Previewing Second Base

The future of second base in Boston finally arrives as a full time player. Dustin Pedroia who struggled in a late season callup last fall is prepared to take over for a number of short term fixes that stretch back to the early to mid 90's.

With Pedroia Boston has a long term player to fill the position.

Because of the uncertainty in Pedroia being a rookie, Boston resigned Alex Cora for 2-years and $2 million per, Cora will fill in as a middle infielder to supplement Pedroia and Julio Lugo when they needs days off.

Its hard to predict this position because of lack of significant playing time the two have had in the majors of late, but here goes.

According to Bill James, Pedroia could have a very solid rookie campaign. James predicts a .284/.358/.418 season with 10 HR, 72 RBI, 47 doubles, 67 walks and just 43 strikeouts. Normally you could use that to begin your Pedroia for Rookie of the Year campaign but we will discuss in a later post why that would be a waste of your time.

PECOTA has somewhat similar numbers for Pedroia with .274/.360/.431 with 9 HR, 60 RBI, 36 doubles and just 47 strikeouts.

My predictions for this duo are similar to whats above.

Pedroia: .285 with 12 HR, 70 RBI, 43 doubles, 75 walks and 41 strikeouts.
Cora: .265 with 2 HR, 15 RBI, 6 doubles

UPDATE: I have just come across the Bill James projections for Alex Cora, he is as follows, .243 average with 3 HR, 26 RBI and 32 runs.