Archive for Juan Pierre

While a month still isn’t the greatest of sample sizes to cast judgment, now is when you have to start making some of the tougher decisions as to whether or not it’s in your team’s best interest to give up on certain players and start picking up guys who can help you in specific categories or if you should just continue to grin and bear it through their hard times. The decision of whether or not to cut someone is a little easier to make (or not make as the case may be) in deeper leagues as the waiver wire is far from flush with talent, but in leagues more shallow, there’s plenty still from which to choose. Here’s a look at two who, based on ownership percentages, could be available in your league… Read the rest of this entry »

After the complete teardown that happened in Miami this winter, fantasy players might be forgiven for looking at the club as merely “Giancarlo Stanton and 24 guys who aren’t Giancarlo Stanton.” It’s not quite going to be Houston-level bad in South Florida as many expect, but it might be a tough team to watch — if, of course, anyone even shows up at the park to do so. Read the rest of this entry »

While the goal is usually to find players that are well-rounded and contribute in multiple categories, sometimes you get to a point in the season, where some stats become more of a focus than others.  Maybe your batting average is great, but you lack power, so players like Adam Dunn or Dan Uggla become a bit more appealing to you.  In numerous cases, stolen bases is that stat.  You find yourself in a position to move up and all it would take is just one or two guys who do nothing but steal.  It doesn’t matter if they contribute elsewhere and it doesn’t matter if they play every day or not.  Just as long as when they are on base, they’ve got a perpetual green light.  That’s all you need.  Here are two that fit the bill. Read the rest of this entry »

Did you know baseball started yesterday? Because I’m embarrassed to say I didn’t until a certain RotoGraphs editor sent me a profanity laced email for not including player recommendations in yesterday’s Roto Riteup. Today’s edition does have recommendations, though, so that’s pretty awesome.

–  Josh Johnson may have had shoulder problems last year, but he was easily in the 90s during last night’s start against the St. Louis Cardinals. He struggled a bit with his location, though, and the Cardinals took advantage. Johnson is a top-5 pitcher when healthy, and at the price he went for this year, owners could end up with big time value.

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Rank the top-10 fantasy hitters from last year, by performance, in your head.  Does the list look like this?  Here is ESPN’s Player Rater’s Top 11, based on a traditional 5×5 roto league:

1. Carlos Gonzalez (#7)
2. Carl Crawford (#42)
3. Albert Pujols (#2)
4. Joey Votto (#4)
5. Miguel Cabrera (#3)
6. Josh Hamilton (#5)
7. Jose Bautista (#1)
8. Robinson Cano (#6)
9. Hanley Ramirez (#17)
10. Ryan Braun (#37)
11. Juan Pierre (below replacement)

You may quibble here and there (Pierre might seem out of place, for example), but my guess is that the list is reasonably close.

Things change a bit if you were playing using FanGraphs Points.  The number in parentheses above is my 2010 rank order of hitters based on FanGraphs Points, which are built on linear weights.  That ranking takes into account position, and gives incomplete credit for playing time because DL stints can be made up for with substitutions.  It’s not perfect, but it’s a pretty good ranking of value in our system.

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A couple of weeks back, I was talking to the great Carson Cistulli, and he posed an interesting question: Peter Bourjos, or Juan Pierre? Now, because of the nature of the conversation, I had to answer on the spot without thoroughly researching the topic (I’m not going to tell you what I originally answered quite yet, because I don’t want to spoil the punchline). However, it was such a good question that could be very relevant come next season, it deserves to have a bit more time put into it.

This past season, Pierre did what he’s always done when he has a starting job: be a fantastic fantasy asset. At 32-years of age, Pierre set a career high in stolen bases with 68. He also showed some of the best contact skills of his career, with a whiff rate of a mere 2%. While his contact skills stayed intact, Pierre had trouble hitting line drives, instead hitting the ball on the ground and lowering his batting average to a .275 mark. And, as always, you aren’t going to get any production in the RBI or HR categories from Pierre, but he did score over 95 runs for the White Sox.

On the other side of the debate, Bourjos was called up by the Angels at the beginning of August, with the hopes that he’d provide good defense in centerfield and be an offensive spark plug. While he wasn’t a spark plug, he sure was offensive. He barely reached the Mendoza Line in just under 200 trips to the plate, thanks to a bad strikeout rate and a lack of anything close to consistent line drives. However, he did steal 10 bases in his limited time in the bigs, getting caught three times in the process.

