Over at Pale Hose Pariah, Erik breaks down A.J. Pierzynski's lack of success on pitches throughout -- and outside -- the strike zone.
The conclusion is that he's not enjoying success on any kind of location. FanGraphs says he's not punishing any particular variety of pitch.
That basically means he's in the same place Andruw Jones is, althoughthey've taken vastly different routes to get there. Jones screwshimself into the ground on every swing, where A.J. is protecting likeit's very quickly oh-and-two when he hasn't even seen a pitch yet.
Ithink they both suffer from the same problem -- bat speed. I don't knowif I have a good enough eye to spot when somebody's swing is lagging,but Pierzynski was jammed by a hanging curveball on Saturday, and givenhow well that fits into his current profile, I'm thinking I'm not faroff.
More getaway day links:
*J.J. offers praise for Juan Pierre, whose on-base percentage is his best since 2004. Ozzie Guillen does, too.
*Baseball America is keeping track of all notable signings, so we'll see if the Sox came to terms with Matthew "Grimey" Grimes (fourth round) and Josef Terry (ninth round) by the deadline.
Update: Larry points us to tweets indicating neither Terry , nor, sadly, Grimes are signing. Change the channel, Marge...
*Mark Gonzales treated us to a rare-but-enjoyable feisty mailbag. Anybody know what's behind this response?
Do you think they made a mistake giving up Daniel Hudson? His ERA is1.13 in three starts? Look around the league at ex-Sox players -- GioGonzalez, John Garland, Dan Hudson, John Ely and Clayton Richard!! Itsounds to me Ken Williams has no interest in his farm system. It's canyou throw 100 mph or hit homers? We have won this year so far with,speed, and defense and also timely hitting, what do you think? Mitch Greenberg, Gurnee
They had no choice but to move Daniel because he was their biggestbargaining chip. I hated to see him go because he was a very mature kidfor his age, and I think a lot of people overlooked that he jumped fourlevels in 2009. He will do very well as long as certain Phoenix mediamembers don't try to manipulate him.
I can't even name one Phoenix media member, so I didn't think it had the reputation of being a brutal market.
*Oral Sox has a new podcast up.
