Taking a Look at Dustin Pedroia

Baseball-Reference.com is useful for much more than looking up a player's statistics or making historical comparisons.

For example, there are specific statistics - called splits - that can be pulled up in an instant.  You want to know how a player has done on a monthly basis (you would be happy with Carl Crawford's improvement since his terrible April)?  Check the splits.

Splits are an important statistic at this time of year when a team is looking for a specific skill in trying to acquire a player to fill out their bench.  For example, Conor Jackson may not be the answer to Red Sox fans dreams in right field but if you look at his splits, his numbers against left-handed pitching could make him a nice option to platoon with Josh Reddick.

Now that I have your attention, taking a quick peek at Dustin Pedroia's career splits shows just how important his performance is to the success of the Red Sox and also could hint at a possible lineup change for Terry Francona.

Over the course of his career, Pedroia has been instrumental to the Red Sox chances of winning but you don't need statistics to tell you that.  But just in case you want some numbers to prove your point, here is the breakdown of Pedroia's stats in Red Sox wins and losses:

Wins (380) - .336 BA, 50 HR, 238 RBI, 52 SB, 129 2B, .402 OBP, .924 OPS
Losses (273) - .256 BA, 17 HR, 65 RBI, 24 SB, 64 2B, .332 OBP, .703 OPS

As for where Pedroia should hit in the lineup, it looks like he could be more effective in the cleanup spot rather than his customary spot hitting second.

In the cleanup spot, he has a .517 BA, 4 HR, 9 RBI, .531 OBP, and 1.069 OPS.  Of course that's just in 8 games and 32 plate appearances. 

Statistics can be bent to fit almost any argument and for the time being, I like Pedroia batting behind Jacoby Ellsbury and in front of Adrian Gonzalez.