Bourjos also displayed some surprising power, hitting 19 homers in 648 total trips to the plate between Triple-A and the majors. The power production was something new for Bourjos, but it could continue to be in play as he matures. However, his power may limit his ability to hit for a high average, as he put the ball in the air far too often for a player with terrific speed. If he levels out his stroke a bit, his .228 BABIP is bound to skyrocket.

At the time, I told Carson that I’d rather have Juan Pierre, because he’s a known quantity who should continue to provide consistent production for at least two more seasons. After looking at Bourjos and Pierre a little more closely, I’m going to stick with Pierre for the time being. I’d like to see what Bourjos does with a larger sample, mainly to see if he works on leveling his swing instead of going for bombs (which Sam Miller of the OC Register thinks he will). If he can do just that, I might have a change of heart.

Austin Kearns | OF | Cleveland (9% owned)
Remember the good ol’ days when Kearns was considered good? Well, he’s not quite ready to give up the ghost. After two very lackluster years in Washington, Kearns has found his stroke in Cleveland. He’s currently hitting .333/.405/.561 in 18 games. The .435 BABIP and 27.3 K% lets us know that he’s not going to keep the average above .300 for the year, but there is still hope in the power category. Kearns currently has a .227 ISO rate and he hasn’t surpassed .200 over a full season since ’06 when he slugged 24 homers.

Juan Pierre | OF | Chicago AL (30%)
It’s not often that you’ll find the Major League steals leader available in 70% of leagues at the end of April. Unfortunately, speed is his only offering right now. Have faith, though. Pierre isn’t a great all-around ball player, but he has a career .299 batting average, so he’s going to improve over the .218 that he’s currently hitting. Proven speedsters like Pierre don’t post a BABIP of .227 forever and his 4% strikeout rate shows that he’s putting a lot of balls into play. Quite a few fantasy managers could use his extra 14 steals right about now; just make sure you can afford the hit in batting average.

Nate Schierholtz | OF | San Francisco (2%)
Schierholtz is finally getting a chance to play in San Francisco. The 26-year-old outfielder is currently hitting .350/.426/.517 in 69 at-bats. He’s owned in just 2% of leagues and he’d be in the Top 10 in batting average if he had enough at-bats to qualify. On the downside, he’s being platooned against left-handers (which is actually quite possibly a blessing) and he has yet to hit a homer this year. Have faith, though, the young player has excellent raw power so the homers are going to come. Grab him before he goes on a power run and gains more attention, especially in NL-only leagues.

Jose Contreras | RP | Philadelphia (6%)
With the recent news that Ryan Madson is going to be gone for a while, Contreras moves up in the pecking order for save opportunities. With Brad Lidge being as volatile as a pit bull in a washing machine, Contreras could see some end-game chances in the near future. In nine games, the veteran Cuban has a 0.33 xFIP, as well as a 16.43 K.9 rate and he has yet to walk a batter. Wow. Small sample size be damned. That’s still impressive.

*Ownership numbers based on Yahoo Fantasy Baseball

Lost in the awesomeness of the Roy Halladay/Cliff Lee blockbuster, the Dodgers have traded outfielder Juan Pierre to the Chicago White Sox for minor leaguers Jon Link and John Ely. The White Sox have been looking for a leadoff hitter for what seems like an eternity, so this trade must have gotten the White Sox brass all kinds of excited.

Pierre has been stuck behind Manny Ramirez in Los Angeles for the past year and a half, but managed to find plenty of playing time in 2009 when Manny was suspended for trying to get pregnant. When Pierre started games last year, he hit .304/.355/.386 with 28 steals and 43 runs scored in 350 plate appearances. Overall last year, Pierre hit .308/.365/.392 in 425 plate appearances, striking out only 27 times.

Pierre had an outstanding month of May, hitting .369/.435/.505 with 9 steals. Somehow, he managed to drive in 18 runs for the Dodgers, a number he could not match in all the other months combined. His numbers dropped off in June, when he hit .264/.319/.309, but he did accumulate 11 steals during the month.

Since coming into the majors in 2000, Pierre has been one of fantasy baseball’s premier base stealers. His lowest steal total in a season with 600+ plate appearances was 46, back in his first full year in 2001. Since then, he has stolen 55+ bases four times, coming in at over 60 twice.

Pierre sports an outstanding line drive clip, with a career rate of 22%. In his past two seasons with the Dodgers, this rate jumped up to 24%.

Now that he will be a full time player again in a decent White Sox lineup, Pierre’s value skyrockets. I’ve never been one to pay for his services, but if you are looking for steals he is once again “the man”. A .290 average with 45+ steals is completely reasonable to expect in 2010.