FanShot

Torre says Juan Pierre will go to center

10

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.