ArwenWatson

we got the first run!!!!

Favorite: Miguel Cabrera Least Favorite: Logan Kensing

Did anyone see Dontrelle on the Best Damn sports show? I only caught the last few seconds of it. They were asking him some questions like: who he liked better Shaq or Kobe, and who had the worse B.O. on the team(he said that he did).

awww....how cute

Hit - Pierre Double - Lowell Triple - Pierre HR - Cabrera RBI -Cabrera Run Scored - Pierre Stolen Base -Pierre Caught Stealing - Gonzalez Error - Delgado Win - Beckett (+1) 1

As long as Cabrera is happy with his wife...it doesn't matter what she looks like

Go Pierre!!!!

treanor walks

Yay...baseball!! :arms :super

I agree with Josh that whoever has the best Spring should get the nod for opening day. That being said, I hope it's AJ. me too :thumbup

You didn't know....But you posted old articles twice :mischief2 693976[/snapback] I just saw them on espn today and i never read them before :confused

oops sorry...didn't know :confused

Pierre steals way to top By Sean McAdam, Special to ESPN.com Sean McAdam Archive Trying to determine baseball's best basestealer is a little like trying to decide who throws the best chest pass in the NBA. The list of candidates is a short one. The stolen base isn't nearly the weapon in the 21st century that it was in 1970s and 1980s, when a team could win a pennant -- the 1985 St. Louis Cardinals, for instance -- with a lineup full of jackrabbits. Now, most teams concentrate on the big inning, and in doing so, shy away from the steal. Why risk an out when a three-run homer could be on the on-deck circle? Some teams, however, still aren't afraid to run, and there exists a handful of players who are fully capable of swiping a bag nearly at will. Consulting with a number of scouts and front office executives, the usual suspects surfaced: Seattle's Ichiro Suzuki, Tampa Bay's Carl Crawford and the White Sox's Scott Podsednik included. But the one name everyone mentioned, without fail, was the Florida Marlins' Juan Pierre, who has stolen 203 bases over the last four years, an average of nearly 51 per season. Last year, he stole 45 (Podsednik had 70 to lead the majors; Crawford's 59 was tops in the AL). Still, this isn't who steals the most, or even who runs the fastest. Pierre would lose both of those contests. Crawford may be baseball's fastest player, and Podsednik has more total steals over the last two seasons. It's generally agreed that Ichiro could steal far more often if he -- or the Mariners -- so chose. But one expert after another said Pierre is the guy they'd want running if they needed someone to steal a big base. "First of all,'' explains one major league executive, "he's got good instincts. Speed is one thing; instincts are another. He gets great leads, and that shows he's not afraid to get picked off. And that's another trait you look for: fearlessness. The great ones have it.'' Added a longtime scout: "Some guys -- for lack of a better word -- outrun the ball. Pierre's not one of those guys. But he's plenty fast enough and he uses his speed well. He's the kind of guy who maximizes his ability.'' Josh Byrnes, the Red Sox's assistant general manager, can vouch for that. Byrnes was with the Colorado Rockies when Pierre took -- not surprisingly -- the fast track to the big leagues. "We rushed him,'' concedes Byrnes, looking back. "He was a left fielder in the (Class A) South Atlantic League, and 12 months later, he was a starting center fielder in the major leagues. We sped him along. "But he didn't take long to make an impact. I think he hit safely in his first 14 or 15 games, and that included a three-hit game against Randy Johnson. And he hasn't backed down since. He'd stick his nose in there. Seeing Juan pace around the on-deck circle (to lead off a game), you knew he was ready to go.'' It wasn't at all unusual to see Pierre working with former major leaguer Dave Collins in early morning spring training sessions. Collins instructed Pierre on all things "small ball'' -- from bunting to bat control to stealing bases. Pierre listened well. "He picked up a lot of the nuance,'' recalls Byrnes. "The physical part of baserunning, as well as the mental part. He's always played with a sense of how his skills can impact a game, and he never wastes at-bats. You don't see him hitting the ball in the air much. He knows to hit the ball on the ground so he can put pressure on fielders to make plays, and then, on catchers to throw him out.'' Watching Pierre measure his lead, carefully eying the pitcher, is to watch a student at work. "He knows how far to get off base,'' says another general manager. "He's pretty aggressive in that regard. He takes as big a lead as anyone. He's got that innate feel for how far to push the envelope. He's always out there just enough so that the pitcher knows he's teetering on the edge.'' And once Pierre puts his mind to going, there's little to stop him. "He's got that first-step quickness that you want in an elite basestealer,'' remarks a veteran advance scout. "And he's fearless. That's definitely something else you look for.'' Pierre was caught 24 times in 69 tries last year -- a far less successful ratio than Podsednik, who was nabbed just 13 times in 83 attempts. But that, too, can be deceiving. "He steals when it means something,'' says another talent evaluator. "He's not padding his total. Everyone knows he's going and he still makes it most of the time. That, to me, is the mark of a really great basestealer.'' "He's not the kind of guy who would have won a lot of foot races with some of those guys in the '80s,'' says Byrnes. "But he has a passion for stealing bases and disrupting the game.'' And no one does it better. Sean McAdam of the Providence (R.I.) Journal covers baseball for ESPN.com.

