Not Juan Thing To Do With It

by Andrew on Jul 5, 2008 11:30 AM PDT Comment 1 comment

Since Juan Pierre played his last game as a Dodger on June 29th, the Dodgers have gone 4-1 and look like a competitive team for the first time since Rafael Furcal went down. As much blame as Pierre (mostly deservedly) gets for the team being unable to score runs, his absence has nothing to do with the Dodgers recent success. Pierre has been replaced in the lineup by Delwyn Young and Andruw Jones and they've gone a combined two for 22 in their starts with a walk.

Maybe it's moving him out of the leadoff role that's helped? Nope, Dodger leadoff hitters have been almost as bad, going four for 22 with four walks for a .182/.308/.227 line. The Dodgers sudden ability to score runs isn't coming from an abscence of Pierre but from a sudden offensive surge by Andre Ethier and Jeff Kent who have been mostly silent all year. (Though I should note that Kent has an .866 OPS since he went down on May 26th).

Unless Juan Pierre was actively discouraging Kent and Ethier from hitting, his recent disappearance has nothing to do with the Dodgers winning. In fact, we actually kind of miss Pierre right now.

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Not quite right

You’re right, Pierre’s replacement’s haven’t done anything, but Matt Kemp is sporting a .409
OBP, with 2 SBs in the leadoff spot. In that time, we’re 4-0. That ugly triple slash you posted is mostly courtesy of Jason Repko. Also, the fact that Pierre hasn’t been in left has been helping us defensively. Yesterday, the Giants failed to score a man from second on a base hit to left, because Ethier was out there instead of Pierre. I agree that Pierre was better than his replacements thus far, but he should definitely not be in the leadoff spot—though 4 games is a small sample size, admittedly.

by Xyrael on Jul 5, 2008 12:35 PM PDT reply actions 0 recs