To follow up on the Juan Pierre talk...Steven Goldman at the Pinstriped Blog has a write-up on why Juan Pierre isn't the answer for the Yankees in CF:
Pierre is not a great player. Last season he was not even a good player. He has no power. Neifi Perez has a higher career slugging percentage. Luis Rivas has a higher career slugging percentage. Deivi Cruz. Scott Bloody Podsednik. He is, EMPHATICALLY, not a better leadoff man than Derek Jeter. Yes, he steals more bases. He also gets caught quite frequently, and doesn't get on base very often. Thought a .305 career hitter, he doesn't walk. He ranks 89th among active players in OBP (Jeter is 21st). He is also not a good outfielder. Baseball Prospectus has him as six runs below average in 2005, 11 runs below average in 2004, 14 runs below average in 2003.
The Yankees got nothing from their center fielders last year. As such, almost anyone would be an improvement. Unless Pierre hits .330, which he has never done, not even in Colorado, he will not help the situation dramatically. If the Yankees make him their leadoff hitter and give him over 700 plate appearances, he will actually hurt the team.
There is no logical reason, no matter how fast a player is, to give him over 10 percent of the team's offensive playing time when he will never hit a home run and get on base at, at best, an average rate. Further, let us throw down this gauntlet: any sportswriter -- reporter or columnist -- who writes that the acquisition of Pierre would give the Yankees the "pure leadoff hitter" they have been missing is guilty of dereliction of duty and of disseminating misinformation to the public.
That is also applicable to Pierre as a solution to the Rangers' leadoff/CF situation...giving up good prospects to pay Pierre $5 million for 2006 isn't a smart plan...