Thoughts on A.J Pierzynski and his recent surge

ChicagoDawg1991

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It's safe to say, nobody saw this coming, unless of course you are White Sox catcher AJ Pierzynski. This season, the 14 year veteran of the diamond is without any question having the season of his career at age 35. Seems like a lot of players on the Sox have career years when they are past their prime years or are consistently hitting the ball well despite tacking on age

Prime example? Paul Konerko who has been a member of the White Sox for the same amount of years as AJ has played. I personally believe #14's best year was 2010 at the age of 34 where he had MVP type numbers, hitting .312 with 39 homeruns and 111 runs batted in. That is tough to do especially if you haven't had any major injuries to your upper body.

AJ's career highs as a member of the Sox prior to this year are 18 homeruns in 2005, and 64 RBIs the following year with his best average being at .300 in 2009. Currently he is batting .295 with a new career high 22 homeruns and has tied his Sox career best in RBIs. His overall career best is 77 rbis when he was a member of the San Francisco Giants in 2004.

Now onto this year. AJ has hit at least 4 homeruns and has driven in at least 10 runs in every month of the season with June being his best with 6 homeruns and 12 rbis. So far in the month of August in 8 games, he has hit 4 and driven in 9 runs in 24 at bats while maintaining a .375 batting average while riding an 11-game hitting streak in the process. Also the Sox are 15-6 whenever AJ hits one one into the outfield stands(hit 2 homeruns in a win over the Yankees on June 29th).

Now a lot of people are wondering how is he doing this? The answer to that should be good timely hitting, good discipline at the plate and taking advantage of mistakes that pitchers throw to him. Seems simple enough right? Well to me, it does seem that way. Bottom line, he is tearing the ball and he couldn't have done it at a better time. How many long balls and runs batted in will he have at the end of August? At the pace he's at, it looks like he'll have at least 10 with about 25 runs batted in.

Are my calculations somewhat off? Probably yes but I could be right about those numbers. Whatever the case maybe, if AJ continues what he's been doing in recent weeks, the Sox should be a dangerous team to deal with down the September Stretch. For now, lets enjoy the remainder of August and keep winning.
 

brett05

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Should be on the front page.
 

Captain Iago

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Astounding, isn't it? For his entire White Sox career prior to this season, the Sox have had the hardest working hitting coach in the league.
 

DewsSox79

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16 game hitting streak. the hrs are a nice addition to him this year
 

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