Phillies Commentator Has Bad Take About Joc Pederson

David Kohl-USA TODAY Sports

I dunno what’s so unique about young Dodger outfielders and their propensity to get blamed for their approach to the intricate game of baseball, but Joc isn’t an exception! Check out Phillies color commentator Larry Andersen‘s take on Joc Pederson… as a player (person?)

"To me it’s just a young, selfish, very selfish player when you come out there, ‘I’m just trying to hit home runs, all I want to do is hit home runs’What about — obviously there’s two outs, it’s not the same — what about if it’s first and third, infield back, all you gotta do is hit a ball on the ground and you’re going to go up there, try to hit home runs?"

It’s kinda amazing how many former ballplayers/managers take a player striking out/dingering a ton of times as some personal spite against them, or like it’s a moral knock against the work ethic of a specific player. –Keith Hernandez is no exception–

Nobody really knows the intricacies of the relationship a player has with the media, and I sure as hell don’t know the context of these comments but it sure seems like Andersen lazily threw out a reported quote that Joc told him “I’m just trying to hit home runs, all I want to do is hit home runs”

Except not?

"I think I said the exact opposite Wednesday, [Joc] said"

So there’s some doubt as to whether Joc actually said this, or anything to Larry, hell the Hoornstra article said:

"Pederson and a Dodgers spokesperson both said the rookie wasn’t approached for an interview by anyone on the Phillies’ broadcast team during the three-game series."

But i’m gonna start with the quote that Joc apparently told Andersen: “I’m just trying to hit home runs, all I want to do is hit home runs”.

Call it what you like, but the precise quote Andersen gave doesn’t make a whole lot of sense, because you have to assume that Joc is arrogant enough to admit that his sole purpose for hitting is not driving runners in, it’s not getting on base, and it’s not even hitting the heck out of the ball, it’s solely to go up there and hit long balls all of the time, everything else would be a failure on his part.

Let’s not forget that Joc hasn’t exactly been candid with his media appearances in the past, Jared Massey on the Dugout Blues podcast suggested that he’s very reluctant, especially as a rookie outfielder to give away anything to the media, giving yourself a label as a selfish dude by saying your entire approach is to hit dingers doesn’t fall in line with his tendencies in the past, why would that change while he’s the midst of the first horrible slump in his young career (otherwise known as the adjustment period every young player faces)?

The rest of what Andersen says is questionable at best

"It looks like this guy’s just got one thing on his mind, and that’s either walking or hitting a home run. There’s no ‘try and get a base hit here.’ He came out and said it, ‘I’m trying to hit home runs.’ It’s not the smartest thing to come out and say."

This assumes that Pederson gave him that disputed quote, and it also assumes that hitting a home run is a bad thing which is totally absurd to me. Not all of a player’s hits are going to be home runs or walks, not even Adam Dunn‘s, but Pederson sported one of the highest hardest hit rates in baseball from April till June, and the goal of every single plate appearance should be to get good wood on the bat, or get on base.

This is obviously an approach worth having, and one that Pederson adhered to for the first few months of the season, but struggles create narratives, and due to the unfortunate fact that he has a lot of swing and miss in his game, Pederson is prone to have an extended slump (like the one he’s having now). Being worried about Pederson’s production for the past 6 weeks is totally valid (he’s hitting .156/.257/.240 since July 1st), but calling him selfish and questioning his mental ability cause he hits home runs (which is statistically the best outcome a player can have in a single plate appearance) and is finally struggling is a borderline comment at best.