PIERRE HAS A CLEAR PICTURE OF PROGRESS OUTFIELDER STRIVES FOR IMPROVEMENT.

Byline: TONY JACKSON 

Staff Writer

Hanging from the front of Juan Pierre's locker in the home clubhouse at Dodger Stadium is a small photograph of Pierre and the late Bill Robinson.

It was taken in those jubilant, first few minutes after the Florida Marlins won the 2003 World Series with Pierre as their leadoff man and center fielder and Robinson as their hitting coach, the two having replaced their jerseys with gray, commemorative T-shirts that were soon soaked with champagne.

Pierre put up the photo a couple of weeks ago as a tribute to Robinson, who went on to become the Dodgers' minor-league hitting coordinator before he died suddenly last month. But it also serves as a reminder to Pierre of why he plays this game, of why he puts on the uniform, of why he routinely shows up to the ballpark hours before game time and well before most of his teammates.

There are only four players on the Dodgers' roster who have experienced the euphoria Pierre and Robinson shared that night. And Pierre has spent every moment of the almost five years that have passed since that victory hungering for another taste of it.

"No doubt about it," he said. "That first time, I didn't know what to expect. I was just going through it. With the Marlins, we had been so bad, and then we just started winning, and we didn't wake up until it was over. It was such a feeling of accomplishment, the one time in my career where I felt like I had accomplished something."

There it was. Did you catch it? Those final words.

"The one time in my career ... I had accomplished something."

Seven years after he first came to the big leagues as a highly touted prospect, Pierre has actually accomplished a lot -- or at least it appears that way, if you pay more attention to the numbers than to his never-quite- satisfied way of looking at life.

He has hit .300 or better over a full season three times, and he has an outside shot at making it four. He has finished either first or second in the National League in stolen bases in each of the past six seasons and is a lock to make it seven.

And as the Dodgers head into September hanging on for dear life in the playoff race, they can at least take comfort knowing they are entering a month in which Pierre has a career average of .338.

He also has stolen 52 bases, giving him a chance to surpass his career high of 65 despite the fact he has batted in his customary leadoff spot just 19 times all season.

"A lot factors into it," Pierre said. "One, you have to get on base. Two, you have to be in close games to have the opportunity to run. I have been up and down the lineup all year, where being in the leadoff spot the whole year allows you to (run) pretty consistently."

Pierre also stole 18 in a row at one point and has been caught just 11 times. He also has 17 doubles and seven triples, and he still doesn't strike out much, just 33 times in 596 plate appearances for an average of once every 18.1 times he steps into the batter's box.

And yet, all anyone (but especially talk radio callers, blog posters and sabermetricians) seems to want to talk about is the pop gun he has for a throwing arm and the on-base percentage that is well below what is generally considered acceptable for a top-of-the-lineup hitter. Oh, and the other thing they all want to point to is his contract, a five-year, $44-million deal with an average annual value that far exceeds anything Pierre has received over the entire life of any of his previous professional contracts.

And, to hear those on the blogosphere tell it, the $44 million far exceeds what he is worth.

While Pierre has been able to tune out most of that and focus on playing the game, those around him are sure it was a major reason why he got off to such a slow start in his first season with the Dodgers.

"I think when a guy like Juan comes in here under the situation he came in here under, he has a good chance for a lot of love-hate relationships throughout the season, and it can have an effect," said Dodgers manager Grady Little, who himself cited Pierre's lackluster OBP in temporarily dropping him to seventh in the order on Aug. 9. "But all we expected all along was for this guy to be himself, and he has certainly shown us himself a lot of the time.

"Still, he is (human), and he isn't going to be good every single day."

Pierre adamantly denies that the pressure of his contract weighed on him early in the season, when he got off to a horrid start and was hitting below .200 as late as April 15. He also denies that he made any changes or adjustments to get out of the slump.

"I just stayed with my work and never wavered off of what I was trying to do," Pierre said. "I never lost confidence, and that was the biggest thing. I always thought I was going to get better. I stuck with my program."

A lot of Pierre's contributions can't be quantified through statistics -- another reason why the sabermetric crowd will never fully accept him. Case in point was a game against Colorado on Aug. 19. With Brad Penny nursing a 2-0 lead in the fourth inning and struggling -- the Rockies had loaded the bases with nobody out on two walks sandwiched around a double by Todd Helton -- Brad Hawpe hit a looping liner into the gap in right-center field.

Pierre turned on the burners and did the best he could to get to the ball, then went airborne at the last moment and gloved it just inches above the grass. The result was that a three-run double was transformed into a simple sacrifice fly, and Penny rebounded to get out of the inning with no further damage.

By the time the Dodgers fell behind 3-2 then came back to win 4-3, Pierre's catch was all but forgotten amid the excitement of a late-inning rally. But in reality, it was a game-saving catch in what might have been a season-saving, one-run victory for the Dodgers.

That same day, Pierre beat out a perfectly placed bunt single to extend his hitting streak to seven games, a streak that eventually reached 15. He went 26 for 66 during the streak, much of which came when the Dodgers were scratching and clawing for every bit of offense they could muster.

Speaking of scratching and clawing, Pierre has his average all the way up to .288 now. But he still has a ways to go to achieve a full recovery.

Especially since, in his mind, there is not such thing as a full recovery.

"I'm still not where I want to be right now," he said. "It's still a process. It's always a work in progress. As soon as you relax and think that things are going good, that's when things will go bad. I'm always learning and trying to get that much better, because if you're not batting 1.000, you can always get better."

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