Torre says Juan Pierre will go to center

For those wondering how the ManRam trade will influence our chances of winning the pennant, this about says it all. This had the potential to big help for the Dodgers' offense as they could relegate both of their outfield sink holes to the bench. Now instead of going with Manny (140 OPS+ this season, 154 career), Kemp (110, 110), and Ethier (100, 106), they will instead toss Pierre's 69 OPS+ (75 last year) into the mix at a position that they had already deemed him to be a defensive liability.

In short, they had a chance to a replace a player in Juan Pierre that's created 35 runs this season (not counting base running, which is admittedly a plus) with a player in Ramirez that had created 76 runs with the bat. Instead, they've chosen to replace, Ethier, the hitter that has created 55 runs this season.

Players may come and go, but the biggest obstacle towards the Dodgers winning this division remains themselves.

11 months ago dahlian Comment 10 comments 0 recs |

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I imagine so.

That would mean outfielders are undervalued and infielders are made to look slightly better than they actually are, thanks to the presence of ground-ball machines like Webb. Though overall, I couldn’t find any data that suggests we are overall far from average in this category.

by Jim McLennan on Aug 2, 2008 2:48 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

From what I’ve read, infielders have higher RFs naturally- you don’t see too many outfielders or catchers involved in double plays, CoJack and Shris Snyder notwithstanding. =)

Also, looking at our grounder-to-flyball ratio, the rest of our pitchers might be helping out there. Here’s where our current rotation rank among all starters in baseball:

4. Webb (3.38)
69. Doug Davis (1.53)
119. Dan Haren (1.19)
191. Randy Johnson (0.92)
217. Yusmiero Petit (0.80)
227. Micah Owings (0.75)

A little looking tells me that league average is 1.25.

"Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so."

by kishi on Aug 2, 2008 3:26 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Was reading TrueBlu LA, came across a fanshot that had a link:

http://www.overthemonster.com/2008/8/2/585166/edes-manny-wanted-to-stay

If true, the ultimate backfire.

Will Hope Prevail?

by unnamedDBacksfan on Aug 2, 2008 2:15 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs

That's pretty funny

I did have to wonder why he left a team with a good shot to win the World Series to play with a team that doesn’t.

"Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so."

by kishi on Aug 2, 2008 2:18 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Reading more from both

Red sox sites (mainly Over the Monster) and Dodger sites (dodgerthoughts), it is interesting to see opinions change from east coast to west coast. The Boston folks just do not understand what LA is doing and why they are messing with the young talent they already have by bringing in ANOTHER “proven veteran”. The folks in LA seem to running out to print up World Series tickets. The Pirate and Sox fans really believe LA got the raw end of the deal.
Time will tell.

Estimated amount of glucose used by an adult human brain each day, expressed in M&Ms: 250

by unnamedDBacksfan on Aug 2, 2008 3:05 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

I don't know

about LA. But it seems like the Pirates made out like bandits. Compared to Pittsburgh’s haul, I think both of the other teams got a poor return.

Of course, the Pirates have to turn this group of “young players with potential” into major league baseball players. And it’s been a long time since they’ve done that successfully. This is a trade that will be fun to revisit in a couple years.

"We...probed them all the way through. They're completely meat." — Terry Bisson

by Scrbl on Aug 2, 2008 5:14 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

Sounds like

Shawn Marion

"We...probed them all the way through. They're completely meat." — Terry Bisson

by Scrbl on Aug 2, 2008 5:14 PM EDT up reply actions 0 recs

This bodes well for the D-Backs. While concluding that the Dodgers are now the team to beat in the NL West Keith Law had this to say about their new outfield:

Addressing their main team weakness was an outstanding move, and as long as they play an outfield of Ramirez, Matt Kemp and Andre Ethier as often as possible, they’re slight favorites over Arizona to win the division.

Glad to see that Torre is sticking to his veterans. Stay the course, big guy. You’re doing fine!

And on a semi-related note, Keith also looked at the Diamondbacks’ roster (I know, I’m as shocked as you are) and came to this conclusions:

The Diamondbacks’ dilemma is that they have a developing young player at almost every position on the field, so trying to upgrade via acquisition would rob a potential star or above-average player of critical development time, setting the team back for 2009 and 2010.

What impresses the heck out of me, is that Law may be the first analyst to acknowledge that the Diamondbacks are still a developing team. I frequently hear that they’re young, but that’s usually just another way of saying that they’re streaky or inconsistent. It’s nice to see someone acknowledge that “young” can also mean “still developing.”

The rest of the article is here.

"We...probed them all the way through. They're completely meat." — Terry Bisson

by Scrbl on Aug 2, 2008 6:02 PM EDT reply actions 0 recs