Juan Pierre

I should start by saying I actually like Juan Pierre. It's hard not to. He seems like a genuinely nice guy, and from everything I've heard, he's a very dedicated, hard working individual. Those are the types of guys that people should cheer for.

That being said, he's been a pretty big disappointment thus far, and that's putting it lightly. To begin with, he looks like he's lost a step, and when that's your only redeemable quality (besides intangibles, of course), that's not good. Not at all. He's played some questionable "D" in left, albeit better than Pods, and he's been useless at the plate. He's not a power hitter, sure. We all knew that. But 0 extra base hits a month into the season is pretty terrible. But worse than that, he seems to struggle at doing anything other than grounding out to middle infielders...that is...unless that would be beneficial, in which case he pops out to first basemen...ugh.

So now Ozzie has dropped him from the leadoff spot, which was pretty impressive on Ozzie's behalf. I love accountability, and Ozzie has held him accountable. Now if only Greg Walker could be held accountable for the team's annual failure to show an semblance of situational hitting....but I guess that's another post. I'm not sure I agree with the decision to bat Alexei leadoff, but I can deal with it. I'd be surprised if Teahen isn't batting there tomorrow against Vazquez, but still. I like the idea to shake things up a little bit. I'd love it if we could find ourselves a legit leadoff man, but that's easier said than done, of course. I'm sill on the Brett Gardner bandwagon, but again...easier said than done. It's disappointing Alejandro De Aza is off to a rough start at AAA, because I saw his speed/patience combo as having some potential.

I'm not really sure where I'm going with this. I have no absolute solution to offer. I wasn't a huge fan of the Pierre acquisition, but it was fair to assume he'd be a passable leadoff hitter. It's far too early to say he can't, but it's also not too early to contemplate some emergency alternatives. What they are, we'll have to wait and see. Or, we'll have to wait and see what kind of return we can get on AJ, Paulie, and the gang.