Free agent catcher A.J. Pierzynski and Florida have mutual interest, according to the Palm Beach Post. But the Post also stated the $6.75 million salary Pierzynski earned last year could raise caution among Marlins officials, who are contemplating the future of slugger Dan Uggla.
Well, if you give us Mike Stanton we’ll pick up A.J.’s salary. Hey, I think you were interested in Ozzie Guillen. We can throw him in too. How could you say no to that? (more…)
video: http://www.csnchicago.com/pages/video?PID=oLyVPFPlcp0UluuALyIjO3rtSGu__5Lh (9:04)
At the 7:00 mark Buehrle says his gut feeling is Konerko won’t be back while A.J. has a better chance and he will be back. Also, at the 3:00 mark Buehre says if the White Sox offer him a contract after 2011, he will stay with the White Sox (99% odds) even if he has an offer from St. Louis.
let’s see which catchers in baseball are ranked as providing the most (and least) overall value to their team (I didn’t combine multi-team performances) in 2010 in runs above/below average in combined fielding errors (FE), throwing errors (TE), passed balls and wild pitches allowed (PBWP), and caught stealing (CS). …
Rank Name Age Tm PA FERuns TERuns PBWPRns CSRuns Total 31 Ramon Castro 34 CHW 1204 -0.4 0.7 1.6 -0.9 1.0 102 A.J. Pierzynski 33 CHW 4650 0.6 0.9 -0.8 -3.0 -2.4
As the coals in the hot stove are just beginning to get stoked up, it’s time to rank the current Chicago White Sox, in order of importance for 2011 and beyond. It’s not intended to be a strict list of merely the best players, or best values, on the White Sox. Rather, it takes into account team depth, the free agent market, or answering the question of which player would hurt the most not being on the team? …
… 12. Juan Pierre, LF
Another player who is easy to take for granted is Pierre, but the left-fielder was a miraculous find for the White Sox in 2010. Pierre almost completely offset his arm in the field by getting to every ball hit his way, compiling a UZR of 13.4, ninth-best in baseball, sixth among outfielders and third among left fielders. Pierre was also one of the best pressure hitters in baseball, with a 1.15 Clutch rating that was tied for eighth among all players. Pierre brought $9 million in value to the White Sox, who paid him just $3 million for the season. Williams and Guillen so gush over what Pierre brings to the field that it would not surprise if the soft-spoken speedster ascends to the role of team captain if both Konerko and Pierzynski fail to return.
A chance still exists for A.J. Pierzynski to be working with White Sox pitchers at Camelback Ranch just after Valentine’s Day, returning to this familiar place for a seventh season as the franchise’s starting backstop. But any sort of new deal definitely will not be arrived at before the exclusive five-day negotiating period between both sides following the World Series expires on Saturday.
“We both agreed to let things play out and take it from there,” Pierzynski told MLB.com from his Florida home on Thursday. “We both agreed to talk again, and I’m sure we will. “The door has not been shut by me or by them. There are no hard feelings from me toward them, and I hope there’s none from them toward me. Something still could be done, but if not, hopefully there’s another team who will want me.” …
Type A
Paul Konerko — 78.095
A.J. Pierzynski — 80.804
Manny Ramirez — 76.154Type B
J.J. Putz — 62.213
A.J. Pierzynski, C, free agent — There’s a new-found love in the market for Pierzynski, though he will be rated behind Victor Martinez and John Buck among available catchers (Bengie Molina is out there as well). Buck had his best offensive season and is considered a high-character player who could hit for some power. One of the knocks on him is his “long’’ arm action and swing. “You could do worse then either Buck or A.J.,’’ said a veteran National League scout. “With A.J., you know he’s not going to throw people out, but there’s nothing wrong with his receiving and he can still hit. I know the fire he has can rub people the wrong way, but I think that’s great for a team.’’
A couple of years ago, Chris Dutton and Peter Bendix did some research on batted-ball data and created a metric called xBABIP (“expected BABIP”). xBABIP dispelled the myth that BABIP was primarily a function of “LD%+ .120.” Rather, as Dutton and Bendix found, BABIP was better explained as a function all batted-ball types and ratios with speed/power/strikeout considerations.
