DODGERS NOTEBOOK: LITTLE WANTS PIERRE TO BE MORE PATIENT.

Byline: TONY JACKSON 

Staff Writer

VERO BEACH, Fla. -- Three days after saying he didn't want career leadoff man Juan Pierre to change his approach despite the fact he was being dropped to second in the batting order behind Rafael Furcal, Dodgers manager Grady Little said before Sunday's spring-training workout that he has asked Pierre to be more patient at the plate.

"We talked to him about (that)," Little said. "It might help him get on base more."

Told after the workout of Little's comments, Pierre initially seemed taken aback. But ultimately, he acknowledged having had such a conversation with Little.

"We talked about it when we talked about me batting second," Pierre said.

The question is whether Pierre, who is seven years into what has essentially been a successful career in the majors, can make such an adjustment -- or if he should even be asked to, considering the Dodgers lured him to Los Angeles this winter with a five-year, $44 million contract based on the player he already was.

"I'll just go out and play my game," Pierre said. "I don't get a lot of walks, but ... it's not like I'm just up there hacking."

The biggest knock against Pierre is that his career on-base percentage (.350) isn't what teams look for from a leadoff man.

Pierre doesn't draw many walks, a fact he blames on his lack of power because pitchers aren't afraid to challenge him when they are behind in the count. But Little also made it clear in announcing that Furcal would lead off that Pierre will be more a second leadoff man than a prototypical No. 2 hitter.

Little seemed to reiterate that even as he called for Pierre to take more pitches.

"He did ask me about sacrifice bunting with (Furcal) at first base," Little said. "I don't think we'll have much of that. If he sees an opportunity for a (bunt) base hit in those situations, he might be doing that. But we're not going to be giving up outs when we have a runner on first who is fully capable of stealing a base."

Furcal is a contact hitter who struck out just 38 times in 699at-bats with the Chicago Cubs last season and who has struck out only once every 16.5 at-bats throughout his career.

National heroes: Dodgers pitchers Hong-Chih Kuo and Chin-Hui Tsao and shortstop prospect Chin-lung Hu all made history in their home country of Chinese Taipei last December, helping the national team win the baseball championship of the Asian Games in Doha, Qatar, for the first time ever. Kuo, who also pitched for his country in the 2002 Games and in last spring's World Baseball Classic, started and pitched five solid innings in a semifinal win over Korea.

Taiwan then beat Japan for the gold medal.

"We knew we had a pretty good team going in, but it was still a really big deal for our country because we had never won it before," Kuo said.

Although Tsao was a free agent who wouldn't sign with the Dodgers for another month, the club had to give permission for the Chinese Taipei Baseball Association to use Kuo and Hu in the tournament, something general manager Ned Colletti said was an easy decision.

"It was a good opportunity for them to represent their country and get some valuable experience at a high level of baseball," Colletti said. "It wasn't major-league, but it was still a very competitive level, and it was something they could take a lot of pride in."

Looking back: Veteran reliever Rudy Seanez, who is in camp on a minor- league contract, returned after a two-day absence to attend his grandmother's funeral. No sooner had he gotten back than he was reminded of a game at Dodger Stadium last Sept. 18, when Seanez gave up a two-run homer to Nomar Garciaparra in the 10th inning to give the Dodgers a dramatic win over San Diego.

The Dodgers had hit four consecutive homers in the ninth to tie the score.

The two clubs wound up tied atop the National League West, with the Padres getting the title based on head-to-head play and the Dodgers making the playoffs as the wild-card.

"In a game like that, with everything that had gone on, I think there was a feeling that we just weren't going to win," Seanez said. "But the biggest thing was, we just came back from it and I just came back from it. I think it showed what both teams were made of."

Koufax visits: Hall of Famer Sandy Koufax, who lives nearby, made his first Dodgertown appearance of the spring on Sunday.

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