Andrew Vaughn moved from being a third-overall draft pick to being demoted to the minors, then became the Brewers' starting first baseman after a June trade from the Chicago White Sox. He produced a .905 OPS in 37 games following the trade and emerged as one of the season's steals. Vaughn credited Dustin Pedroia as his childhood favorite because Pedroia succeeded despite being shorter than many teammates. Vaughn now measures 5-foot-10 and shows some swing resemblance to Pedroia with a high leg kick and two-hand finish. Vaughn's rise serves as evidence of Pedroia's influence on smaller players.
Of all the unlikely heroes around Major League Baseball this season, Andrew Vaughn stands out. Vaughn went from a former third-overall draft pick, to being demoted to the minors by the worst team in the American League, to the starting first baseman of the best team in baseball. The Milwaukee Brewers pulled him off the Chicago White Sox's scrap heap in June, and the rest is history.
With a .905 OPS in 37 games since the trade, Vaughn is proving to be one of the steals of the season. And fittingly, he once drew inspiration from one of baseball's ultimate underdogs. In a profile for the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Vaughn told writer Isaiah De Anda Delgado that his favorite player growing up was none other than Boston Red Sox second baseman Dustin Pedroia, due to the fact that he was significantly shorter than most of his Little League teammates.
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