Last year, Derek Carty and Chris Dutton debuted the simple xBABIP calculator on THT. This tool has empowered users to determine a player’s xBABIP and compare it to their actual BABIP. Therefrom, one could forecast a hitter’s expected batting line, assuming all the input ratios were to remain constant. Over the course of 500+ PA, these ratios tend to be significant, though conclusions can still be drawn at the 300 PA threshold (we’d really only be waiting on IFFB% stabilization).
For all 270 hitters who accrued 300 or more plate appearances this season, I applied the xBABIP formula (by park) to determine each hitter’s expected batting lines. In short, what I have created is a spreadsheet of “what you can expect as a baseline for production in 2011, assuming all else remains constant.” In other words, this is how these hitters should have hit in 2010. …
Numbers for the White Sox players from the full spreadsheet:
| Player | PA | xBABIP | BABIP | Difference |
| Andruw Jones | 328 | .310 | .239 | .071 |
| Juan Pierre | 734 | .351 | .294 | .057 |
| Mark Kotsay | 359 | .298 | .247 | .051 |
| Carlos Quentin | 527 | .282 | .241 | .041 |
| A.J. Pierzynski | 503 | .299 | .278 | .021 |
| Alex Rios | 617 | .322 | .306 | .016 |
| Alexei Ramirez | 626 | .311 | .300 | .011 |
| Gordon Beckham | 498 | .304 | .297 | .007 |
| Omar Vizquel | 391 | .309 | .309 | 0 |
| Paul Konerko | 631 | .297 | .326 | -.029 |
For players that played part of the year with the White Sox I got their BABIP numbers from statcorner. All the numbers are for the time they played for the White Sox:
| Player | PA | xBABIP | BABIP | Difference |
| Jayson Nix | 57 | .262 | .189 | .073 |
| Manny Ramirez | 88 | .313 | .388 | -.075 |
Mark Teahen had only 262 PAs.
Type A
Matt Thornton – 86.094
A.J. Pierzynski – 80.804
Paul Konerko – 78.095
Manny Ramirez – 76.154Type B
J.J. Putz – 61.876
Let’s start with the four World Series heroes, and their chances of coming back:
Paul Konerko: 50 percent
A.J. Pierzynski: 40 percent
Bobby Jenks: 1 percent
Freddy Garcia: 25 percent
I’d go with those numbers too. More predictions at the link.
Williams will get a 2011 budget number in late October and then another projection in November, followed by one as the team goes to the Winter Meetings and then again at the first of the year.
Ultimately, the White Sox might make the best offer to Konerko and Pierzynski within their budgetary parameters, and the players could decide to go elsewhere. Williams already had gone on record to MLB.com concerning his desire to have Konerko retire as a member of the White Sox, and he reiterated that idea on Sunday.
“Let me be clear on something: I think Jerry Reinsdorf and myself and Ozzie Guillen, we’d like to have him back. Let’s be completely clear on that,” Williams said. “Now, whether we can do that or that happens or not with all the variables, I have no clue right now. We are clear with our desires as we sit here today.”
… “Well, as I just told him today, I said, under my tenure at least, he is the classiest player that has put on a uniform,” White Sox general manager Ken Williams said of Konerko, who he spoke to for five minutes in the clubhouse on Sunday. “And I’m not just talking on the field and in this clubhouse. I’m talking outside of the game as well. You’ll never hear me say a disparaging word against Paul Konerko.
“We don’t know how it’s going to play out. There are variables at play we have to go through, to see where we are, project our revenues and how the team fits as a whole. He has some things he has to work through in his mind as well.
“If at the end of the day, even if we are the ones who choose him and he doesn’t choose us, you will never hear out of anyone in the White Sox halls a disrespectful word about Paul Konerko. He is that good of a player, but also that classy of a man.”
Maybe by the Winter Meetings?
