The Dodgers now have the white Juan Pierre. He is fast, he is 34, he's an out machine, he can't field, he is injury-prone, he is a bad base-runner (outside of his base stealing) and he is lucky. He currently has a BABIP of .345 and had a .341 BABIP last year for the White Sox. Yes he is hitting .309/.352/.400 but he got there ever so softly.
I have to be honest - I just don't like Scotty Pods. I stopped liking Juan Pierre about 10 minutes after the Dodgers acquired him. He has the appearance of offering value but it is illusory. I don't believe in the speed game and unless a player can steal a base 80% of the times he attempts to do so, it is just not worth it. A stolen base is valuable but not as valuable as once believed says The Book and Moneyball. By those numbers, only Rafael Furcal should be stealing bases, not Pods and certainly not Matt Kemp. Maybe next year, Bison.
Let me interject a few bits of optimism. When Scotty Pods is playing, he will play left (no added fielding advantage so Dre remains in right) and he should leadoff. Furcal is leading the NL in hitting, so moving him to the #2 spot is a good move. Pods isn't ideal at the lead-off unless he continues this magic.
Gone are Lucas May and Elisaul Pimentel. May, a 25 year old catching prospect, drafted in the 8th round of the 2003 draft, was invited to the Arizona Fall League last year. Pimentel, a 22-year-old pitching prospect from the Dominican. These are the prospects that we gave up for 2-3 months of Pods' services. If recent history is our guide, one should take note of these names because at least one of them may be on the Royals soon. Not that it will help that organization much.
I don't like the deal and I won't like to see what I believe will be a regressing Pods but perhaps he can keep this baseball magic going as long as the Dodgers are playing baseball in October. Maybe he can refrain from generating so many outs. Maybe this will dissolve Garret Anderson's career as a Dodger.
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