How Joc Pederson is putting boom-or-bust reputation in past

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CHICAGO — Better consistency was Joc Pederson’s goal this spring, and roughly one-third through the season, the returns have been promising.

Consider his offseason plan a significant sign of maturity, and the first step in utilizing the lessons he learned in his rookie season in 2015.

Pederson has become a somewhat different hitter in 2016. The early home run barrage from last year is way down, but so are his strikeouts.

There are two general ideas when it comes to Pederson. The primary one is that he one day turns the type of numbers he had during the first two months last season into a full season of monster production. But first things first.

Pederson needs to work on simply avoiding the massive peak and extended valley he experienced last year before he needs to start working on a six-month schedule of All-Star-caliber numbers.

Pederson seemed to understand that, first and foremost, when he started to seek out coaches this winter to help him with his plate approach.

“It’s part of being consistent,” Pederson said. “We have great new hitting coaches here and the hitting coaches I talked to in the offseason, like Johnny Washington and Shawn Wooten, who helped me make some offseason adjustments and getting me into a better place.”

Washington has since left the organization, but he had been instrumental with Pederson’s growth at the minor-league level. Wooten is still just a phone call away at Triple-A Oklahoma City.

With him every day now is Turner Ward, one of those new coaches getting an extended look at Pederson. Ward wasn’t with the Dodgers last year, but he knows all about that boom-bust season. He just elects not to emphasize it, even if it motivates the work the two are doing now.

“It’s not all about last year,” Ward said. “It’s all about moving forward. Every one of these guys is looking to get better. If they’re hitting .320, they want to hit .330; if it’s .330 they want to hit .340. That’s the great thing about this job. At this level, everybody is looking to get better and try to improve.”

But wanting and doing are completely different …

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