Mike Scioscia’s tragic illness

O.K., so we just talked about this, and I prefer to keep the “Random Stupid Quotes And Stupid People” segment more occasional than constant, but there’s lots of stupid, these days, and after reading through the Times right now, I gotta mention it.  From this morning’s L.A. Times: 

Outfielder Juan Pierre, benched at the start of the season, has led off in every game since Furcal was injured. That’s 33 and counting, and Torre says he sees no rest coming.

The Dodgers have averaged two fewer runs a game without Furcal. They rank last in the National League in home runs, and Pierre leads the league in stolen bases.

“He’s a legitimate leadoff hitter,” Torre said. “We don’t score a lot of runs, and he can generate some offense just by being on base.”

O.K., two problems with this:

1.  Last I checked, we’ve scored 0-1 runs in 10 out of the last 19 games and, in case you haven’t noticed, Joe, he’s BEEN our leadoff hitter most of the season, including this stretch… if he can generate some offense, uh… where is it?  Surely, not all the offensive struggles lay on him, but there’s nothing to suggest Joe’s claims have any validity, based on individual stats and team stats.  Which brings us to…

2.  Joe’s definition of a “legitimate leadoff hitter” tends to differ from mine.  A legitimate leadoff hitter, or any hitter legitimate hitter, to me implies, oh… I don’t know… that he gets on base?!  Instead of rehashing the stats, just look at the post right below this one.  Until proven otherwise, Pierre is not a legitimate leadoff hitter.  He has not been close to one in FOUR years… then again, who knows?  Perhaps he is because he has that kickass veterany presence that Ken Rosenthal talks about.

Oh, yeah, and on a side note:

Pierre entered play Wednesday batting .429 off left-handers [. . .] Outfielder Andre Ethier, batting .178 off left-handers, has started against a left-hander once in the last six weeks. . . .

Now, I can sort of understand sitting Andre against LHP at times, he’s been bad against lefties, this year.  However, if matchups and splits against LHP and RHP are so important, how about some consistency when sitting players:

Juan Pierre vs. RHP in 2008:  .235/.304/.275

Nah… I guess it’s best to start him in the past 30+ consecutive games, instead, and get him the most at-bats on the team.

Can someone remind me again how Joe Torre’s supposed to be this significant improvement from Grady?  Argh!!