He drives coaches crazy, but Sox love Pierzynski
Love him or hate him? When it comes to veteran catcher A.J. Pierzynski, the White Sox choose both.
As they prepare for the first full-squad workout of spring training on Thursday in Glendale, Ariz., here is the situation:
At age 31, Pierzynski already has nearly nine full seasons of major-league experience. And he has caught 1,008 games since 2001, the second-highest total in baseball behind Jason Kendall.
Pierzynski will have obvious difficulty maintaining that heavy workload, but maybe there is a reason why Sox general manager Kenny Williams didn't add an established backup catcher this off-season.
"He wants to play every day, so we'll just run him out there and let him bug everybody out there on the field," Williams said in late January. "If he's not playing, he's bugging Ozzie (Guillen) and everybody else in the dugout."
Williams laughed after making that statement, another in a long line of jabs directed at Pierzynski since the 6-foot-3, 230-pounder landed on the South Side in 2005 and helped lead the White Sox to a World Series championship.
To his credit, Pierzynski deftly handles the abuse, whether it's coming from the wear-and-tear of his position or from the mouths of his bosses and peers.
"I know what to expect," Pierzynski said during the off-season from his home in Orlando, Fla. "But at the same time, there's that old saying: bad publicity is better than no publicity. And I'd rather have it on me than on one of my teammates like Paul Konerko or Mark Buehrle, not that they couldn't handle it.
"I just wouldn't want to have them deal with all of the distractions. People have been saying a lot of stuff about me for years, so I know how to handle it."
Pierzynski, however, hasn't been able to handle the job of throwing out opposing base stealer the past few seasons, and his 10.3 success rate (11-for-107) in 2008 was the worst in the American League.
Guillen blames Sox pitchers for not holding runners on base and being slow to the plate, but Pierzynski wasn't blessed with a rocket-throwing arm.
His offensive game, however, remains as solid as ever.
Last season, Pierzynski spent much of his time batting second and still managed to put up solid numbers (.281, 31 doubles, 13 HR, 60 RBI) while playing 134 games.
Since 2001, he leads all major-league catchers with 224 doubles and ranks third with 1,047 hits.
"I've had a lot of success in this game, but a lot of times it gets overlooked because of all the other stuff that's always going on," Pierzynski said. "It kind of bothers me, I'm not going to lie, but I've learned to deal with it."
When he joined the White Sox four years ago, Pierzynski did not appear to be a good match with Guillen. Although they are both constantly on the edge, the catcher and manager have turned out to be good for each other.
"We don't always agree on everything, who does?" Pierzynski said. "But I have a lot of respect for Ozzie, and I would hope he feels the same way about me. We both have the same goal, and that's winning."
Over the next several weeks, Guillen must choose a reserve catcher, and Cole Armstrong and Corky Miller are positioned to compete for the job.
But when the Sox open the regular season on April 6 with a home game against the Kansas City Royals, it should be A.J. just about all the time again.
"I'm never happy with A.J. for 162 games," Guillen said. "I think no matter what team he plays for, A.J. is going to have some issues with the coaches and manager because of the way he was brought up or the way he grew up or the way he goes about his business. But he shows up to play and he wants to be in the lineup. He's a winner, and I don't think we can call that a problem.
"Sometimes A.J. does stuff on the field you hate, and I think A.J. does stuff and you love it. It's kind of the balance you're looking for. He gives me the most headaches of any player, but when you put it all together, it's a good one."