When I was in college, I had a roommate who had a copy of Madden, and anytime we played, inevitably at some point he’d say, “Watch this,” and then try to do something cool. It almost never worked — neither of us was particularly good at Madden — but it was always pretty fun that he would try, like, a halfback pass or a 2nd down fake punt or a 4th-and-26 Hail Mary or whatever.
When it did work, though, it was cool.
Man, was it cool.
Those Brewers fans made Joc Pederson say, “Watch this.”
When the Giants signed Pederson, I don’t know if I had a take besides, “Yep, seems like something the Giants would do.” He seemed like a good hitter who probably wasn’t going to be as good as he had been for the Dodgers four or five years ago, and also should maybe scrub himself really hard in the shower just to make sure he didn’t have any more of that stench on him.
Instead, ha ha, funny story, he’s been carrying the Giants offense for the last couple weeks.
We are into Year 4 of the Farhan Zaidi era, and this shouldn’t really be a surprise. The front office is good at this. They found Mike Yastrzemski and Donovan Solano, Alex Dickerson and Darin Ruf, blah blah Wade blah blah Thairo Estrada.
They signed Wilmer Flores, who has been a good, productive player for them, and their new training methods and offensive philosophy revitalized the careers of Brandons Belt and Crawford, as well as leading to Buster Posey’s best offensive season since 2014. Healthy Evan Longoria was a monster in 2021, and Steven Duggar turned from an offensive question mark into an offensive contributor. I don’t want to overstate things, but the San Francisco Giants are literally unstoppable and they will never face any kind of serious obstacle ever again.
Joc is, then, a symbol of the things that the front office is doing right.
They targeted him after a so-so year (with a great Division Series tacked on at the end, and also an okay NLCS, and also he played in the World Series). Other teams didn’t want him that badly, so the Giants didn’t have to pay too much. Their analytics guys and their coaches worked together on his swing, and then Gabe Kapler’s been putting him in the best possible situations to succeed, and limiting his time in situations where he probably won’t succeed. Joc Pederson is textbook analytic Giants.
He is also not a symbol of the things that the front office is doing right.
It can start to feel distinctly weird to look at a guy doing well and to say, “This happened because of that other guy, over there, not playing.” Joc Pederson has had agency all along. As much as the Giants chose him, he chose them too. Kapler has been putting him in against right-handers and pulling him for defense and against lefties, which is great, but he did that for Alex Dickerson last year too, and it’s working somewhat better this year.
Then you throw in his personality. Now, Joc Pederson is not super interested in talking to the public — the only interesting part of his postgame interview last night was when he said those fans were “talking shit” and the rest was very dull — but you get a good idea of how he is with his teammates just from watching. You have the hair. You had the pearls last year, and him calling himself a “bad bitch,” and the way the Giants announcers have been gushing over his clubhouse presence this year, and the way he totally buys in to Austin Slater subbing in for him in late innings.
Joc Pederson, like everyone on the team, is more than what the Giants saw in him or made him. He is more than the next chapter in the book of Farhan, more than his current hot streak, more than the slump that is inevitably coming, not because he’s doing anything wrong, but because that’s how baseball works.
So for the second straight April, the Giants are exceeding expectations. Last year, they weren’t supposed to go anywhere and they ended up going very far indeed; this year, they were supposed to regress, and they have a .706 winning percentage in the early going. They still might regress. A tenth of the season doesn’t mean nothing, but it does mean less than the upcoming nine tenths.
What the team is doing, they’re doing on the backs of Farhan Zaidi and Scott Harris, and also Joc Pederson and Carlos Rodon. I don’t think the Giants can keep doing this season after season by pulling the choicest cuts of meat out of The French Laundry’s dumpster, but they should’t have to; eventually they’ll hit upon a big-name free agent who actually wants to come to San Francisco (I’m already getting my sure-to-be-dashed hopes up for Juan Soto) and build the roster around him.
But for now, they don’t need that guy, because Joc Pederson is everything they could have hoped for and then some. He couldn’t have been more impressive at the start of the season, and really neither could the Giants. Joc deserves credit for that, and so does everyone else.