At the All-Star break last year, A.J. Pierzynski was one of many Sox hitters vastly underperforming their career averages, but his slump might've been the most painful. In an offense starving for hits, he was roughly 45 points under his career average. That sunk any chance at a decent on-base percentage, and thus it undermined his entire game. The Sox had no choice but to suffer through it, because Gustavo Molina and one-armed Toby Hall provided zero relief.
This year, he's right where he should be. Literally. At .287/.326/.429., he's a point or two off in each category compared to his career averages. Combine his line with Toby Hall's surprising but somewhat flimsy .289/.349/.368, and the Sox have seen a huge boost in catcher production. Compare their standing in the league from last year:
- Batting average:
- 2008: .291 (3rd)
- 2007: .244 (5th)
- On-base percentage:
- 2008: .330 (5th)
- 2007: .285 (13th)
- Slugging percentage:
- 2008: .423 (3rd)
- 2007: .351 (12th)
- OPS:
- 2008: .753 (5th)
- 2007: .630 (13th)
The Sox needed Pierzynski to lead the revival for three reasons:
No. 1: Opponents are running roughshod over him. No catcher has allowed more stolen bases than Pierzynski, and no catcher has thrown out runners less often. A lot of it is due to his pitching staff -- Jose Contreras and Gavin Floyd can't hold runners to save their lives, and opponents had John Danks scouted down to a science for a three-week period with some suspicious two-out first-pitch swipes. But yeah, it's still bad, though somehow it hasn't stopped him from sporting a sterling 3.58 catcher's ERA.
No. 2: He's still around for two and a half more years. If he did a faceplant out of the gate again, it would've had some awful ramifications. A catcher who had his worst year at 30 is a scary, scary bet, but the Sox are ahead at this point.
No. 3: There's no real help on the way. Cole Armstrong hit the ground hitting in Charlotte, going 21-for-41 thus far. But he only has one hit in seven at-bats against lefties, and isn't a great bet to hit them, so there's no way to platoon him and Pierzynski toward the end of his contract. Donny Lucy isn't healthy and isn't a factor when he is, and Paul Phillips is what he is -- a hacking, slap-hitting stopgap. Of
course the only possibility behind the plate is another lefty.
People hadn't talked about Pierzynski much after he cooled down from a blazing April, mainly because he's wholly unremarkable to watch. He hacks at a lot of bad pitches, leads the world in groundouts to second, and his Yogi Bear running style and his body language after pop-ups eliminate him from any chance of being considered "electrifying."
But the pitch he took to the ankle Saturday served as a reminder that he might be the most irreplaceable commodity on the team right now, just like he was last year and the year before. Fortunately, he's not testing the depths of how badly he can play and still be a lock for the starting job in 2008.
Now, whether he can keep up his production is another question entirely. He has the reputation of fading in the second half, but reversed the trend last year, and Hall's resurgence should give him more time off when needed.
Statswise, he's showing no noticeable improvements in his line drive rate, and he's not being more selective. While he's swinging at fewer pitches (56 percent, down from 59), he's swinging at fewer pitches in the strike zone (66, down from 70). And unlike somebody who's made improvements like Jim Thome, even the direction of A.J.'s batted balls haven't changed much -- his flies go mostly to left, he sprays his line drives and grounds heavily to the right side.
The only real difference is his average on balls in play. Cumulatively,
his BABIP has jumped 32 points, which means a lot to him since he doesn't walk much. Most of the increase has been on grounders:
- 2008 averages (total):
- Grounders to left: .333 (21)
- Grounders up the middle: .385 (26)
- Grounders to right: .135 (74)
- 2007 averages (total):
- Grounders to left: .250 (28)
- Grounders up the middle: .180 (50)
- Grounders to right: .121 (99)
If you want some idea of what kind of impact this has, his 2008 numbers in this category look like his 2006, and his 2007 numbers look like his 2005.
Unfortunately, I don't know exactly what it means. It could be entirely luck, or maybe the extra conditioning in the offseason and Nintendo DS work have provided him more strength and better contact and he's hitting the ball harder.
I'd probably prepare for a little bit of a second half letdown when accounting for regression to the mean. But Pierzynski has defied the odds and hacked his way to fully productive seasons before, and if he could figure out a way to do it at the age of 31, it would mean more to the Sox than a lot of people realize. It's certainly not something that should be taken for granted.
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Minor league roundup:- Louisville 6, Charlotte 1
- Back to struggling for Jack Egbert: 4 IP, 9 H, 6 R, 5 ER, 0 BB, 1 K.
- Old friend Rob Mackowiak hit a two-run homer off him.
- Ryan Rodriguez (2 IP), Mike MacDougal and Ehren Wassermann (1 IP) held Louisville scoreless.
- Jason Bourgeois went 1-for-3 with a walk and his 16th steal; Danny Richar had an RBI single.
- Montgomery 5, Birmingham 3
- Just promoted to Birmingham, Brandon Allen hit a pair of solo homers, both off Tampa phenom prospect David Price.
- Esteban Loaiza pitched two scoreless innings in a "rehab" start.
- Behold the glory of Dewon Day, who followed up an 11-inning scoreless streak with this line: 3 IP, 3 H, 4 R, 4 BB, 3 K
- Stefan Gartrell hit a solo homer for the other run.
- Myrtle Beach 5, Winston-Salem 4
- C.J. Lang hit a pair of solo homers.
- Matt Long struck out nine over 4 2/3 innings, but also allowed four runs on eight hits. Only two were earned.
- John Shelby went 1-for-4 with an RBI and threw a runner out at the plate.
- Henry Mabee struck out three over two scoreless innings of relief.
- Charleston 7, Kannapolis 5 (10 innings)
- Santo Luis, Tyson Corley and Leroy Hunt combined to strike out 12 over seven scoreless innings of relief.
- Mark Fleisher went 2-for-5 with three more RBI; Christian Marrero hit a solo homer.
- Bristol 4, Johnson City 3
- Jorge Castillo drove in four runs on a 2-for-4 day.
- Garrett Johnson allowed two runs on eight hits over 5 2/3 innings, striking out six.
- Orem 9, Great Falls 5
- Kyle Shelton went 2-for-5 with two RBI.
- Kent Gerst went 2-for-4 with a walk and his fifth steal.