Juan Pierre Must Be Juicing

How else to explain this, his first home run as a Dodger, in the sixth inning of tonight's game vs. Pittsburgh?

The home run is the 13th in Pierre's nine-year career. And it wasn't an Alex-Cora-off-the-glove cheapie, either--this ball went deep into the right field seats, atop the scoreboard wall.

In 2008, Juan Pierre now has more home runs than Mark Sweeney. And only two fewer HRs than Andruw Jones!

Holy smokes, maybe there is something magical about this year after all. Congratulations, Juan!

Manny "Translating" for Angel Berroa

Via Trolley Dodger, a hilarious video of Manny Ramirez "translating" for Angel Berroa, on the post-game show last night. As Orel posted in last night's GT comments, it isn't a strict Spanish/English translation, to say the least...not that it mattered....

If you blink, you'll miss it: Berroa even mocks Juan Pierre!

Inside Juan Pierre's Locker

Okay, Juan, we get the point. Matt Kemp has 0-fered in three of his last five games. He hasn't scored a run in the last five games. His 0-for-5 performance last night included swinging at the first pitch twice, grounding into a double play once, and a strikeout.

But come on, your voodoo doll is now affecting everyone else. Andre Ethier had an 0-for-5 day in the two slot. Jeff Kent, Russell Martin, and James Loney could all muster only one hit each.

And this is against the Nationals, for pete's sake.

Unstick your pins and stop drinking the Haterade, Juan.

UPDATE 8/27 3p: Well, at least Kemp's day wasn't as bad as A-Rod's. Even Tiger Woods couldn't stick around to watch...

More Comedy Than Tragedy at Charity Bowling Event

Dodgers hold Bowling Extravaganza (Dodgers.com)

photo by Jon SooHoo/Dodgers

Dodgers' Offense Just Starting to Get Feisty...And Guess Who's Coming Back?

From the LA Times:

Penny and Pierre close to returning

Left fielder Juan Pierre and opening-day starter Brad Penny could be sent on minor league rehabilitation assignments this week.

Pierre, who suffered a sprained ligament in his left knee three weeks ago and was expected to be out six weeks, could be with triple-A Las Vegas before the Dodgers start their next homestand Friday. The assignment could be anywhere from a game to three games, Torre said.

Yay. I'm giddy with excitement--or should I say, slap-happy?

JPSQ to DL After MCL MRI

From Diamond:

Juan Pierre has been placed on the disabled list after an MRI exam revealed a sprained MCL in his left knee. Jason Repko has been recalled for today's game.

Pierre's Base Stealing, Low SLG Draw Attention

ESPN.com's Jerry Crasnick's latest "top nine" list names baseball's top base stealers, and Juan Pierre checks in at #7:

In 1998, Pierre and Chone Figgins were teammates for Colorado's Class A Northwest League club in Portland, Ore. They ate hot dogs by the box because they couldn't afford anything else, and talked wistfully of playing in the big leagues while watching "SportsCenter."

Ten years later, Pierre ranks first among active big leaguers with 407 steals, and Figgins is at 215 and counting. Not too shabby for a couple of dreamers.

Pierre, as you might expect, approaches base stealing from every conceivable angle. He spends hours studying video, knows which tracks are the quickest, and works to refine his jumps during batting practice. No detail is too trivial for his consideration.

That 45-for-69 effort in Florida four years ago doesn't look real good in hindsight, but Pierre has become more efficient with maturity and time.

Given his .373 career slugging percentage, he needs all the help he can get turning singles into doubles.

Wow, quite a back-handed compliment there at the end. And if it's indeed back-handed, wouldn't we call it a "slap hit"?

Introducing Crock-Hit and Tubbs

It's the old bait and switch, and we didn't even see it coming.

All spring training, the talk was about Juan Pierre versus Andre Ethier. The signing of Andruw Jones moved Pierre to left, and the discussion revolved around whether Pierre or Ethier merited the starting role in left field. In one corner, sat Pierre, along with a $45M five-year contract whose albatross status is less a matter of "if" and more a matter of "when". In the other corner sat Ethier, whose youth and apparent fit with the Dodger persona made many think he was another homegrown talent (we stole him from Oakland, trading headcase Milton Bradley and Antonio Perez).

Ethier then scorched through spring with a .340 batting average, 11 runs, 5 HR and 13 RBI. Much further down the list, Pierre limped through spring with a .204 average in more ABs, along with 6 runs, 0 HR of course, and 2 RBI. Case closed. What was a lively debate throughout March came to a close when Torre publicly named Andre the starting left fielder. Logic prevails. Catastrophe averted.

