Mike Scioscia's tragic illness

Could Reason Actually Win Out?

I don’t think I need to rehash just how most Dodger fans feel about Juan Pierre; you can find a few hundred negative articles about him on this and and many other blogs. It’s no secret that 99% of us would love to see Pierre dumped for peanuts on anyone and go with an outfield of Ethier-Jones-Kemp, with Delwyn Young and Jason Repko (if… must keep straight face… healthy) as the backups. Failing that, at least make Pierre a backup OF/pinch-runner extraordinaire, especially now that Jones has taken his CF spot, because as indefensible as it was to roll him out there every day, letting him play a corner spot is borderline criminal. But when a guy has 4 years and about $36 million left on his deal, it’s not unusual to see sound baseball sense take a decided back seat to writing huge paychecks for a guy you won’t let play. (Come on, McCourt, I was a history major and even I know what the concept of a sunk cost is).

Anyway, most of us are resigned to the fact that due to his contract, Pierre’s going to be our everyday left fielder, leaving Ethier and Kemp to battle it out in right field, which is so ass-backwards I can’t even talk about it coherently.

Except Tony Jackson of the LA Daily News injects some much-needed hope…

Juan Pierre showed up early today, but declined to meet with reporters, promising to do so when he returns on Tuesday. He also hinted that he knows exactly what we want to ask him about, which is the situation in left field. Torre said hello to Pierre but didn’t address the LF matter with him beyond what the two discussed over the telephone this winter. Looking more and more like J.P. will have to actually beat out Andre Ethier for the job, although Torre did admit that his history suggests he likes veteran players.

Obviously this is a reporter’s speculation, but still – extremely promising. Does that mean Kemp is going to get the RF job, as well know he should? Does this mean Pierre won’t just be handed the LF job, as we all know he shouldn’t? Looks like a sad situation just got a whole lot more interesting.

In other news, how glad are you to be a Dodger fan and not a Royals fan?

Pitching coach Bob McClure said 11 pitchers will open camp as candidates for the rotation: Gil Meche, Zack Greinke, Brian Bannister, Brett Tomko, Jorge De La Rosa, Luke Hudson, John Bale, Brian Lawrence, Kyle Davies, Hideo Nomo and Mike Maroth.

Only an injury is likely to keep Meche, Greinke and Bannister from making the rotation. Club officials also indicate Tomko must pitch his way out of the No. 4 slot.

First of all, that’s no typo, that’s no impersonator – that’s the Hideo Nomo. But read that last sentence again. “Tomko must pitch his way out of the No. 4 slot.” How sad is that?

- Mike Scioscia’s tragic illness