Colletti comments on the Pierre contract - funny stuff

[frostwyrm]

But Colletti said that the weak-armed Pierre's likely move to left field -- if not another team -- didn't mean he regretted signing him to a five-year, $44-million contract last season.

 

"You can't look back on what you do like that," Colletti said. "It's not fair to anything. Come back to my office and I'll reconstruct the board and have you look at our club and have you look at the free-agent board at the same time and you tell me what you would do when we're sitting there with one outfielder, Andre Ethier, who has played four months of big league baseball and no other outfielders.

 

"It is what it is and we did what we had to do. We signed a player that's a great guy and a guy that comes to play every day and a great influence throughout the clubhouse. The way the 2007 Dodgers performed was not Juan Pierre's fault, but when other players don't produce in the clutch and you lose and you get frustrated, people look at everybody. I never said Juan Pierre is a franchise player. He's a very good player on a winning team."

 

Pierre did not return a voice message. His agent, Mark Pieper, said last month that Pierre preferred to remain in center field, but that he would accept whatever decision the team made and would not allow it to become a distraction.

 

Ned apparently would have us believe he doesn't regret the contract but I don't think he's fooling anybody. His own words ooze regret from every syllable. I especially like the bolded quote. Nobody says stuff like that about a big contract they're happy with. Poor Ned. He's as bad a spin doctor as he is a GM.

 

http://www.latimes.com/sports/printedition/la-sp-dodgers7dec07,0,140622.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-sports

[javy knows my name]

But Colletti said that the weak-armed Pierre's likely move to left field -- if not another team -- didn't mean he regretted signing him to a five-year, $44-million contract last season.

 

"You can't look back on what you do like that," Colletti said. "It's not fair to anything. Come back to my office and I'll reconstruct the board and have you look at our club and have you look at the free-agent board at the same time and you tell me what you would do when we're sitting there with one outfielder, Andre Ethier, who has played four months of big league baseball and no other outfielders.

 

"It is what it is and we did what we had to do. We signed a player that's a great guy and a guy that comes to play every day and a great influence throughout the clubhouse. The way the 2007 Dodgers performed was not Juan Pierre's fault, but when other players don't produce in the clutch and you lose and you get frustrated, people look at everybody. I never said Juan Pierre is a franchise player. He's a very good player on a winning team."

 

Pierre did not return a voice message. His agent, Mark Pieper, said last month that Pierre preferred to remain in center field, but that he would accept whatever decision the team made and would not allow it to become a distraction.

 

Ned apparently would have us believe he doesn't regret the contract but I don't think he's fooling anybody. His own words ooze regret from every syllable. I especially like the bolded quote. Nobody says stuff like that about a big contract they're happy with. Poor Ned. He's as bad a spin doctor as he is a GM.

 

http://www.latimes.com/sports/printedition/la-sp-dodgers7dec07,0,140622.story?coll=la-headlines-pe-sports

Exactly how I would have put it. But you can't exactly trash the guy's contract while he's still on your team. Interestingly enough, "it is what it is" has become something of a calling card for Pierre. An FJM post a while back quoted him saying the same thing multiple times when asked about his horrid OBP. Funny stuff.

[nilodnayr]

Man, you would have never guessed Colletti is a product of the Cubs organization.

[BigbadB]

Yeah, some of these GM's are just braindead. In 2006, the Dodgers had Kenny Lofton (at less than 4m mind you), and I won't even bother listing all the other players they had that would have been better options than Pierre.

 

Lofton is better than Pierre without even including dollar figures into the equation.

 

Colletti will come out okay on this, because there is another moron out there that will give up talent to get Pierre. Book it.

[TruffleShuffle]

i still maintain that might be the most idiotic big-money contract ever handed out

[ISUCubsFan]

i still maintain that might be the most idiotic big-money contract ever handed out

 

Some GM will probably give Eckstein the 4/36 that he wants, so it won't be on top for long.

[RammyFanny]

They've also got the .680 OPS machine playing SS next year for about 14 million.

[inari]

They've also got the .680 OPS machine playing SS next year for about 14 million.

 

I wouldn't count on that continuing.

[frostwyrm]

i still maintain that might be the most idiotic big-money contract ever handed out

 

It's up there. I've always believed the dumbest contracts are not the ones where the player underachieves. The really dumb contracts are the ones that give you exactly the player you paid for, and it still looks like a terrible deal right from the get-go. Pierre's contract might actually be worse than that because he had a very good year as a basestealer, so it could reasonably be argued that he was better than what the Dodgers paid for, and the contract still looks awful.

[frostwyrm]

i still maintain that might be the most idiotic big-money contract ever handed out

 

Some GM will probably give Eckstein the 4/36 that he wants, so it won't be on top for long.

 

Pierre still has 4/36.5 remaining on his contract, so it's about the same what Eckstein is asking. Pierre is an aging basestealer who plays LF, while Eckstein plays SS. IMO Pierre's contract still has a higher reading on the crap-o-meter.