Fast forward to the beginning of May, and now Ethier is out of the starting lineup. And he's not moping, mind you; he's remaining positive, and correctly (and wisely) saying all the right things to the press, but he's still sitting. What gives?

Don't blame Matt Kemp, over in right field, who is tearing it up offensively with a .419 average over the last 10 games. His play merits the start.

No, cast your eyes on that big black hole in the lineup that sits prominently in center field, Andruw Jones. His defense has been passable, but even his March Toward Mendoza has seen setbacks of late as he has seen his batting average fall to a pathetic .158. Jones leads the team with 34 strikeouts, many of them on the down and away pitch that seemed to stymie Adrian Beltre during the nadirs in his Dodger tenure. And he just looks awful at the plate: unbalanced, undisciplined, and unhopeful that he'll get a hit of any sort.

There has been plenty of criticism hurled toward Jones (who admittedly is an awful big target), but with Andre starting to get unjustly ensconced on the pine, I think we need to take this up a notch. If Torre is adamant at staring Pierre, it should not come at the expense of Ethier. It should come at the expense of Jones.

Yes, I hate saying that. I hate having a noodle arm in center and watching opposing baserunners take a couple of extra bags on every hit. I hate watching Rafael Furcal position himself halfway to the warning track as the cutoff man. I hate watching slap hits at the plate, particularly those bunts that pop up in the air and reach the left fielder on the fly.

But I also hate watching a .158 batter trot out there game after game and kill rallies, hopefully with a single out but sometimes with worse (see last night's game). We can't hide Jones in the lineup (or anywhere, for that matter). It's time to give him a break, especially considering he's played in all but one game this year.

The tradeoff is between Pierre and Jones. And we at SoSG have created a helpful mnemonic, for those still catching up to the sleight of hand from the bait and switch, who remain fooled by the Pierre-Ethier tradeoff.

Focus on Pierre and Jones--or should we say, "Crock-Hit and Tubbs."

Cue the Jan Hammer theme song!

Hang In There, Matt Kemp: We're Never Gonna Give You Up

Much has been written over the last 24 about Joe Torre's decision to start Juan Pierre over Matt Kemp in tonight's game vs. the Diamondbacks. Mike Scioscia's Tragic Illness breaks down the statistics to ground the argument, and Jon over on Dodger Thoughts rightfully points out that if Russell Martin were given the same early hook based on his 2-for-20 start, we wouldn't have seen his game-tying double yesterday afternoon.

True, Kemp hasn't earned the kind of job security that Martin deserves, but the numbers don't lie: Pierre is batting .091 with a .182 OPS.

The problem is, Kemp is batting .125 with a .250 OPS. (Martin, BTW, is batting a microscopic .095.)

Pierre has one hit on the year; Kemp has two. Pierre has zero RBI; Kemp has one. Pierre has zero runs; Kemp has one. With a sample size this small, in a season so early, it's too close to call. And with the Dodgers batting .229 this year after six games--50 points below even their pathetic batting average last year, and currently ranking 13th in the NL--it's understandable that the scrutiny on our offense is pretty high.

But even with the small sample size, there appears to be one widely variant statistic: Slappy has one strikeout in 11 ABs; Kemp has an astounding seven Ks in 16 ABs. Apparently, Bison's long walks from home plate back to the Dodgers' dugout weigh more heavily than Pierre's quick gait from another unproductive fly ball back to the dugout. And despite Torre's spring-training announcement that Kemp would be the starter, he's already signaling that Kemp's status is in question.

As a Dodger fan, this is disheartening, but I remain hopeful that logic will prevail over time and order will be restored. Competition for a position isn't all that bad--look at how Chin-Lung Hu shined yesterday on both offense and defense, downing the Padres--and maybe one of the two rises to the occasion. And I don't have a lot of doubt that Kemp will find his swing again (he hit .310 this spring over 42 ABs with 2 HR and 12 RBI, while Pierre hit .204 over 54 ABs with an unsurprising 0 HR and 2 RBI).

What I'm worried about, however, is the impact that Torre's quick hook will give to the impressionable young mind of Matt Kemp. The media have already started to portray Kemp (either rightfully or wrongfully) as a surly young man with gifted athletic skills but an inability to listen (hence the baserunning mistakes) and a short fuse. I for one think this is largely ridiculous hyperbole (having never met Kemp personally), and possibly the result of some unfortunate stereotyping. But I'm hoping that we don't hear of another "trash can incident" as Kemp starts thinking that the world is against him and management is just waiting for him to screw up before benching him for the $45M alternative.

