GLENDALE, Ariz. _ Brian Urlacher might be coming out of retirement again.
Late last season, Dodgers center fielder Joc Pederson took to wearing a face guard on his helmet for at-bats against left-handed pitchers. Pederson joked that the face guard made him feel like the retired Chicago Bears linebacker.
It did more than that. It gave Pederson a visual cue to "keep my front shoulder in longer and be able to use the whole field" against lefties. Pederson said he has ordered another face guard from the equipment manufacturer and might wear it again this season.
If so, that face guard could get more exposure.
Dodgers manager Dave Roberts platooned Pederson with right-handed Trayce Thompson during the first half of last season and limited Pederson's playing time against left-handed pitching (he had just 77 plate appearances against lefties all season). This spring, Roberts has said Pederson will get more at-bats against lefties in 2017 based on the desire to keep his glove in center field and faith that Pederson will improve against left-handers.
"Both," Roberts said. "Obviously, we like his glove out there in center field and his ability to slug."
Pederson finished second among last year's Dodgers (to Corey Seager) in slugging percentage (.512), OPS (.847) and OPS-plus (129). None of that damage was done against left-handed pitching, however. Pederson was 8 for 64 (.125) with 22 strikeouts and hit just one of his 25 home runs against left-handers.
Pederson asserts he doesn't have a problem with left-handers despite a .178 average in two big-league seasons against them � "I mean, I hit .300 off them my last year in Triple-A," he said. Instead, his offseason focus was on making some adjustments heading into his third season that will give him a more mechanically sound swing regardless of what kind of pitching he is facing.
"If your body is not in a good position, you're not going to hit. With any approach you have," Pederson said. "So I needed to make some mechanical changes to get myself into a better hitting position. And when you have that in order, you can move on to your approach and focus on how pitchers are attacking you.
"These pitchers are good and they know how to throw it to certain locations and if you're not able to hit those locations, you're an out. So you've got to mechanically get in a good spot."
Roberts sees a more consistent "path to the ball" from Pederson this spring and "more consistency with his approach." Pederson homered to lead off the game against the Milwaukee Brewers on Wednesday, his third home run in the Cactus League (no other Dodger has more than one).
"With Joc, even if you go back to last spring, there was a lot of tinkering and really trying to figure out what works best for him," Roberts said. "The second after the season ended, he made an adjustment with his swing. There's a little step-back thing going and it gets him in a good position to fire. I think from that point on he kind of found a baseline for his swing mechanically. Then outside of that an approach piece, a plan piece.
"Every hitter is different. The important thing is when he gets to that point to where he's ready to fire on the baseball, his hands are in a consistent position. That's where he's at right now."
