With Scotty Pods magically turned into a Scotty Pods who can (mostly) play the outfield, it seems like the Sox have finally turned a corner in their offseason plan, rather than simply falling face-first into that corner as Carl Crawford turns a routine popout into an inside-the-park home run. Juan Pierre is an upgrade; Juan Pierre is a ray of hope REMEMBER WHEN HE WAS GOING TO SAVE THE CUBS? in an otherwise hopeless 2010.
Jim pretty much nailed the ramifications of the trade in terms of personnel, but I think the deal goes a step further than that; yes, it’s another case of Kenny Williams getting his guy even if it meant waiting forever A-ROD 2017; BOOK IT! but it also means the Sox, in presumably letting Pods walk, passed on an opportunity to take the cheap, fan-friendly way out.
True, Pierre’s numbers were helped by playing in the National League ACCOUNTING FOR THE MOVE TO THE AL TURNS HIM INTO SCOTTY PODS but where leadoff hitters the Sox would actually spring for are concerned, there are worse options. You could argue that the Mariners, in signing a hitter so fantastically complementary to the abilities of Ichiro, laid the groundwork for the best 1-2 punch in baseball and showed people how to strengthen not just a position but a team; but you could also argue the Mariners had a deeper hole to dig out of ACTUALLY THEY WON SIX MORE GAMES THAN THE SOX IN 2009.
So at worst, Pierre is small comfort, an acquisition the Sox have strongly wanted SO WAS DARIN ERSTAD to play a role they sorely needed DUDE THE DH IS PLAYING RIGHT FIELD while resisting the urge to give a man on his last legs a multi-year deal best avoided ONE MIDDLING .300 HITTER SHOULD NOT BE SO PREFERRABLE TO ANOTHER.
It’s not that the Sox have necessarily won in this move, but at least they haven’t lost, either EVEN IF THE BODY COUNT APPROACH TO TRADE EVALUATION SAYS THEY HAVE?, no matter what the body count approach to trade evaluation tries to tell you.
…..certainly seems to think highly of our prospects. I just can’t figure out why. Besides Ryan Sweeney, who is really not that great, I don’t know why he thinks Williams is trading away so many future All Star’s and Hall of Fame inductees.
Well the fact that Phil Rogers is an idiot should answer your question
Offensively, base running, base stealing, in the field, etc Pierre is an upgrade over Pods. No, we didn’t sign someone who ensured our ticket to the promise land, but we got a little better. And Pierre will probably be a decent temporary lead off man for a year or two until Jordan Danks is ready.
Didn’t Rogers used to like the Sox? He seems to have turned on us fairly recently…I want to say circa 2006/2007. John Ely has promise, but Juan Pierre helps us now, and that to me is a more important time to focus on–the real right now instead of the possible three years from now.