Headlines

  • Top 40 Trade Candidates For The 2025 Deadline
  • Rays Reinstate Ha-Seong Kim
  • Yankees Have Shown Interest In Ryan McMahon
  • Brandon Woodruff To Start For Brewers On Sunday
  • Royals Interested In Bryan Reynolds
  • Rangers Option Josh Jung
  • Previous
  • Next
Register
Login
  • Hoops Rumors
  • Pro Football Rumors
  • Pro Hockey Rumors

MLB Trade Rumors

Remove Ads
  • Home
  • Teams
    • AL East
      • Baltimore Orioles
      • Boston Red Sox
      • New York Yankees
      • Tampa Bay Rays
      • Toronto Blue Jays
    • AL Central
      • Chicago White Sox
      • Cleveland Guardians
      • Detroit Tigers
      • Kansas City Royals
      • Minnesota Twins
    • AL West
      • Houston Astros
      • Los Angeles Angels
      • Oakland Athletics
      • Seattle Mariners
      • Texas Rangers
    • NL East
      • Atlanta Braves
      • Miami Marlins
      • New York Mets
      • Philadelphia Phillies
      • Washington Nationals
    • NL Central
      • Chicago Cubs
      • Cincinnati Reds
      • Milwaukee Brewers
      • Pittsburgh Pirates
      • St. Louis Cardinals
    • NL West
      • Arizona Diamondbacks
      • Colorado Rockies
      • Los Angeles Dodgers
      • San Diego Padres
      • San Francisco Giants
  • About
    • MLB Trade Rumors
    • Tim Dierkes
    • Writing team
    • Advertise
    • Archives
  • Contact
  • Tools
    • 2025 Trade Deadline Outlook Series
    • 2025-26 MLB Free Agent List
    • Contract Tracker
    • Transaction Tracker
    • Agency Database
  • NBA/NFL/NHL
    • Hoops Rumors
    • Pro Football Rumors
    • Pro Hockey Rumors
  • App
  • Chats
Go To Pro Hockey Rumors
Go To Hoops Rumors

Juan Pierre Traded To Cubs

By Tim Dierkes | December 7, 2005 at 9:10am CDT

Well, it’s official – Juan Pierre will be playing center field for the Cubs in 2006.  I reported this deal as done back on November 23rd, and I rightfully caught plenty of flak for it.  So I immediately dialed up Jim Hendry’s personal line and demanded that he deal two of five possible pitchers for Pierre so that I wouldn’t look bad.  Hendry complied, threw in Sergio Mitre, and here we are.  (I’m kidding, obviously).

I’ll discuss Sergio Mitre, Ricky Nolasco, and Renyel Pinto in a separate post.  For now, I want to take a closer look at Juan Pierre and what he "brings to the table."  Cubs fans seem thrilled with this acquisition, so I asked myself, "What exactly does Juan Pierre do well?"

Getting on base

Pierre boasts a .355 career OBP.  In 2005, the average NL CF got on base at a .340 clip.  So Pierre is a tick above average in that department despite all of the cool drag bunts and slap infield hits.  Available CFs who got on base more frequently than 35% of the time last year include Jason Michaels, Kenny Lofton, and Johnny Damon. Brad Wilkerson can be expected to top .355 in 2006, and Milton Bradley will probably come close. 

Baserunning and stealing

Well, once Pierre does get on, he’s a terror on the basepaths.  Right?  In 2005, Pierre was excellent at going from first to third, succeeding 43% of the time (surprisingly, that compares well to the rest of the league).  On the other hand, he only succeeded going from second to home 38% of the time, which is a poor mark.  It’s a small sample (21 attempts), but Chris Speier might want to consider throwing up the stop sign occasionally when Pierre comes his way.

Oh, but let’s not forget the steals.  Man, does this guy steal bases.  He’s averaged 52 steals in his five full seasons.  Still, Pierre’s career success rate at stealing is just 74%.  According to Joe Sheehan of Baseball Prospectus,

"If you’re stealing at less than a 75% success rate, you’re better off never going at all."

Hmmm.  So you’re telling me Baker should never attempt a single stolen base with Pierre?  Something tells me that’s not going to happen.

Defense

Ah, but with his blazing speed, Pierre surely is among the game’s top defenders.  Er, not so much.  Ever heard of Bill James’s Range Factor?  It’s calculated by adding up putouts and assists, multiplying by nine, and dividing by the number of defensive innings played.  Here’s how some regular CFs ranked in 2005 in Range Factor.

Rank Player Range Factor
1 Jeremy Reed 3.05
2 Damon Hollins 2.95
3 Nook Logan 2.93
4 Johnny Damon 2.93
5 Brady Clark 2.85
6 Brad Wilkerson 2.84
11 Milton Bradley 2.68
15 Kenny Lofton 2.53
26 Preston Wilson 2.27
27 Corey Patterson 2.23
28 Juan Pierre 2.21

There’s our man, dead last in the game, well behind several freely available CFs.  I could dig up some more defensive metrics to say the same thing; I won’t bore you with those here.  He’s not a good fielder.

