening anywhere. Even the middle infield has a glut of talent. The starting pitching is 9 deep, not counting Chad Billingsley. The relieving corps is stacked with former closers (not all good). However, maybe the worst position to play in the whole minor leagues, across the game is Outfield for any Dodgers affiliate. When one of Yasiel Puig, Andre Ethier, Matt Kemp, and Carl Crawford don’t get a spot in the outfield, you know it’s a stacked ball club.

But taking into account everything, maybe the organization really thinks Pederson is special. After a full year of rampant trade rumors. Maybe he’s in LA for the long run. Lets take a look at the Peter Gammons article from 4 days ago. Apparently

"They could have had David Price back in November for a package of Pederson, Seager and 17-year old lefthanded pitching phenom Julio Urias. They would not bite, nor would they engage teams on Pederson."

Huh. This type of thinking is consistent with the idea that the Dodgers were going to stick with their prospects to carry them in the future. Remember Jim Bowden’s “Greg Holland for Joc Pederson” garbage? Yep, I loved the tweet that followed that idea from him. The Dodgers wouldn’t even listen on Pederson.

So what does this all mean?

Joc Pederson is really good. Baseball America ranked him first among Dodgers prospects, ahead of promising young teenagers Julio Urias and  Corey Seager. The organization didn’t even think to put him on the trade block last summer where they probably could have had Chase Utley, Chase Headley, some combination of Yovani Gallardo and Aramis Ramirez, or Matt Garza. And they didn’t even think about dealing him when they probably could have had Brandon Phillips, Elvis Andrus/Ian Kinsler, or of course, David Price.

*For the record, I am/was against Joc Pederson for any of these players straight up.*

Another interesting thing, is under the McCourt era, Pederson would have probably have been dealt for one of these players long ago, Colletti is notorious for dealing young, promising talent to try to win now, but maybe now with a bigger budget, a better overall team, and a philosophy the organization is actually preaching, he’s come around. So maybe, somehow, some way, the Dodgers are going to get him in the starting lineup come 2015, barring the inevitable Joc Pederson for Cliff Lee trade (which I would definitely be for). And, 2015 is a full year away, and yes it’s difficult to make these projections, but a something tells me that the Dodgers are going to have a drastically different starting lineup come next year. And I can’t say that’s a bad thing.