FJM, Your Services Are Needed STAT

(Get it, STAT? Ha ha!)

The Juan Pierre Imbroglio of '08 has reached new heights as the LA Times' Bill Plaschke (reg.) has written a column defending Juan Pierre:

Bloggers downright brutalize him.

Hey, that's us!

I trust the razor-sharp minds of Fire Joe Morgan will conduct a post-mortem of Plaschke's writing post-haste, but wanted to single out Plaschke's blaming much of Pierre's poor 2007 on Rafael Furcal. First Plaschke writes:

Pierre adds an irreplaceable speed component to the top of the Dodgers order. And, in left field, what Pierre lacks in arm, he can overcome with that speed.

Later in the article:

Placing Pierre's weak arm under the spotlight -- and, in fact, putting his whole game at risk -- was the injury to Furcal.

The Dodgers shortstop couldn't reach many shallow center-field balls that shortstops usually reach. He also couldn't move Pierre along the bases as a good No. 2 hitter should do.

But isn't Pierre's speed supposed to compensate for his lack of range? And opposing baserunners knew that they could often take the extra base despite this speed.

With a healthy Furcal and with Pierre as our everyday left-fielder—as Tony Jackson insists—there's going to be a lot of I-told-you-so comments this season. It'll be interesting to see who'll be saying them.

Ken Tremendous, et al., we wait with bated F5 keys.

earlier: Post-Game 14 Thread: Juan Pierre Is THE MAN

UPDATE:

There's a whole lot of respondin' going down!

Phil Gurnee responds to Plaschke's column

Brian Kamenetzky responds to Plaschke's column

UPDATE:

Finally! Finally! Finally!