Pierzynski completes another productive season with Sox

DETROIT - When dishing out blame for the White Sox' disappointing season, don't point any fingers at A.J. Pierzynski.

Not only did he catch more than 1,000 innings for the eighth straight season, Pierzynski finished the year with a .300 batting average.

Pierzynski, who was 0-for-5 Saturday, is the first catcher in Sox history to hit .300.

"That's amazing," said Pierzynski, who batted .300 with the Minnesota Twins in 2002 and .312 in '03. "It was pretty cool that it worked out like that. Obviously, I wish it was a better season for the team. But to have it end that way, it's pretty cool."

Pierzynski took just as much pride in throwing out 11 of the last 36 opposing basestealers. He started the season 9-for-83.

"I think we've done a great job of stopping baserunners since about June 1," Pierzynski said. "We've done a much better job holding guys on. We've put more of an emphasis on it.

"Our pitchers looked at it and said: 'Hey, we're giving away free runs,' and they've made conscious efforts to be quicker to the plate.

"You can see it in guys like (Octavio) Dotel, (Bobby) Jenks and even Gavin (Floyd). They've been really good, and they deserve a lot of credit for giving me and (Ramon) Castro an opportunity to actually throw some guys out."

Cooper on Peavy: There are two schools of thought with Jake Peavy.

One is, the ace right-hander is going to build off the 3 impressive starts he made this season and contend for his second Cy Young Award in 2010.

The other is, the White Sox took an unnecessary risk with a pitcher who missed most of the season with ankle and elbow injuries.

Guess where Sox pitching coach Don Cooper stands on the issue?

"Why in the world would we just shut the guy down?" Cooper said. "The biggest question you have to ask is, 'Is he leaving here healthy?'

"Yes, he is. And not only that, we got a glimpse of what might be in the future. He's going home now knowing all that stuff is behind him, and now he can just get ready for spring training.

"Maybe I wasn't seeing it the way a lot of other people were seeing it. He needed to pitch. He had a chance to pitch. To shut him down, nobody gets anything positive out of that.

"Bringing him back was a no-brainer, and we worked real hard to get him back. Bringing him back, look at all of the valuable information we got. The information we got, the information the fans got, the Jake Peavy thing in my mind could not have been handled any better."

Market watch: Heading into the off-season, the White Sox have six potential free agents and six arbitration-eligible players.

Free-agent eligible: Jermaine Dye, Scott Podsednik, Matt Thornton, Freddy Garcia, Mark Kotsay and Ramon Castro.

Dye has a $12 million mutual option for 2010, which the Sox won't pick up. He has a $1 million buyout.

Thornton has a $2.25 million club option, which will be picked up, as will Garcia's $1 million option for next season.

Arbitration eligible: Bobby Jenks, Carlos Quentin, John Danks, D.J. Carrasco, Tony Pena, Dewayne Wise.