If Kemp can show the maturity to let his bat do the talking, I'm sure he will return to his rightful place in the starting lineup. To be fair, we haven't heard any mouthing off from Pierre either, despite a constant pillorying in the press and calls for his head among Dodger bloggers; Pierre has dealt with his own situation maturely and admirably.

Let's hope that Kemp (seven years younger than Pierre) can show that kind of poise, too. For the Dodgers' sake.

UPDATE (12:18P): I just figured out how Joe Torre can instill confidence in an insecure Matt Kemp. All he has to do is oull Kemp aside, and recite to him the immortal words of Rick Astley:

Never gonna give you up!
Never gonna let you down!
Never gonna run around and desert you!
Never gonna make you cry!
Never gonna say goodbye!
Never gonna tell a lie and hurt you!

It all comes back to Rick. But of course.

Playing the Sunk Cost Game

From "GMs should just cut losses on these guys" by Tracy Ringolsby at FOXSports.com:

OF Juan Pierre, Dodgers, four years, $36.5 million remaining: The sad part (at least as far as L.A. should be concerned) is that none of the concerns the Dodgers discovered in Pierre's first year were secrets. But Pierre, one of the game's nicest people and hardest workers, has become a scapegoat for the Dodgers' failure of last season. The sadder part — Pierre was what he is. And at least he was available to play. You can't say the same thing about right-hander Jason Schmidt, once again on the DL in the second year of his three-year, $47 million deal. And when you consider the folks who gave him that contract knew him from San Francisco, they shouldn't have been the last bit surprised by his arm ailments.

3B Nomar Garciaparra, Dodgers, one year, $8.5 million remaining: Two years ago, the Dodgers realized Garciaparra's skills were eroded. They tried to hire him at first base, but with hot prospect James Loney looming, the Dodgers didn't have a need there. So what did they do? They actually signed Garciaparra to a two-year deal prior to last year, and then shifted him to third base.

Pierre may eventually be traded, but there's no way both he and Nomar will get released outright. Who would replace them the roster? Are there any (healthy) prospects burning up AAA ball and waiting to play 3B/OF? When Andy LaRoche returns, we can expect him to start in Las Vegas to get back into playing form. When Nomar returns, he'll replace Angel Chavez on the roster as the utility infielder. Blake DeWitt's performance will determine how soon (or if) LaRoche will be promoted to the majors again.

If Torre can continue to give significant playing time to Andre Ethier and Matt Kemp, Pierre remains valuable insurance against injury. And no team on earth would be prepared to weather the fan backlash against releasing Nomar mid-season. There appear to be some legitimate reasons for Ned to hold on to these supposed sunk costs.

UPDATE:

Missed one:

RHP Esteban Loaiza, Dodgers, one year, $7.375 million remaining: Oakland was hoping it could find someone to take on at least a part of Loaiza's salary when he was put on waivers late last season. Never did the A's imagine that someone would actually claim Loaiza on waviers and assume his salary in full. The Dodgers, however, bit in their pennant-race panic. The fact that they faded to a fourth-place finish in the NL West was bad enough, but now they've got to continue to pay Loaiza for another year.

Isn't Loaiza our fifth starter? Why would we release him, even if he is overpaid?

Hang in There, JP

From Kevin Pearson at Diamond's blog:

You really have to feel for Juan Pierre. First he looked like his dog died before the game when he found out he would not be the starting LF, and then he was flat-out embarrassed on the field just now.

Pierre hit a single through the right side, but then was immediately picked off. He did not even make a move back to the bag and honestly looked as though his mind was off someplace else and he didnt even realize there was a baseball game going on.

You know this has to be tough for him, losing his spot, and the Dodger fans certainly were not helping. He was booed as he trudged back to the dugout and one heckler yelled "Go back to Florida, please" as though he were begging.

Always a classy guy, Pierre just looks like his heart is broken right about now.

Dear Juan,

While we believe Joe Torre made the correct decision in naming Andre Ethier the Dodgers' starting left fielder, we also believe you don't deserve the venom that's been spit at you this spring. As long as you're wearing Dodger Blue, we want you to succeed. And although you're unused to a bench role, we're certain your professional pride will ensure you play as hard as you did as a starter.

Plus, given how things are going this spring, don't be surprised if Andruw Jones and Matt Kemp collide with each other out there in right center. Hey, you may be a starter again before you know it.

