Pierre's Days With Dodgers May Be Numbered

White Sox? Owens can't stay healthy. Guillen loves Pierre.

I think everyone assumes Pierre cannot be moved unless the Dodgers swallow substantially all his salary. He's not a useless player, he's just not a particularly good one, and hence he's really, really overpaid.

Well gee, no one saw this one coming… Why the Dodgers ever gave him that horrible, horrible, horrible contract is beyond me ~ I mean, without it he would probably be on a MiL Contract with Spring Invite to the Rays or something right now… Now, if KW came knocking though, well…

J-Money ~ where you are correct that Pods and Pierre are really similar, there is a bit of a difference. Pierre is a contact, “Swing at absolutely everything and maybe I can use my speed to make it to 1st” type. Pods tried to be more patient though, taking a high amount of walks (and the resulting K’s) in his plate appearances, which of course limited his ability to make it to first. The difference shows itself in the stats ~ Pods had a BA which was all over the board because of his approach, but Pierre has been a consistent .275-.300/.330-ish guy because of it. The players in the mold with more of a selective eye at the plate don’t generally last as long in the league, but the slap-happy ones can make a fairly long career out of it (see also Lance Johnson, Willie Wilson, etc… And even… drumroll… Ozzie Guillen). It’s the ones who show patience that generally last 1-2 years before becoming completely unwanted (see Pods, Lee Tinsley, Alez Cole, soon to be Willie Tavarez, Soon to be Reggie Willits, etc…) ~ their hype comes off one or two good BA year, but their inability to sustain their BA makes them a complete unknown as the years roll on.

Would you rather try to fill a team with a player who almost guarantees you 300/330 or someone who will produce anything anywhere from 200/275 to 300/375?

The Dodgers would be better off with the trade scribbletone mentioned as well. Crede for Pierre (4 years, 24 mil- LA eats 13 mil) would solve problems for both teams. CHI gets the leadoff hitter it desperately needs and LA gets to play Ethier in LF as well as a 3B (especially with Laroche and Nomar consistently hurt). If the Dodger owner truly wants to field the best team, it's time to cut bait with Juanita.

Oh yeah!!!

There is a God!

I think this would be an interesting deal for the Indians.. If the Tribe could send Dellucci over ($7.5 million over the next 2 seasons), and the Dodgers would eat a bit of Pierre's contract it might be a pretty decent move. I really doubt it will happen because the Indians typically get a lot of help from the bottom of the lineup, and from looking at Pierre's splits it just seems he can't hit with guys on. It would be nice to see someone in the leadoff spot, other than Grady Sizemore who should be hitting third.

The concept of bringing back a horrible contract AND eating some salary is a reasonable one. Another method of making it work would be to follow the Dodgers example when they sent Odalis Perez to the Royals...along with two prospects (for Dessens?) to lessen the impact of Perez' contract.

For example, would the Pirates take Pierre, $20M and both Josh Bell and Josh Wall for someone like Nady? Their CF situation is rather fluid and dealing Nady would open up RF for Pearce, while the two prospects help replenish a weak farm system.

Taking that to its ultimate conclusion, would any team consider Pierre (and MINIMAL cash) if they also got Scott Elbert (an OUTSTANDING pitching prospect) included in the deal? For example, what if they offered that package to the Reds (along with Chin Lung Hu) for someone like Freel (who could fill in at 3B)? The Reds would have a logjam in the outfield, but could eventually deal Dunn for another bounty of players, opening up a spot for Bruce. And a potential rotation of Harang, Arroyo, Bailey, Cueto and Elbert would be a force to be reckoned with next year.

I also like scribbletone's suggestion. That deal could be expanded too to something like Crede, Contreras and Uribe (total salary commmitment of just under $30M) for Pierre, Loaiza (about $50M in commitments), Tony Abreu (who the Dodgers seem less than enamored with) and another arm (Greg Miller or Cory Wade perhaps), which would lessen the necessary amount of money headed to the Sox. Toss in $10M and the player advantage to the Sox makes it worth considering.

The Dodgers are in a triple bind.

A)Pierre's a poor ballplayer

B)He's outrageously paid.

C)There's a plethora of highly touted centerfielders up and coming: Maybin, Schafer, Rasmus, Bruce, Pie, Jones, McCutcheon, Milledge, Gomez, C. Gonzalez, Young, Ellsbury, Hamilton, and to a lesser extent, Bourn and Cabrera. That's basically half the teams, and none of them really want to be saddled with four years of Juan Pierre. Add in the availability of a better option in Coco Crisp and the Dodgers are facing the perfect storm.

pierre, elbert AND lu for freel? haha i think not. no effin way

trading for nady wouldnt make sense, unless we spun him to the mets for somebody else

I already threw out one trade proposal, Pierre for Crede, but I think there are a couple of other possibilies:

Pierre (at 4/32) and Hu for Eric Chavez (full price)

The A's get a long term centerfielder and their new shortstop of the future. The Dodgers get a high quality third baseman who could take over the position completely and potentially give LA a middle of the order bat.

Pierre (at 4/24), Hu, Elbert and McDonald for Adam Dunn.

The Dodgers get a legit middle of the order bat, even though it doesnt solve the outfield surplus issues. They could probably deal Ethier for a good pitching prospect to replace Elbert and McDonald. The Reds would get Pierre to play center and leadoff, Bruce could take over full time replacing Dunn, Hu would become their long term shortstop, and Elbert and McDonald give them two quality pitching prospects to add to Bailey, Cueto, Volquez and Maloney.

hey scribbletone, i like that idea of pierre and hu for chavez, even if he seems to be declining lol

tiffany... the pierre, elbert and lu for freel does make sense, because it's one enormous minus with two offsetting pluses.

Pierre and his $36M contract (i.e. an albatross hanging around the receiving team's neck) along with two very good prospects takes the sting away for the Reds, who would be stuck with Pierre for the next four years.

Put it this way, the difference between Freel and Pierre is about $36M.

The incentive for the Reds is Lu and Elbert. The Dodgers are "paying" the Reds to take Pierre off their hands.

And unloading $36M is a pretty nice trick for any team.

His name is Chin Lung Hu. Not Lu. And it's perposterous to think the Dodgers would trade him. I think it's more likely they trade Tony Abreu.

If the Rockies could unload Larry Walker and Mike Hampton in the space of roughly 2 years the dodger can find a buyer for Pierre's contract