My first and last post this year that metions Pierre.

Happy New Year! Time to start making waffles!

Not that I want to start that debate again either ... so let's forget I said it.

Boy, a lot of minefields in 2008.

I would hate xeifrank to be mad at me.

Did he get confused with Jones, whose contract I believe was announced with a no-trade clause?

http://mlbcontracts.blogspot.com/2005/01/los-angeles-dodgers.html

Then I come to the site... and it turns out that U2 was right! Nothing changes on New Year's Day!

A new year... and, let's hope, a new Pierre.

7 A new Pierre in a different uniform sounds good to me.

Commenters here might be more interested that the Trader Joe's float comes up at #42.

http://tinyurl.com/3ybqaa

No B1 this year. That's always been the highlight for me because it would circle over my house before the parade started.

I would like to know why the float has #50 batting. Eric Stults was used mostly as a reliever and had a grand total of 12 AB this year:

http://www.baseball-reference.com/s/stulter01.shtml

I'm not willing to get excited about it until there's any reason to believe it matters. I still assume Colletti likes Pierre.

If a player could have a "no benching" clause, what would then prevent a player from ever being fined or disciplined in any way?

People somehow drew that conclusion when he said "it's in my contract to play 162 games." It was just a figure of speech.

On another topic - mlbtraderumors.com has an interesting link to a wikipedia entry on a 21 year old pitcher now throwing for the Nippon Ham Fighters. Apparently he's the new Japanese pitching hero, since most of their others have come over here. Half Japanese, half Iranian which is already very interesting.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yu_Darvish

To get Darvish to come to the US before he is eligible to be posted, some team would have to fork over hundreds of million of dollars to the Nippon Ham people.

No telling what the Yanks or Red Sox might do with the money they set aside for Santana if they don't get him, although Darvish has apparently announced he has no desire to come over here anytime in the immediate future

Darvish is really young and I wouldn't be convinced he would be an instant success in the U.S. He would be good, but I can't imagine he would start out any better than Matsuzaka.

I guess by most standards, Japanese ball is no better than AAA, but I wonder what the average Japanese fan feels about the U.S. grabbing so many of their good players. Maybe they think of it as an honor, or maybe it really ticks them off.

Happy New Year, all. And thanks, Jon, for another terrific year of postings.

As bad as you might think MLB's marketing is, NPB's is a thousand times worse.

Rafael Furcal, SS
Russell Martin, C
Matt Kemp, RF
Andruw Jones, CF
Jeff Kent, 2B
James Loney, 1B
Andy LaRoche, 3B (this must've been hard for Ken to write)
Juan Pierre, LF
Brad Penny, P

Only had time to watch the one on Gibson's homer but I think I could watch that one every day. Every time I watch it, I'm reminded of why I love baseball so much and it somehow lets me forget about all the steroid stuff.

I missed it, hopefully they have a re-peat later on today.

It would make more sense to bat him 9th (if he's gonna be in the lineup), with the pitcher batting 8th. That way, the pitcher could bunt guys off of first, and Pierre could move runners up with grounders, rather than forcing them out at 2nd with bunts and grounders.

It might also give Furcal more fastballs to look at which could also be an advantage.

I just checked & unfortunately it won't air again.

Can you tell I'm not enamored of this "tradition?" My sedated dog is still asleep and uncomfortable.

Hauoli Makahiki Hou, everyone!

I can find nothing about JP being no-trade.

Huh? Drew wasn't on the team last year and didn't play CF.

Arizona Diamondbacks 11 - 1
Atlanta Braves 11 - 1
Chicago Cubs 4 - 1
Cincinnati Reds 17 - 1
Colorado Rockies 9 - 1
Florida Marlins 75 - 1
Houston Astros 25 - 1
Los Angeles Dodgers 7 - 1
Milwaukee Brewers 11 - 1
New York Mets 5 - 1
Philadelphia Phillies 5 - 1
Pittsburgh Pirates 75 - 1
San Diego Padres 7 - 1
San Francisco Giants 40 - 1
St Louis Cardinals 11 - 1
Washington Nationals 75 - 1

The Cubs are actually the favorite. I think the odds for the NL West teams are a little long simply because the NL West is gonna be really tough this year. Incidentally, the Dodgers are 20-1 to win the World Series.

I guess the sourness was all Gonzo. Kent, Nomar and Lowe were as happy go lucky as ever.

If the Dodgers keep him as a pinch hitter, pinch runner, extra outfielder, he serves as a reminder to McCourt that many times it is better to not do something than to act in haste.

Were I betting man, I might think the Diamondbacks are a value bet at 11-1.

Huh? Drew wasn't on the team last year and didn't play CF.

I think he's referring to the fact that Colletti was planning on Drew moving to CF to replace Lofton when J.D. "surprised" him by opting out and then Ned grabbed Pierre.

Willie Davis? Manny Mota? Davey Lopes?

my first impression was that the LA Dodger caricature on the float resembled someone mentioned in the MR...

(cue the Dragnet music here: http://tinyurl.com/29nvxs)

Speaking of ignorance--make that arrogance--here's a link to an item on Boras' ego taking a hit from the A-Rod/Yankees fiasco. It should help get everyone's New Year off to a good start, since Boras is so universally loved and admired here....

Excerpt: "A-Rod might not be the most popular guy in the game, but don't think he didn't do some serious damage to Boras' image. He basically called the guy a lying weasel on national TV. Nobody in the business is shedding any tears for Boras, believe me, but he took a serious hit."

Item also says Boras has tried to call A-Rod. But A-Rod won't take the calls.

http://tinyurl.com/yvxasn

There is a funny article about homerism. I am a sucker for pictures of Homer I think.

http://mlbfleecefactor.com/2008/01/01/introducing-the-homer-award/

Actually, how much does movie theater advertising cost? If the National Guard can run that fifteen (or whatever) minute music video before every movie in the country, I could maybe pop for a screen or two. Preferably somewhere near when Reg (or, better, his parents) live. "You're not really a Pierre-lover are you, honey? There was this ad at the movie theater, but I can't believe it's true. I thought we'd raised you better than that... (in the backround: You're killing your mother, son; I hope you're proud of yourself!)"

Juan Pierre
Austin Kearns
Conor Jackson
Edwin Jackson
Pierre-Luc "Pete" LaForest
Richmond "Richie" Sexson

It also finds 31 current minor leaguers:
Lincoln - 1
Pierre - 1
Richmond - 1
Sacramento - 1
Salem - 1
Carson - 3 (kind of cheating, as I didn't cut any slack for just "Paul" -- no current Jeffersons, though)
Austin - 11
Jackson - 13

The list adds up to 32 because Austin Jackson, currently in AAA for the Yankees, is pulling double duty.

That was also my summer of gophering for AM Los Angeles with Steve Edwards and Christina Ferrare ... and making a diving catch in the outfield in a weekend softball game next to Mark Coogan.

What if there was a good reason? Although I guess the tagline "this message brought to you by the Society for the Prevention of Juan Pierre" would be a tad tasteless.

I have lost my patience or Cowheard.....he is horrible...

I assume you heard from Ned directly. He got a panic attack when he saw Gurnick's article and was just checking the contract when you dropped him an email.

I'm expecting a nice bounce back year from both of them:

Andruw Jones [http://tinyurl.com/5bja8]

Jose Reyes [http://tinyurl.com/yrvmmm]

You know what though, Jose Reyes ob% isn't eye catching but I guess it's good enough.

I like that it seems necessary to publicly affirm that one wishes Pierre no harm. That it's the hallmark of the Pierre moderate.