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The White Sox Trade For Juan Pierre And I Actually Think I'm OK With Itby Ricky O'Donnell on December 15 at 12:49PM
I was going to start this out with "Juan Pierre would have been better off playing 30 years ago, before Billy Beane wrote Moneyball", but that actually isn't true. In what other era does Pierre get a $44 million contract? So I'll give him credit for this: even if he's exactly the type of player who has been hurt the most by advanced statistics, you only have to fool one Ned Coletti to get very rich. And Juan Pierre is very rich. For that reason - because he's making $9 million a year - Pierre has basically turned into a punchline. Bill Plaschke used to write nice things about Pierre; Mose Schrute used to light those words on fire. That probably tells you all you need to know about Pierre's reputation. Pierre is what smart people hate: a powerless hacker with a high average, a base thief who throws like a girl. In this post-Moneyball world, where we discount steals and deceptively high batting averages, and put a premium on power and walks, Pierre doesn't look as good as he would have had he played in the 70's. But then something weird happened to Pierre last year, at age 31. He entered Beast Mode.  Pierre wasn't half bad in 2009. And - gasp! - Fangraphs had him at a $10 million a year player. Let that sink in for a bit. Juan Pierre actually outperformed his make-believe, Luol Deng-ish contract just last season. How'd he do that? By hitting a lot of home runs, of course. No, just kidding. In 145 games and 380 at-bats, Pierre hit exactly zero homers. But he did start doing something right, and that something would be improving his plate patience. Despite usually hitting for a high average, Pierre's OBP had consistently hovered around .335ish. This is bad considering: a) he was born to the play the leadoff position (copyright SSS), and b) the league average for OPB is about .340. The most important quality in a leadoff man is the ability to get on-base, and the fact that Pierre was doing it below the league average mark is precisely the reason why he was hated on so much. But Pierre apparently realized all of this during Spring Training last year and worked to improve his game. It paid off: he hit .308, and posted a .365 on-base percentage. .365 = good. If your leadoff hitter is getting on at that rate, you're doing just fine. So I kind of like this deal for the Sox. For three reasons: a) Pierre is better than Scott Podsednik. b) The Sox are only paying Pierre $3 million in 2010, and $5 million in 2011. The Dodgers are picking up the rest of the contract. c) The Sox didn't give up any big-time prospects. Homewood-Flossmoor product John Ely is the top farmhand going to LA. John Sickles recently rated him the 14th best prospect in the system, and had this to say about him. 14) John Ely, RHP, Grade C: I know scouts hate him but he just keeps getting people out. Passed Double-A Finesse Pitcher Test with flying colors.Could Ely turn into a decent big league pitcher? Maybe. But it's not like the Sox are giving up Daniel Hudson here. So yes: I think I'm cool with this trade. It tentatively gets my seal of approval, at least until someone cites something like BABIP and makes me rethink my entire position. This should happen in about four hours.
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I played with Ely at Miami (OH) for a brief time and watched him play for three years. The dude knows how to pitch. I wouldn't be surprised if he ends up being a solid MLB 4 or 5 in two years.
Best part of this deal for Sox fans is the increase of Jay-Z to be played at the Cell. 'I used to run base like Juan Pierre / Now I run the bass, hi hat and the snare.
Also Pierre is a pretty solid player. Wasn't too bad on a horrible Cubs team in 2006.
Good trade he's perfect for what the sox are trying 2 do this year! Good speed and overall good hitter plus he comes rather cheap no reason not to like this trade he's an upgrade from pods
don't know your definition of the word perfect, but Kenny Williams wanted to get younger and faster, I do not believe Andruw Jones and Juan Pierre accomplish that goal "perfectly". Not a big fan of bringing in past their prime players, if so we shoulda just kept thome and dye at least we knew what we would get
Later Pods.
haven't stopped laughing about this since I heard about it 4 hours ago
Sooo excited for this outfield
Quentin (maybe good again, prone to rage)/Pierre(nothing more needs to be said)/Rios (hahahaha)/Fat Jones.
Kenny Williams is several generations ahead of his time, hearkening to an era when baseball teams will be evaluated by government-funded committees that give lots and lots of points for checkered career histories, scrappiness quotients, pay versus production, and so on.
If he finishes at like .280/.335, that's not bad for $3 million a year, right? I mean, they needed someone to play a corner and hit near the top of the order, and Pierre sort of accomplishes that without giving much up in terms of cash or players. Even if he totally blows (certainly possible), they're not on the hook for a bunch of money long-term. It's probably a 'meh' move, but I really don't think it's terrible.
(I didn't actually read your article before I came over here to chuckle, so I get to comment again.)
Yeesh, yeah. .331 BABIP seems a bit high considering he hasn't achieved that since his first couple of seasons in baseball when he a)played for the Rockies and b)had much younger legs.
Also, as much as I like fangraphs, that number still seems high, .365 OBP or not. I guess the difference was his defense. Whereas in 2008 he was pretty bad in both LF and CF, he was actually a pretty good defensive LF last year (at least according to UZR).
It should probably be a little hard for White Sox fans to hate this move in itself. They won't be paying him much. My problem would be that Williams has taken a offense that finished near the bottom of the AL in runs scored, and added to it Omar Vizquel, Andruw Jones, Juan Pierre, and Mark Teahen.
Ricky - You're forgetting the third slash stat attached to the .280/.335, and also how important that third slash stat is for a corner OF that plays in U.S. Cellular Field. And if he's playing CF instead, pushing Rios to a corner similarly hurts Rios's value. Also, the idea that Pierre solves the problem of batting someone at the top of the order is bogus. He instantly beats out Mark Teahen for worst hitter in the batting order, and now you want to put him in the slot that gets the most at-bats just because he can run and has conventional "leadoff-hitter" styles? This is a lesson all White Sox fans and even the White Sox front office needs to learn: "Leadoff Hitter" is not a position. Jim Thome could lead off. It's just the guy who bats first in the first inning. And if you are sacrificing putting a good hitter in that slot just to put a "conventional" leadoff-type hitter in that spot, you are making a terrible baseball
decision.
Also you don't make a baseball decision because it's "not terrible". You make it because you think it will improve your chances of winning. Handing Juan Pierre 600+ at-bats has the opposite effect. Yeah, he might hit .300/360/whatever like last year, with that fluketastic BABIP, but this guy's betting against it.
Of course I agree with you on the leadoff hitter stuff, but you're crazy if you realistically expect the Sox to hit Konerko (highest OBP of any returning player) first, particularly after the failed Swisher experiment at the beginning of 2008. I would have been fine with Beckham-Alexei/AJ atop the order, but even that isn't ideal. This is obviously a low OBP team: Pierre's .365 would have beat out every Sox hitter expect for Thome last season by more than 10 points. Obviously it isn't guaranteed (or even likely) that Pierre will replicate last season's numbers - especially when you consider that this will be the first time he's ever played in the AL - but it's not like there are tons of other options out there when you have a tight budget. For crumby prospects + $3 million, you can't get a great baseball player. No one is saying Pierre is a great player, but it's possible he can be a decent placeholder until the Sox shed some salary off the books and can find a real corner outfielder.
I also fully expect Pierre to be in left, and I completely agree that Rios not playing center would be a disaster. Rios should be in center from the first day of spring training, and it shouldn't even be a question. I'm hoping for a .800 OPS + good D in from him this year, and that's obviously infinitely more valuable in center than a corner.