Pierzynski's New Hitting Approach

[Whitewashed in '05]

From whitesox.com:

Leader in offense: The hitter with the fourth-best average in the American League, entering Wednesday night's contest, is the same individual who recently was voted as the player most other players would like to see get hit by a pitch, in a Sports Illustrated survey of his peers.

 

While the media focuses on the on-field controversy following A.J. Pierzynski on a seemingly weekly basis, the catcher quietly has posted an impressive .343 batting average through a very steady offensive showing that took its root back in Spring Training.

 

"I'm just hitting the ball where it's pitched and not trying to do too much," Pierzynski said. "Last year, I got into a thing of trying to hit too many home runs.

 

"But [hitting coach Greg Walker] and I talked about it from Day 1. I just wanted to get hits."

 

In regard to the poll, manager Ozzie Guillen said he would protect his catcher if someone hit Pierzynski just because they didn't like him. Guillen also understood the results of the poll, coming primarily from people who aren't battling along side of Pierzynski.

 

"If you play against A.J. ... If you play with him, you understand him," Guillen said. "You understand real well what he does. He's a gamer, he doesn't like to lose."

 

Good to see AJ is back to getting base hits instead of the home run swing and it shows. I definitley like the classic hitting AJ of a .300 avg.

[Sox It To Em]

Agreed.

 

.300 AVG A.J. > .250 A.J. with a few more homers

[fullcollapse]

plus the .300 avg aj hits more doubles and has a higher slg%

 

http://www.baseball-reference.com/p/pierza.01.shtml

[Dam8610]

plus the .300 avg aj hits more doubles and has a higher slg%

 

http://www.baseball-reference.com/p/pierza.01.shtml

 

That doesn't show his 06 stats.

[Balta1701]

The home runs will come AJ, especially when it warms up. Just put the ball in play.

[fullcollapse]

That doesn't show his 06 stats.

 

sorry

 

http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/players/stats?playerId=3948

 

so far this season he has 10 2b, compared to 21 last year. with the exception of 04 the higher average seasons look better than last year. granted he only has 5 seasons and only one where he was low avg. and higher hr than normal, but i think it shows that aj is a better hitter when he doesn't try to hit home runs as often.

[shawnhillegas]

I bet AJ hits 11 homers this year, with an average more than 50 points higher.

well worth it.