Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Juan Pierre:

But a funny thing happened on his way to obsolescence. Neither Howard nor Utley played a single spring-training game, and both will be on the disabled list for the foreseeable future. Without the two sluggers in the middle of the lineup — and with only a single Opening Day starter (Jimmy Rollins) who has even hit 30 home runs in a season — the offense needed to temporarily reinvent itself.

Today, no player represents this attempt at reinvention more than Pierre, who is trying to survive on a team that hasn’t used a player like him in years — in a league that no longer seems to value players like him.

Actually, the league values him perfectly. Juan is a player whose offense value is highly dependent on his batting average. He hits for little power and draws few walks, so he has to hit for a very high average to be valuable offensively. Even with a BA over .300 this season, FanGraphs rates his offense at -0.2 runs compared to average. Pierre does contribute on the base paths and with the glove, so he was a good player, but in 2011 the defense fell apart, and that hasn’t recovered. His value to the Phillies comes simply from running the bases.

Don’t be fooled by the .318 BA. It’s a hollow number.