Power

C’mon now, it’s Juan Pierre.  He’s got less power than Neifi Perez.

Durability

Oh, that’s it.  Juan Pierre shows up to work every day, doesn’t get hurt.  I guess that’s worth something.  It kind of reminds me of the blowoff classes I had in college where the teacher would make Attendance 10% of your grade.

Conclusion

Am I missing something?  Juan Pierre is basically a more expensive Scott Podsednik without the defense.  He should probably be a fourth outfielder on most teams.  Color me unimpressed by this trade.

Share 0 Retweet 0 Send via email0

Chicago Cubs Juan Pierre

Soriano, Benson, Casey Deals Close
Main
Barry Zito To The Mets
View Comments (0)
Post a Comment

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Please login to leave a reply.

Log in Register

    Top Stories

    Top 40 Trade Candidates For The 2025 Deadline

    Rays Reinstate Ha-Seong Kim

    Yankees Have Shown Interest In Ryan McMahon

    Brandon Woodruff To Start For Brewers On Sunday

    Royals Interested In Bryan Reynolds

    Rangers Option Josh Jung

    Kevin Pillar Announces Retirement

    Braves Place Spencer Schwellenbach On IL With Elbow Fracture

    Braves Designate Alex Verdugo For Assignment

    Giants Exercise 2026 Option On Manager Bob Melvin

    Yordan Alvarez Shut Down Due To Setback With Hand Injury

    Astros Place Jeremy Peña On Injured List With Fractured Rib

    Tucker Barnhart To Retire

    Tyler Mahle To Be Sidelined Beyond Trade Deadline

    Reds Release Jeimer Candelario

    Dave Parker Passes Away

    Griffin Canning Diagnosed With Ruptured Achilles

    Pirates Reportedly Have Very Few Untouchable Players At Trade Deadline

    Griffin Canning Believed To Have Suffered Achilles Injury

    Mariners Looking For Corner Infield Bats; Ownership Willing To Bump Payroll

    Recent

    Cubs Sign Ryan Jensen To Minor League Deal

    Yankees Sign Joel Kuhnel To Minors Deal

    Yohan Ramírez Opts Out Of Pirates Deal

    Red Sox Notes: Anthony, Yoshida, Bregman

    Cardinals Front Office Expects Ownership Support At Deadline

    Royals Select Luke Maile

    Astros Re-Sign Tayler Scott To Minor League Deal

    Mets Re-Sign Colin Poche To Minor League Deal

    Astros Designate Jordan Weems For Assignment

    Athletics Reinstate Zack Gelof, Release T.J. McFarland

    MLBTR Newsletter - Hot stove highlights in your inbox, five days a week

    Latest Rumors & News

    Latest Rumors & News

    • Sandy Alcantara Rumors
    • Luis Robert Rumors
    • Alex Bregman Rumors

     

    Trade Rumors App for iOS and Android App Store Google Play

    MLBTR Features

    MLBTR Features

    • Remove Ads, Support Our Writers
    • Front Office Originals
    • Front Office Fantasy Baseball
    • MLBTR Podcast
    • Trade Deadline Outlook Series
    • 2025-26 MLB Free Agent List
    • Contract Tracker
    • Transaction Tracker
    • Extension Tracker
    • Agency Database
    • MLBTR On Twitter
    • MLBTR On Facebook
    • Team Facebook Pages
    • How To Set Up Notifications For Breaking News
    • Hoops Rumors
    • Pro Football Rumors
    • Pro Hockey Rumors

    Rumors By Team

    • Angels Rumors
    • Astros Rumors
    • Athletics Rumors
    • Blue Jays Rumors
    • Braves Rumors
    • Brewers Rumors
    • Cardinals Rumors
    • Cubs Rumors
    • Diamondbacks Rumors
    • Dodgers Rumors
    • Giants Rumors
    • Guardians Rumors
    • Mariners Rumors
    • Marlins Rumors
    • Mets Rumors
    • Nationals Rumors
    • Orioles Rumors
    • Padres Rumors
    • Phillies Rumors
    • Pirates Rumors
    • Rangers Rumors
    • Rays Rumors
    • Red Sox Rumors
    • Reds Rumors
    • Rockies Rumors
    • Royals Rumors
    • Tigers Rumors
    • Twins Rumors
    • White Sox Rumors
    • Yankees Rumors

    Navigation

    • Sitemap
    • Archives
    • RSS/Twitter Feeds By Team

    MLBTR INFO

    • Advertise
    • About
    • Commenting Policy
    • Privacy Policy

    Connect

    • Contact Us
    • Twitter
    • Facebook
    • RSS Feed

    MLB Trade Rumors is not affiliated with Major League Baseball, MLB or MLB.com

    Do not Sell or Share My Personal Information

    hide arrows scroll to top

    Register

    Desktop Version | Switch To Mobile Version