Joc Pederson has escaped the national attention this season, after bursting onto the scene early last year, crushing 20 home runs before the All-Star break, as a 23 year-old rookie.
In 2016, things have indeed been quiet. Although he has already hit 16 home runs (slugging .476) he’s hitting just .236 overall, and has been mostly a non-factor on defense. That said he is still a really athletic outfielder, who remains capable of making amazing plays. It’s just, sometimes he comes up short:
As you can see, Pederson clearly tracks this deep fly off the bat of Mark Reynolds with the intent of being a hero. He runs over to the wall, positions himself perfectly, leaps and POOF, his glove vanishes. And worse, on second viewing, the ball didn’t even knock the glove off his hand … he just dropped it.
Whoops. Go get ’em next time, Joc.