I just wanted to address the issue at hand regarding the sudden hatred towards Juan Pierre. The game on Tuesday night, every time Pierre made a play in left the fans responded with a very sarcastic cheer. I can understand maybe doing it once, but every time he makes a play? Come on, that’s the kind of B.S. you'll find in that dump on the North side. We're better fans than that everyone. Yes, Pierre has made 2 bad mistakes in left field that have ultimately contributed to our demise in two recent games. But people, we have to remember that it is still April. It is very early in the season. If the season was a person, it would be an infant right now.
Not to mention that Pierre only made 1 error last season! Think about that, he played the field in 149 games last season and made 1 error! That puts his fielding percentage at a sparkling .997! I think its totally unfair to demoralize a guy because he has had a rough 2 plays. How quickly everyone overlooks how valuable he has been to our club early on this season. He has made some fantastic plays in left field and most importantly is a huge key to our offense. Go back and look at those games we've played and put up 7 or more runs and I guarantee you Juan Pierre was right there, getting on base, stealing, and scoring those runs. He jumpstarts our offense every game! Its no coincidence that when he gets on base guys behind him produce. Because when he's on base he's a threat. A threat to steal or score from 1st. As soon as he's on base the pitchers focus shifts to him (some more than others), resulting in the guys behind him (Beckham, Rios, Konerko, Dunn, Quentin) seeing better pitches to hit. He simply gets the offense started, he’s the match that lights the wick, the key that turns the ignition (insert other metaphor here).
His value is not at only measured on his defensive performance or his batting average. Sure those factors contribute, but he does so many things that get overlooked. He takes pitchers deep into counts, next time he's hitting, watch how many pitches he fouls off. He tires pitchers out that way, that benefits everyone in the lineup! He steals bases, getting into scoring position, giving guys more chances to pick up some RBIs. And like I said earlier, his defense has always been solid. What’s most important is that the guy hustles on every play, you can just see it in his performance. Listen, don't boo a guy or hate on a guy who is out there busting his ass on every play. He deserves better than that
Finally, I better not here anymore of this nonsense after what he did tonight (which, I think is also being overlooked) He came up in the 8th, with a runner on 2nd, down one run and battled and prevailed. Lining a single to center scoring the tying run. People, that was HUGE. That run was the most important run in the entire ball game, without that, there is no Alexi Ramirez walk-off. Without that, we lose by a run! Give the man a break.
(Incase you missed it)
http://chicago.whitesox.mlb.com/mlb/gameday/index.jsp?gid=2011_04_12_oakmlb_chamlb_1&highlight_content_id=13723727&c_id=cws
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