Bunt cake for Pierre By Phil Rogers, Special to ESPN.com Phil Rogers Archive It is one thing to be a gifted player, and another again to constantly develop your gifts. Juan Pierre is not the greatest hitter in the majors, but he's somehow piled up 200-plus hits in three of the last four seasons. That speaks to his standing as a true craftsman. It's no coincidence that the best at their business are often the smartest. Greg Maddux is the one pitcher on the Chicago Cubs' talented pitching staff who makes it a point to watch the opposing team take batting practice, always searching for ways to exploit hitters. If he gets out to the dugout especially early on days the Florida Marlins are in town, he can sometimes catch a glimpse of Pierre doing his own distinct form of preparation. On the first day of a series on the road, Pierre will go out to home plate with a bag full of baseballs and slowly roll them down the first- and third-base lines, watching to see whether they move toward the infield or roll toward foul territory. Teams never have to do that when they visit Pro Player Stadium. With Pierre and Luis Castillo in the lineup, they know that the Marlins have their field set up with the baselines tiling toward the infield, not away from it. Pierre and his teammate, Castillo, are 1 and 1A on our list of the best bunters in baseball. You couldn't go wrong with either of them, nor Seattle's Ichiro Suzuki, for that matter. Detroit's Alex Sanchez gets a ton of bunt hits but often leaves Alan Trammell scratching his head about how he can't get a sacrifice down in the late innings. Pierre, among the game's best bunters, has most used that old-fashioned weapon to turn himself into a dynamic force. And he also happens to be on the short list of players you would most want a Little Leaguer to emulate. "I can't imagine anybody working harder at anything than Juan Pierre,'' said Cubs special assistant Gary Hughes, who fell for Pierre when both were with the Rockies. "He might be my favorite player in baseball. All I know is his work ethic is unbelievable. Our minor-league staff (in Colorado) got tired of trying to beat him to the ballpark. He's just unbelievable.'' A 13th-round pick in the 1998 draft, Pierre was not a highly-touted prospect. But he has succeeded where most talented players failed, in large part because he understands his strengths and limitations. He is listed as 6-foot, 180 pounds, but is an inch or two shorter and maybe 15 pounds lighter. Hughes said Pierre was a "good bunter'' when he first saw him play, in the South Atlantic League in 1999. But when Hughes helped prepare scouting reports for the 2003 National League Championship Series, he cautioned that he was a great bunter. He says the difference is that Pierre always works to make himself more skilled. Pierre mastered the art of bunting as a means to using his blinding speed to first base (he's been clocked as quick as 3.6 seconds). He never got caught up in the macho pursuit of swinging for the fence, resisting the temptation of trying to swing for the fences, even when playing at Coors Field, where left-handed hitters love to use the prevailing winds to send balls flying out of the park. "Pierre knows what he can do and what he can't do,'' Hughes said. "I think that's so important -- to know what kind of a player you are, and what you aren't. He's not going to start pumping weights and hit the ball out of Pro Player Stadium.'' Because teams must respect his ability to drag bunt, Pierre gets dozens of hits every season that are slapped just out of the reach of the corner infielders. He's as skilled at putting the ball on the ground to left field as pulling it toward right field. He has good enough bat control to show bunt and then swing away, which can be a third baseman's nightmare. Pierre almost always bunted or at least feigned a bunt the first time to the plate in 2003, when he put 90 bunts in play, pulling the infielders in for the whole game. He varied that pattern last season, saving his bunts for later parts of the game, when he sensed the fielders had perhaps relaxed. You can be sure Pierre will work to refine that approach when spring training arrives. It is what he does. Phil Rogers is the national baseball writer for the Chicago Tribune, which has a Web site at www.chicagosports.com.

