The White Sox played their 87th game of the season Saturday night, a 6-3 loss to the Kansas City Royals that isn't worth much discussion. But here is something about the catching situation on this team that is food for thought:
White Sox record when A.J. Pierzynski starts: 41-26
White Sox record when Tyler Flowers starts: 7-13
The Sox beat Kansas City in 14 innings Friday night. Pierzynski caught all 14 innings, so it was a no-brainer to give Flowers the start Saturday night. The Sox have to be careful with Pierzynski's 35-year-old legs. There is a tight pennant race and a lot of big games ahead, and the Sox are going to need their should-have-been-an-All-Star catcher to be as fresh and productive as possible.
Flowers went 0-for-3 in the Saturday loss and saw his batting average plummet to .156. Here's my concern: Even when Pierzynski gets a day off, he doesn't really get a day off. The Sox summoned him to pinch hit in the top of the eighth inning Saturday. Out of the 20 games Flowers has started, he's been lifted for Pierzynski on seven occasions. Flowers has played so poorly Pierzynski is rarely able to just sit for nine innings and rest -- it's only happened 12 times all year.
With the year Pierzynski is having, it's tempting to play him all the time -- .290 average, 16 home runs, 50 RBI, an .875 OPS that would be far and away his career best if it were to hold over the course of the season. Not to mention, the Sox won-loss record with him behind the plate speaks for itself. The lineup looks appreciably weaker when Pierzynski is not in there. But can he continue to produce at this level at his age over a full season, when he's getting almost no help from his backup? It's tough to expect his bat to continue firing like this as the number of innings caught continues to rise.
And what about the future? Pierzynski is in the last year of his deal. Do the Sox take the plunge and give him another two years? He'll be 36 on Opening Day next year. As it stands right now, there are no internal options to replace him. With Flowers, all you can do at this point is pray he becomes a serviceable backup. I've seen a few posts on message boards from people who still believe Flowers can play everyday in majors. Sorry, don't think so.
The Sox will face a tough decision at this position at the end of the season, and with each Flowers whiff, Pierzynski is looking more and more valuable.
I think you have to take Flowers' numbers with a grain of salt because he's barely got more than 70 plate appearances.
That said, if the Sox really have faith in Flowers that he can be an adequate player, they need to trust him with more at-bats. Because, going back to what we commented on the other day, he doesn't need more work at AAA, he needs to be able to hit major league pitching.
More importantly, the Sox can't keep leaning so heavily on Pierzynski. As much as Pierzynski is regarded as a workhorse of a catcher, he still wears down. His career numbers:
Overall: .285/.325/.427
Sept/Oct: .269/.310/.383
It's worth remembering the dramatic fall-off he had in 2009, too, when he hit .231/.268./.253 to drag his overall numbers down. He had an equally rough landing last year, and isn't getting any younger.
There's nothing to suggest Flowers will ever be a good hitter, but at least on the day he plays, I think they should leave him be. No more pinch hitting for him in the seventh and eighth innings. Pierzynski is hitless this year as a pinch hitter anyway.
The least they can do for A.J. is give him a full game off on the days he isn't in the starting lineup.
One other thing I will say about Pierzynski's rough landings late in the season: I think he gives away at-bats in years where the Sox are out of it in September. Obviously, there's nothing scientific to prove that assessment, but from what I've seen his give-a-crap level falls when there isn't anything left to play for. That said, I agree the Sox need to do more to protect him. He does get tired late in the year -- most catchers do.
I think Flowers should be able to hit well enough to be serviceable for a catcher. His power is legit. I think his problems making contact will limit him, which is why I compared him to Joe Borchard before.
If you look at the minor league numbers for both guys, Flowers was much better. And of course, Flowers only has to hit well enough relative to other catchers. Borchard couldn't get by floundering at the plate as a corner outfielder.
In their MLB careers to date:
Flowers (235 PAs): .184/.294/.338, 34.5 K %, 11.1 BB%
Borchard (800 PAs): .205/.284/.352, 27.9 K%, 9.3 BB%
They really look like similar hitters, excepting that Flowers is one who was brought around a little more slowly, which you'd expect with a catching prospect.
Of course, Flowers still has to improve to be useful, though he's not really that far from Ron Karkovice territory.
Even if he doesn't, optimism that he will isn't as farfetched as pretending Robert Machado and Josh Paul are prospects, or that a former top prospect like Ben Davis could put a career together. Those are the bozos the Sox were messing around with before scooping Pierzynski.
At least Flowers has been fine defensively. That was the knock on him when the Sox first acquired him. He's throwing out over 50 percent of attempted basestealers, and his catchers' ERA is below 4. It's lower than Pierzynski's, in fact.
Maybe that makes it more remarkable the Sox are so horrible with him behind the plate. The pitchers give up fewer earned runs on average with him catching, yet the Sox aren't even a .400 team when he's in the starting lineup.
BTW, I saw that Loney is all the way up to two home runs now. Wonder why the Dodgers are looking for a 1B at the trade deadline....
You mean Loney wouldn't be an automatic 35 HR/100 RBIs if you put him in US Cellular Field?
If Flowers is really this good defensively -- and his rep did improve while in the minors with the Sox -- then he doesn't have to get that much better with the bat. Karkovice was a .221/.289/.383 hitter for his career. Karko wasn't a very good player. He did have some decent seasons and was certainly useful.
Of course, it's easier to carry a good-glove/no-hit player somewhere when you don't have a lot of other sinkholes in your offense. Gordon Beckham is already that sort of guy unless he gets better, and Alexei Ramirez seems like he spends the first two months of every season that way. And the Sox might have multiple offensive problems if third base remains in flux, Alejandro De Aza gets hurt, Dayan Viciedo doesn't get better, or anyone else implodes.
All of that other stuff might dictate if the team feels like it can gamble on Flowers finding himself at the plate.
I don't mind one good-glove/no-hit kind of player in a lineup. Two makes your offense iffy. Three makes you a losing team. There was never really a problem carrying Karkovice when he was here because there were so many other good hitters on the team. The current Sox team isn't that stacked, and the best hitters on the current roster are all north of 30. I think it would be hard to carry both Beckham and Flowers as everyday players, especially with no long-term solution in place at 3B. Morel is another guy who can field, but can't hit.
It's pretty much imperative that the Sox do everything they can to re-sign Pierzynski because Flowers is so not the long-term solution!
Even as someone who thinks Flowers might still be useful at least as a stopgap solution, I think the Sox should look into re-signing Pierzynski if the price is reasonable like it was the last time.
That might be a lot harder with him coming off a (hopefully) great year, as opposed to the mediocre year he had in 2010. Then again, he's still a catcher and this offseason he'll be two years older.
I don't know what A.J.'s reputation is around the league that might give other teams reservations about signing him. I never did understand why the Marlins signed John Buck to a three-year, $21 million contract while Pierzynski settled for 2/$8 million, other than Florida going after Buck early and Pierzynski waiting until the Dodgers offered something for the Sox to match.
Who knows?
I can't imagine Pierzynski getting three years from anybody at his age, but all it takes is one desperate GM to up the ante. At this point, I wouldn't be opposed to offering A.J. a two-year deal. I think we expect to see some decline in his numbers down the stretch here, but there is no noticeable decline in his skill set. He might be on his way to a career year.