2016 Fantasy Bounce Back Player: Dustin Pedroia

As the 2016 baseball season rolls on, Red Sox second baseman, Dustin Pedroia continues his resurgence.

Dustin Pedroia has been one of the top second baseman in the MLB over the course of his 11 year career. Playing for the Boston Red Sox since 2006, Pedroia has two World Series rings to show for him. He has been a major key for the Red Sox success over the past decade.

However, the past two seasons have been sub par for Pedrioa’s standards in terms of production. Fans and fantasy owners have been wondering if he perhaps was nearing the end of his career. He has everyone thinking differently here in 2016.

Dustin Pedroia, since he has been in the majors, has always put up consistent stats. Consistency is what fantasy owners like to see. He was a player fans and owners alike could count on time and time again. Pedroia has a career .299 batting average, 128 home runs, and 608 RBI. He has also accumulated over 1500 hits during this time. Pedroia is always a threat to get on base, which is the main reason he is valuable.

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Naturally, Dustin Pedroia’s struggles over the recent seasons proved to be worrisome for many.  Before then, Pedroia was averaging roughly 16 home runs with 80 RBI a season. His stats in the past two respective seasons are as followed: seven home runs and 53 RBI in 2014 and 12 home runs and just 42 RBI in 2015. Pedroia had indeed lost his status as one of the elite, top-tier second baseman after back to back mediocre seasons. One statistic that remained relatively consistent in terms of his career was his batting average, which stood at .283.

Injuries too, have played a main factor with his production during his regression. He found himself on the disabled list multiple times in 2015 with hamstring problems. With multiple stints on the DL and that aggravated hamstring lingering, it was hard for Pedroia to hit a stride. Pedroia certainly looked to improve from some arguably his worst seasons to date. During the off-season, he was working with his coaches to improve his game and mainly become more athletic overall.

Over the first few weeks of this season, Dustin Pedroia appears to be back to his old form. The now 32-year-old already has 46 hits, six homers, 20 RBI, and 27 runs scored for the Red Sox. He has begun to hit more gorund balls. This a a good sign from the number two hitter for Boston as he continues to hit over .300.

He is striking out a lot more, 15.9 percent, but the slower bat speed is a side effect of getting older. His swinging strike rate is about one percent higher than his career average, 5.2 compared to 4.3 percent, so he is still the patient hitter all know.

Last year, Pedroia barley ranked in the top 20 for fantasy second baseman. This year, he finds himself in the top five once again behind only the likes of Jose Altuve (currently No. 1 overall in fantasy points for hitters), Robinson Cano, Ben Zobrist, and Daniel Murphy.

Next: Fantasy Baseball 2016: Don't Lose Faith in Chris Archer

It is an encouraging start to the season for both Dustin Pedroia and the Red Sox organization. Don’t expect him to be getting many bonus points for his base stealing anymore, but he will have many RBI opportunities and plenty of chances to score runs with the lineup he has around him. With highly effective hitters and base runners like Mookie Betts and Xander Bogaerts around him, and home run bombers like David Ortiz and Hanley Ramirez, look for Pedroia and Boston’s offense to continue flourishing this season.