Best,
Orel
Sons of Steve Garvey

UPDATE:

As usual, Jon Weisman says it better—and with a historic burger joint reference to boot:

At least in terms of what's been printed, Pierre doesn't voice any recognition that everyone realizes he's exactly the same player he has always been - but that what's happened is three better outfielders have come along. It's as if Bob's Big Boy weren't able to understand why people have started to buy burgers elsewhere, even though it's still got the same ol' Bob's Big Boy statue outside it always has. Pierre can't, at least publicly, acknowledge the fact that you can now get a better burger elsewhere.

Dammit, now I'm hungry.

Glad to Be Wrong: Ethier Is Starting LF

Congrats, Andre! From Tony Jackson:

Joe Torre broke the news to Juan Pierre this morning. "He just said 'OK,' but I know he is disappointed, and that's fine," Torre said. "You don't want a guy sitting on your bench who just accepts being on the bench." Torre said JP will be a regular bench player, pinch hitting, etc. "Before it's all said and done, we're going to get contributions from a lot of people," Torre said.

Joe Torre makes his first controversial decision, and it's the right one. Things are looking up after the Dodgers' dismal spring training.

earlier: An Ethier/Or Situation, Speed vs. Power

Juan Pierre Not Protected In The Lineup

At least, that's what I can glean from reading this New York Times piece, the eleven-thousandth article on the Dodgers' exhibition game vs. the Red Sox in the Coliseum. (That's right, the Red Sox. The RED SOX. The more we say it, the more great Charlie Chowda ads we get!!!)

But back to Pierre. Shades of Adrian Beltre, Juan is playing without a cup:

The Dodgers are celebrating the 50th anniversary of their move to Los Angeles by crashing for a night at the Ping-Pong parlor that put them up for their first four seasons. Some 92,000 fans will fill the gargantuan seating bowl; another 20,000 or more will pay simply to stand and mill and gawk. The players will enter majestically in uniform through the fabled stone arches beyond right-center field, see the Little League left-field line and be overcome with ... um, emotion?

“This is what they’re going to see,” Charles Steinberg, the Dodgers’ executive vice president for marketing and public relations, said last weekend as he surveyed the ridiculously tall net in left and the misshapen field’s other goofiness. “They’re going to walk in and be like, ‘Are you kidding me?’ ”

Juan Pierre thought someone was. Pierre, the Dodgers’ probable left fielder (rather, deep shortstop), said he did not believe the dimensions when he was told of them a few weeks ago. He gradually feared for his safety.

“I’ll be like 180 feet from the hitters, and those Boston guys hit the ball pretty hard,” Pierre said. “I might have to wear a cup.”

Maybe Boston will field an all-right-handed lineup?

Speed vs. Power

Speed. Juan Pierre has it. Rafael Furcal has it. Russell Martin's got some. And...that's about it. To be effective, the thinking goes, speedy table setter-type players need productive players around them in the lineup.

Power. The Dodgers haven't had much of it. The team hasn't seen anyone hit at least 30 homers since 2004. Andruw Jones hit 26 homers last year—tying a full-season career low. Jeff Kent's HR totals are trending downward.

Last year, Andre Ethier hit 13 HR in 447 ABs, making 15-20 HR over an entire season entirely reasonable. Will Pierre's speed create at least 15-20 additional runs? An absurdly reductionist calculation, to be sure, but also another consideration in the Dodgers' LF dilemma.

Ethier Too Good to Trade, But Not Too Good to Sit?

According to SI.com's John Heyman, Andre Ethier is going to be "baseball's best backup" since Juan Pierre is slated for the left field starting role. This comes despite the fact that the Dodgers weren't willing to trade him over the off-season:

Both L.A. teams have followed the same pattern in acquiring outfielders. Both made a big center-field signing last year (Juan Pierre for the Dodgers, and Gary Matthews Jr. for the Angels). But neither was completely satisfied with the performance of those players. So they signed even bigger center fielders this winter (Andruw Jones for the Dodgers, and Torii Hunter for the Angels) [Yes, based on his weight when he showed up to Vero Beach, Jones is indeed "bigger".]. The idea now is to move both Pierre and Matthews to left field. Which means that for now Andre Ethier and Juan Rivera look to be bench players.

Rivera is good enough to start for many teams. But Ethier may be the best of the backups. "I'd like to see what that guy could do with 500 at-bats,'' one NL coach said.

He might have to wait to see, assuming Ethier stays stuck on the Dodgers' bench. Texas tried hard to trade for Ethier last summer when the two clubs were talking about Mark Teixeira, and the Rangers tried hard again this winter after the Dodgers signed Jones. But the Dodgers said no. Maybe they don't want to see him bat 500 times elsewhere.

