Fire Joe Morgan on Juan Pierre

[vance_the_cubs_fan]

I was spending part of the evening catching up on my reading at various sites when I came across this.

 

It's from March 15, so I'm sure many have read it. It's great.

 

A few highlights...

 

$44 mil and he still practices bunting: New Dodgers center fielder Pierre a throwback

 

I award one point to the editor for calling a non-white guy a throwback. Good job. Here is the formula I think is the industry standard:

 

Non-white guy + 20 hours of bunting practice per week = White enough to be a throwback.

 

Even Pierre, a powerless throwback to the dead-ball era whose name has been dropped in lyrics by hip-hop icon Jay-Z, can't be all things to all people.

 

The problem with being a throwback to the dead-ball era is that in the dead-ball era, everyone was hitting with no power, so it wasn't so bad to have 12 career home runs in 4110 career at bats (actually, that probably would've been pretty bad even then). Everyone's balls were dead. (Balls! Ha!) That's why they call it the dead-ball era. Pierre is now playing in a very very live-ball era and he has the power of a small, furry kitten who has been taught to swing a mini-bat.

[oldstyle81]

Pierre with a grounder to 2nd, 1 out

[Tracer Bullet]

This was my favorite part...well, this and at the end with JP compares himself to Jesus.

 

"That is so ludicrous," said Wills, who revolutionized basestealing in the 1960s. "Who's going to walk Juan Pierre? You're walking a double. They make him hit the ball, and he got 204 hits last year. What do you want?"

 

Yes, that must be why Rickey Henderson absolutely never walked. What fool pitcher would walk Henderson? (One year, Rickey Henderson walked 126 times and stole 77 bases. Another year, he walked 116 times and stole 130 bases.)

[imb]

This is what sucks about sports writing. You get put on a beat, so you have to write something, and you don't want to just go out there and kill one of the players you have to cover for 162 games (or however long), so you ask questions and you get answers like that, because what coach is going to say "well, hell, juan pierre made the most outs in baseball last year, why the hell are we paying him this much money?"

 

So now you have a stupid quote from a coach who's trying to just be positive, and you have to run it, because that's all you're gonna get, and now you're pigeonholed into writing a fluff piece about stuff you probably don't even believe.

[tkenm356]

There was a post on here somewhere that linked to the article about Juan comparing himself to Jesus and someone added that link to FJM to the thread. But its location escapes me. FJM rules

[sweetpeteman]

There is a Joe Morgan thread in Rants that most FJM posts are in.

[Magnetic Curses]

This was my favorite part...well, this and at the end with JP compares himself to Jesus.

 

"That is so ludicrous," said Wills, who revolutionized basestealing in the 1960s. "Who's going to walk Juan Pierre? You're walking a double. They make him hit the ball, and he got 204 hits last year. What do you want?"

 

Yes, that must be why Rickey Henderson absolutely never walked. What fool pitcher would walk Henderson? (One year, Rickey Henderson walked 126 times and stole 77 bases. Another year, he walked 116 times and stole 130 bases.)

 

maybe wills can explain why pierre has a non-existent SLG despite the fact that no one walks him.

 

i hate the pointless opinions of former MLBers, generally.

[Magnetic Curses]

There is a Joe Morgan thread in Rants that most FJM posts are in.

 

i'm sure that that darn neuxbie vance didn't know that, or else i'm sure he would have felt compelled to put it there.

[vance_the_cubs_fan]

There is a Joe Morgan thread in Rants that most FJM posts are in.

 

i'm sure that that darn neuxbie vance didn't know that, or else i'm sure he would have felt compelled to put it there.

 

Though this came from the FJM site, it isn't Morgan related. Therefore, I gave it its own thread.

 

I start threads as I please.

[Magnetic Curses]

There is a Joe Morgan thread in Rants that most FJM posts are in.

 

i'm sure that that darn neuxbie vance didn't know that, or else i'm sure he would have felt compelled to put it there.

 

Though this came from the FJM site, it isn't Morgan related. Therefore, I gave it its own thread.

 

I start threads as I please.

 

i was going to say that the thread is pretty pertinent to issues we've been talking about all offseason.

 

and i'll take any opportunity i can to take a shot at juan pierre, who isn't good at anything yet is getting paid like he's good at everything.

[vance_the_cubs_fan]

There is a Joe Morgan thread in Rants that most FJM posts are in.

 

i'm sure that that darn neuxbie vance didn't know that, or else i'm sure he would have felt compelled to put it there.

 

Though this came from the FJM site, it isn't Morgan related. Therefore, I gave it its own thread.

 

I start threads as I please.

 

i was going to say that the thread is pretty pertinent to issues we've been talking about all offseason.

 

and i'll take any opportunity i can to take a shot at juan pierre, who isn't good at anything yet is getting paid like he's good at everything.

 

Yes. I figured it'd get lost in the Joe Morgan thread. I felt it deserved it's own.

[frostwyrm]

"That is so ludicrous," said Wills, who revolutionized basestealing in the 1960s. "Who's going to walk Juan Pierre? You're walking a double. They make him hit the ball, and he got 204 hits last year. What do you want?"

 

Walking a double? It's not like Pierre is automatic in SB attempts. He's gotten caught 26% of the time in his career and he'll be 30 yrs. old in August. He only has to lose a small portion of his speed to drop his SB% into the 60's. At that point he won't even be good enough to start for the Pirates. And 204 hits is not much of an achievement if you get a gazillion plate appearances and refuse to take a walk.

[NewUserName]

I actually liked the "will to win and willing his team to win." I think this is a measurable stat. He has only been on one winning team.

[Warpticon]

I liked that the quote about him being a throwback to the dead ball era was a) written as though that were some kind of compliment, and b) immediately followed with a reference to being mentioned in Jay-Z's lyrics. Because if there's anything in the world that's the essence of dead ball era, it's Jay-Z quotes.

[SouthSideRyan]

Let's all jump on sweetpete's back for his post which wasn't even in response to Vance and was instead trying to point tkenm to the likely location of thepost he was looking for