http://www.sbnation.com/users/Nofatmike Posts made by Nofatmike on SB Nation http://www.truebluela.com/2008/7/4/565128/no-spark-needed Nofatmike Sat, 05 Jul 2008 03:17:27 -0000 <p>Ever since their lead-off man, Juan Pierre,&nbsp;has gone&nbsp;on the Disabled List a few days ago, the Dodgers have since gone 4-1 over a 5-game span and now&nbsp;trail (as of this moment) the 1st-place D'Backs by a game in the NL West.&nbsp; And while Pierre has been out of the lineup in that timespan, the much-maligned Dodgers offense has suddenly hit a resurrgance despite their "self-proclaimed" spark-plug spending that entire period on the DL. This&nbsp;begs a question of my own; how exactly has the offense faired with and without Juan Pierre? Here's what I found (courtesy of baseball-reference.com):<br /><br />Games in which Pierre started: 3.806 R/G (67 games)<br />Games in which Pierre did not start: 5.421 (19 games)<br />Games in which Pierre played: 3.726 (73 games)<br />Games in which Pierre did play: 6.615 (13 games)<br />Games in which Pierre lead-off:&nbsp;3.3 (50 games)<br />Games in which Pierre did not lead-off: 5.361 (36 games)<br /><br />While the correlation of high-scoring games during Pierre's absence does not imply that he is the main&nbsp;cause of the Dodgers' offensive woes, the Dodgers are surely doing a better job without their "spark-plug."</p>