Or, maybe we just have no appetite for another first baseman who is injury prone. That said, I can just see Ethier steaming on the bench while Pierre's throws roll into Furcal, even with Raffy positioned halfway into left field, opposing runners going wild around the diamond. We'll see if Torre will let Andre get a well-deserved chance to play.

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!

Score One for Juan Pierre

From Diamond:

[Jason] Repko used an example of a reporter throwing only 40 MPH, and the reporter began to balk at the projected velocity. Juan Pierre, criticized for his arm strength, jumped in with impeccable timing, noting. "Now you see how it feels."

Pierre Reports Early?

Again from the same ESPN blog, farther down, I saw this post:

PIERRE REPORTS EARLY (8:54 a.m. ET)

And I thought to myself, shoot, six minutes early isn't worthy of an AP story, right? So I continued:

Juan Pierre reported to camp a day early, and said he's prepared to do whatever the Los Angeles Dodgers need from him.

Oh.

Is the Negative Press Getting to Juan Pierre?

Juan Pierre, as reported today, from Diamond:

Some people value my game. Some people don't. Some people in LA like it. Some people don't. I know my game is not pretty. I'm not the guy all over SportsCenter....

I know I have to get on base a lot more. I had a disappointing season, and I take full responsibility. I have to improve offensively and defensively.

Ned Colletti, December 6, 2007, from Diamond:

We signed a player that's a great guy and a guy that comes to play every day and a great influence throughout the clubhouse. You know what you’re getting. 195 hits, 60-something stolen bases. The way the 2007 Dodgers performed is not Juan Pierre's fault.

Seems Ned was trying to protect Pierre from the expectations of his outsized contract, and maybe now Pierre is trying to live up to it. The contract is obviously the albatross; Pierre could have easily pointed out that his numbers are on par with previous seasons.

It's all up to Andre Ethier. If he doesn't produce, Pierre gets the starting job.

UPDATE:

Again from Diamond:

Colletti on Pierre

He knows I like him.

I think he's a strong asset for the team.

The criticism from a year ago was wrong.

He's a championship-type player.

"Criticism from a year ago?" Which criticism is Ned talking about?

UPDATE:

Dodger Thoughts: Andre Ethier Is a Veteran

UPDATE:

From Diamond:

Torre on Pierre

He grinds out at-bats and can steal bases.

Certainly you'd like everyone to have a .400 on-base percentage, but that's not always the case.

He's a nuisance.

We want quality at-bats.

I'd have to agree with all four of those statements.

Russell Martin Feels Not Only Fresh, But Also Rooty, Tooty, and Fruity

No, I'm not outing Russell Martin, our star catcher. Rather, I thought Tim Kurkjian's spring training blog was funny for multiple reasons. First, what he wrote in yesterday's blog:

[Dodger manager Joe] Torre is getting to know his players, many of whom he has never met. He met star catcher Russell Martin when the two ran into each other at an IHOP in Vero Beach on Tuesday. Martin went up to him and said, "Hi, I'm Russell Martin." The two talked about the team for 10 to 15 minutes. Martin said he spent the winter on a workout program that helped make him more "explosive." "I feel more athletic now," he said. This coming from the one of the most athletic catchers we've ever seen.

First, it concerns me that Russell had to introduce himself to Torre in order to be noticed. If Torre hasn't had time to take note of Martin since being named manager, he's only overlooking, oh, the most important player on the team. Nice. Secondly, I'm glad that Martin's "explosive" workout regimen includes plenty of IHOP pancakes. I must have missed that scene when they showed the training program in Rocky IV.

Other notes from Timmy K. (why not keep the kitchen references going?):

Jason Schmidt, who missed most of last season with a shoulder injury, "is on the back burner" this spring, said manager Joe Torre. Schmidt rehabbed the shoulder all winter, said he threw off a mound for a first time a month ago and "hopes" to be ready Opening Day, but that's not going to happen. He said the Dodgers are being extra cautious with him this spring. Instead of throwing a bullpen session every other day, he might [throw] every fourth day.

With the signing of center fielder Andruw Jones, Juan Pierre said he's expecting to be moved to left field, a position, he said, he hasn't played "since 1999 in A-ball." Pierre said such a move will require a great deal of work because "in center field, the ball comes off the bat naturally, but in left field, it's slicing and dicing. Plus, there's foul territory to deal with in left field." But, Pierre said, he'll do what he's told. "I'm just trying to get another ring," he said.

One can still get a ring sitting on the bench all year. And after watching The Misadventures of Juan Pierre in center field next year, I'm awfully concerned that he's concerned about left field. Yikes.