“This is tough because most agents want to take their players to the Winter Meetings (Oct. December 6-9 at Orlando) and through the Winter Meetings,” Williams said. “You have a lot of playing to do. There is that tier underneath the top level guys who don’t necessarily have to go to the Winter Meetings. They will get an offer or a deal and they will sign. If you are waiting for that Grade A type guy to be available at the Meetings, you might miss out on other guys who can help you and end up with nothing.
“So, it’s a game of roulette to a certain extent. We’ve experienced it first-hand and it didn’t work out too well the last time we went down that road where we didn’t up with the top guy and a couple of other guys on our list, we lost out on. So, you’ve got to really play those cards well.
“The great thing about it is we have a tremendous relationship with Paul, and I know he’s going to be honest with us and not want to put us in that kind of situation.”
Play audio/podcast: http://espn.go.com/espnradio/player?rd=1#/podcenter/?autoplay=1&callsign=ESPNRADIO&id=5614227 (first 21 minutes).
UPDATE: Kenny:
“It’s been an eventful year,” Williams said. “A little like a pinata hanging from the ceiling; a long, disappointing year.”
“I think right now we’re going to see him play,” manager Ozzie Guillen said. “That’s why I’m giving him the opportunity now to see how he’ll do with it. Maybe I’ll start him two or three more times, that’s what I would like to do. Unless [GM] Kenny [Williams] comes down and says, ‘Listen, I need to see this kid.’ In the meanwhile, I have A.J. to finish up the season and I have [Ramon] Castro to finish up the season. If Kenny comes to me and says he wants to see [Flowers] more, well then I will do that.”
“I cannot say he is ready to play in the big leagues or he’s not because it’s not fair for me or him to say what I think,” Guillen said. “Spring training is a different scenario, a different ballgame. There are so many people to look at. He will get some opportunity and hopefully he will open some eyes. In the meanwhile, is he going to play here every day? That’s not my call. We’ll give him an opportunity and see what happens.”
MLBTR crunches the numbers. Here’s the AL catchers section:
Name Team Type Score Joe Mauer Minnesota A 92.857 Victor Martinez Boston A 87.054 A.J. Pierzynski Chicago A A 80.580 Jorge Posada New York A A 77.679 Kurt Suzuki Oakland A 77.232 Matt Wieters Baltimore A 74.777 Mike Napoli Los Angeles A B 72.321
Name Team Type Score Joe Mauer Minnesota A 92.208 Victor Martinez Boston A 86.147 A.J. Pierzynski Chicago A A 78.788 Kurt Suzuki Oakland A 78.355 Jorge Posada New York A A 77.489 Matt Wieters Baltimore A 74.892 Mike Napoli Los Angeles A B 73.160
Paul Konerko and Manny Ramirez are also on track to be Type-As. Konerko was on track to be a Type-B all year before the last update (9/2). J.J. Putz is on track to be a Type-B. Matt Thornton, club option for 2011, is on track to be a Type-A. Alexei Ramirez is on track to be a Type-A but he isn’t a free-agent after this season.
Spreadsheets at the link.
MLBTR crunches the numbers. Here’s the AL catchers section:
Name Team Type Score Joe Mauer Minnesota A 93.304 Victor Martinez Boston A 87.054 A.J. Pierzynski Chicago A A 80.357 Jorge Posada New York A A 78.571 Kurt Suzuki Oakland A 78.125 Matt Wieters Baltimore A 74.554 Bengie Molina Texas B 72.768
Name Team Type Score Joe Mauer Minnesota A 92.208 Victor Martinez Boston A 86.147 A.J. Pierzynski Chicago A A 78.788 Kurt Suzuki Oakland A 78.355 Jorge Posada New York A A 77.489 Matt Wieters Baltimore A 74.892 Mike Napoli Los Angeles A B 73.160
Paul Konerko and Manny Ramirez are also on track to be Type-As. Konerko was on track to be a Type-B in the last update. J.J. Putz is on track to be a Type-B. Matt Thornton, club option for 2011, is on track to be a Type-A. Alexei Ramirez is on track to be a Type-A but he isn’t a free-agent after this season.
Spreadsheets at the link.
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