Dustin Pedroia, long time Boston Red Sox second baseman and 2008 American League Most Valuable Player, announced his retirement today.
Pedroia, 37, was, along with Robinson Cano, Chase Utley and Ian Kinsler, part of a crop of star-caliber second basemen who came into the league around the same time in the mid-aughts. Pedroia was a second round pick in 2004 out of Arizona State — his beating out Ian Kinsler for the shortstop job there led Kinsler to transfer to the University of Missouri — and after a cup of coffee in 2006, he won the American League Rookie of the Year Award in 2007, slashing .