Ever since i joined this forum i have been bothered by a general opinion that has permeated that Juan Pierre is a poor defensive player. I had never read that anywhere else, nor have I heard that dialogue in any sports talk show. I have been away from S. Fl for some time so I figured I may have missed something. I however have been very sceptical on this matter. i decided to ask a knowledgeable source about this matter. I shall not give a name because I didn't ask his permission to release it but i shall say this he had a 12 year MLB career and was teammate of Pierre during His Rockies years. As a pitcher, his opinion of JP's defensive skills are objective and well founded. I shall proceed to indicate that he said:"Juan Pierre?...I like his glove in CF I like it a lot. He is a sure fielder...the only reason anyone would think he is a bad fielder is because he goes diving after balls no one else even tries to get...He covers more ground than most other centerfielders...From his vantage point , he doesn't need to have a strong arm." I think people over-analyze and often overstate their positions but it was cut and dry...Juan Pierre is a very good defensive player!...As a qualifier, this retired player amongst the other CF's he played with include Johnny Damon, Carlos Beltran, Marquis Grissom and Daryl Boston

Great post. I agree 100%, and have never understood the knock on JP. Another thing I don't understand is the knock on him offensively, either. I never heard anything short of absolute praise for JP when he was in teal, and when he left apparently everybody changed their opinions... Go figure.

Dude's a pie-thrower, not great on balls in front of him, and for all the speed he has, he only gets to an average number of balls for a "plus" centerfielder.

 

He's, at best, average. No one hesitates going from 2nd to 3rd on him...that's not what you want in a centerfielder.

as far as range goes he's fine, maybe even above average, but his lack of a throwing arm is a big deficiency, there's no doubt about it. Teams constantly take the extra base on JP.

Is it alright to guess your unnamed pitcher... because I think I know who it is... I kinda figured it was this guy...

Well of course, there's no better judge of player's defensive abilities than Joe Schmoe on the message board.

 

A pitcher depending on a fielder for defense behind him has no business trying to assess that fielder's abilities.

I really think the only valid knock on JP is his arm. It's below average... However, I do think he had great range and got good jumps. I wouldn't mind seeing him back in teal..

Very good defensive center fielders have arms. Juan Pierre has no arm. He's mediocre.

 

End.

Pierre's so fluid and so exciting you can't pick up his defensive liabilities with ease. However, Pierre regularly ranks below-average or at the bottom among CFers in zone rating, a well-regarded stat that has no inherent bias towards former teammates.

Send me a message and I'll tell you if you are correct in who's name you suspect...

Retired pitcher that played with JP....I'll take a guess and say Al Leiter ?

not even close...I don't believe Leiter ever pitched for the Rockies

I already got it.. PMed you the name...

JP is a great defensive centerfielder, the only thing is that he's got a weak arm so people don't give him the respect that he deserves.

JP is a great defensive centerfielder, the only thing is that he's got a weak arm so people don't give him the respect that he deserves.

how can you be great and at the same time severly flawed?

JP is a great defensive centerfielder, the only thing is that he's got a weak arm so people don't give him the respect that he deserves.

Like I said before, a center fielder with no arm is useless. One of the key tools teams look for in center fielders is an arm. Juan Pierre has absoloutly no center field arm and probably never will.