Notes: Cabrera OK with left or right Club has yet to determine corner outfield starters By Joe Frisaro / MLB.com tickets for any Major League Baseball game Miguel Cabrera would prefer to play left field, but might end up starting in right. (Alan Diaz/AP) ? Leiter: Marlins can win it all JUPITER, Fla. -- Playing either corner outfield spot is fine with Miguel Cabrera. Figuring out the left and right field starters is the Marlins' unsettled Spring Training question mark. The 21-year-old Cabrera prefers left field. For that matter, third base, his natural position in the minors, is his favorite spot. But that isn't an option because of three-time All-Star Mike Lowell. Cabrera says he is more comfortable in left field, because like third base, the ball comes off the bat in the same direction. Grasping the angles and flight of the ball in right field is more difficult. But if manager Jack McKeon asked Cabrera to play right field, the Venezuelan native would do so without question. "I don't know," Cabrera said. "That is up to McKeon, what he wants to do. I don't want to say nothing, because that is up to him. Where they put me in the lineup, I'll play. It's a harder position for me. It's not my best spot, right field. But I'll play it." The outfield options are using Cabrera in left field and Juan Encarnacion or Jeff Conine in right field, or playing Conine in left field with Cabrera moving to right. Encarnacion is established in right field and has more speed than Cabrera. Cabrera has a stronger arm than Conine, so if that is the combination, Cabrera may be asked to play right field. For the first half of 2004, Conine was in left field and Cabrera opened in right. Cabrera reverted to left field last July after Encarnacion was acquired in a trade with the Dodgers. Conine was moved to first base. Intrasquad game: On the back fields at Roger Dean Stadium, the Marlins have scheduled an intrasquad game for Sunday. The tentative time is 11:30 a.m. ET, and it's open to the public. McKeon has yet to determine who the pitchers will be. Most likely, the game will last three or four innings. "We've got so many pitchers, so many players, we have to find a way to take a look at all of them," McKeon said. The scrimmage will feature mostly minor leaguers. A number of regulars will be held out, getting a shorter day. The regulars are slated to start on March 1 against the University of Miami at Roger Dean Stadium. As of now, no starting pitcher has been determined. Happy for Hall of Famer: Veteran broadcaster Jerry Coleman received the industry's highest honor on Tuesday when he was named the 2005 recipient of the Ford C. Frick Award. McKeon takes credit for Coleman being given prominence in the baseball Hall of Fame. When McKeon began the general manager of the Padres, Coleman was the Padres' manager. McKeon dismissed Coleman, who went back into the radio booth. "I've got to call him," McKeon said. "That was nice, Jerry got the Hall of Fame. I'm very close to him. I fired him once. I'm the one who fired him as manager. His is the case where he was probably better off in the booth. He knew it. "I get credit. We joke about it all the time. 'He fired me, and it was the best thing he ever did for me,' Jerry says. He was the manager when I took over the club in San Diego. But he had a tough time. He had never managed before, and he was coming out of the radio booth. He was a pretty decent manager, but it didn't work." Batting Bentz: Left-handed reliever Chad Bentz is a pretty good hitter, and a great inspiration. Born with a defective right hand, Bentz takes pride in his hitting. A 1999 graduate of Juneau-Douglas High School in Alaska, Bentz belted 23 home runs as a prep star. Back then he pitched, played first base and right field. "I can handle the bat," says Bentz, who has been told countless times that he inspires people. "If they let me swing, I'll take my hacks." Mostly a pull hitter, Bentz has two career Major League at-bats. With the Expos last season, he sliced a ball down the right-field line against the Braves that J.D. Drew made a spectacular play on, lunging into the stands. The play earned Drew a Web Gem on ESPN. "I got around late on Jaret Wright," Bentz said. "When I looked up, I saw the fastball was 96." In Bentz's other at-bat, he singled through the hole at short off Pittsburgh's Sean Burnett. "I'm batting .500," Bentz said. "I'm content if I never hit again."

Such a comedian...i don't think its possible for him not to know and everyone else to know...especially when he is on the same team :lol

That's cool!!! :cool

brings back good memories

it would be bad to lose any of them....but most definitely Cabrera

:cool

Cabrera!!!!

They look really cool

The Marlins have given AJ $3.65 mill, When he pitches there's quite a thrill, With 190, 200, and 210 on the hill, He will collect 150,000 American bill. Very true

i remember the first time my aunt showed me that...she was laughing alot

why can't celebrity couples just stay together?