Steve Pearce
by acweidman on Aug 10, 2009 10:15 PM EDT
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I feel ambivalent about the Steve Pearce situation. Since his re-call up (i.e. When NH said he would get some playing time), Pearce has hit .368/.510/.879. Call me nuts but, in a line-up struggling to get anything going, I would like to see Pearce's bat in play day-in and day-out. Then again, it's a small sample size and JR continues to feature Pearce in a semi-platoon with Garrett Jones.
Should we be excited about Pearce's production or wary of the Pirates ever giving him a chance. I would rather see him in the line-up than back in AAA and thrown into a package deal in 2 years.
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Semi-platoon with Jones?
Jones has started every day even though he shouldn’t. Pearce should start more than he has if not every day.
Show me a guy whos afraid to look bad, and I'll show you a guy you can beat every time. -Lou Brock
Pearce
is kind of platooning with Brandon Moss, with Jones at 1B or RF depending on which one plays. I don’t think Jones will sit the rest of the year, JR just seems to love him.
JR loves all the guys who played for him in the Twins' system.
It’s the same reason Rivas got such a ridiculous amount of PT last year.
I raised the question the other day...
How low would Garrett’s batting average need to get before he got benched??
.150...maybe
Show me a guy whos afraid to look bad, and I'll show you a guy you can beat every time. -Lou Brock
Jones, Pearce, and Moss
Need to have all of the 1B/RF at-bats allocated equally among them in an attempt to decided which one is the odd-man out. I don’t think we can declare any of the three a winner as of yet although Jones does seem to have the inside track. It is important that each of the three be given ample opportunity in which to prove themselves as a decision might be made at the end of the season to remove one from the roster. Each should be viewed as a possible candidate for starting next season even though it might not occur. It is only that way we can be somewhat confident of making a decision about their futures.
by Illinois Pirate Fan on Aug 11, 2009 2:07 PM EDT reply actions
I said a long time ago...
that if the Pirates feel that poorly about Pearce (or Moss)…they should have been gone. The Pirates chose not to do that…but continue to jack both of them around. Either they are good enough to play, or they aren’t…but this yo-yo’ing in and out of the lineup is not serving the team or the player well.
Hmmm…I must have missed the 30 HR a year that Clement is hitting every year in the minors…or the .300 batting average he’s hitting every year in the minors. Oh…that’s right…his highest HR total is 20. And outside of a 48 game stint at Tacoma last year…he hasn’t even hit .290 in the minors…since the Midwest League in 2005.
Not sure....
what Clement has to do with your point about Pearce and Moss. The guy has been in the organization for two weeks at AAA. He isn’t taking at bats from anybody. As for jerking guys around, they are professionals getting a chance to play major league baseball. Pearce certainly has had a circuitous route and has been given a sustained opportunity at the major league level. Moss has, to a much greater extent. But, I don’t really go for the “jerking around” argument because you aren’t playing everyday. Jeff Salazar has a case when he gets to bat twice a week. But both Moss and Pearce have been in the lineup about four days a week.
I’m not arguing if it’s right or wrong, but if you want them in there more often than that, you have to sit Milledge or Jones. Milledge probably has the highest upside of the three and Jones has an OPS over 1.000. Certainly I think they should both sit at least once a week and that would mean the other two guys get 4-5 starts a week. That would make sense to me.
Clement was mentioned...
because about half of the posts forecasting 2010 lineups in the last couple of weeks have him forecast at 1B. A position he has never played. And his offensive numbers in the minors are eerily similar to Jones, Pearce, Salazar, et. al.
Garrett Jones has started and played every inning of every game since he was called up. You sit Jones once a week…Milledge once a week…and Cutch…say once every two weeks…and all of a sudden…Pearce and Moss are both playing about 5 times a week. That’s not unreasonable…and it affords a much better chance to decide what you have for 2010.
Figuring 6 games in a week…among RF, LF, 1B…that’s 18 games.
Jones…5 games a week…3 in RF…1 in LF…1 at 1B.
Milledge…5 games a week…5 in LF.
Pearce…5 games a week…5 at 1B
Moss…3 games a week…in RF. Every other week…Moss picks up an extra OF game to give Cutch a rest (either Moss or Milledge plays CF).
Total…18 games…6 at each position. Not very tough to figure out.
Well...
Who would you forecast for 1B next year? Neal didn’t trade for him so he could DH at Indy. I imagine they’ll declare an open competition between Pearce and Clement for 1B next spring, or maybe they’ll platoon them. You’ve gotta figure Clement has a good chance to land the job next year as long as he’s not a complete embarrassment with the glove.
Exactly
Next Year 1B competition will be between Pearce and Clement. Defensively, Pearce has the slight edge. Defensively I like him better than G. Jones too.
But if Clement improved his defense this year, next year he will be challenging, the question is whether he has the batter’s eye or not that NH wants. NH seems to want the players to learn the strike zone so they don’t strike out so much.
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