Email a copy of 'A.J. Pierzynski To Retire?' to a friend
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By Connor Byrne | at
Email a copy of 'A.J. Pierzynski To Retire?' to a friend
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RiverCatsFilms
Wow
satan
Enjoy retirement brother, great catcher
RunDMC
Satan’s favorite catcher. ‘Bout right.
NL_East_Rivalry
Who are AL teams going to boo now?
ponytail01
Good luck A.J. I enjoyed the way you played the game.
Loners R Alone
Being a Braves fan thnx AJ helping out our team
ib6ub9
he is just retiring today can’t make it til the end of the month
A'sfaninUK
One of the most hated players of the 2000’s, for a myriad of reasons. Good riddance.
Deke
Why was he hated so much? I wasn’t living here in the 2000’s so I couldn’t keep up with MLB. I know SF fans hate him for some reason.
davidcoonce74
Rubbed teammates the wrong way. Basically the Red Sox released him because he was so disliked off the field. A bit of an arrogant guy with a chip on his shoulder, especially if he wasn’t starting daily.
willi
Good Hitter, Close but not a HOF , in todays Game, If he Played what Yogi Berra had to play against he be in the Hall
thinkblue 2
I hate getting into HOF discussions, but I’m not sure how you could say he’s close. Jason Kendall and Benito Santiago immediately come to mind as comparable if not better players, and they didn’t sniff the HOF. I’m pretty ambivalent about Pierzynski as a player. But I think it’s fair to say he will go down as a guy who had a long, decent, and respectable career. But he’s not remotely close to being one of the all time greats.
johnsilver
Not to mention a lousy defensive catcher who couldn’t throw at all for well over half of his career. His arm was on par with Varitek his last few years and Posada, except AJ had no positive defensive attributes PERIOD.
Ted
AJ Pierzynski? He’s not even remotely close, sorry. Won’t get a single vote I suspect. He has 23 bWAR over 19 seasons – about a third of what a HOFer needs. His 2000 hits are a nice show of longevity, but I would compare his career less to the HOF and more to guys like Mark Grudzielanek. They both have a good BA, 2000 hits, and light-to-medium power.
davidcoonce74
I don’t think Pierzynski is close to the Hall, but comparing him to a second baseman isn’t a great argument. Because of the demands of the position, 2000 hits for a catcher is a much better indicator of skill than 2000 hits for a second baseman.
Just to illustrate : there are 9 catchers with at least 2000 hits in baseball history. There are none with 3000 hits – Ivan Rodriguez is the closest with 2844.
Contrast that to second basemen – there are 28 of them with at least 2000 hits, and four with over 3000 (Collins, Lajoie, Biggio, Carew although Carew played slightly more games at 1st than at 2nd)
Pierzynski’s offensive contributions are actually fairly impressive for a catcher, but his flaws – poor defense, limited power, no on-base skills, and he was never liked much within the game or by the media – will probably take him off the ballot after one trip.
takeyourbase
I’m sorry but the only way A.J. gets in to the HOF is as a paying customer.
JDSchneck
If AJ does retire, I’m so glad he has done it with us. He was a great player for us (mostly last year), and gave the Braves Clubhouse a unique presence. I think many Braves players learned from AJ; his hard work ethic, and grindy attitude. The Baseball season is a long one, and having a spirit like AJ on your team can make all the difference. So glad to have witnessed a great Catchers career, cover to cover.
RunDMC
Crackerjack reporting, DoB. Somebody hand this Twitter trigger-happy man a Peabody.
staypuft
Same guy that said Griffey to the Braves was a done deal, a few years back. He’s desperate to be the guy to break news before anyone else.
chesteraarthur
He’s a dbag, but an incredibly durable and talented one.
RunDMC
Irony that he would end his career on the DL.
Rezonator
This article is incorrect. Bonser was sent to the Twins as part of the trade.
mlb_91
Haven’t had a good cather since he left the White Sox
nentwigs
Not only was it Bonser, Nathan and Liriano for AJ, there was a 4th Giant thrown in: his name, I believe was a pitcher named Daniel Mora. I don’t believe he ever made the majors.
southi
I don’t know how this ends up, but at the end of the game it surely looked as if something different was going on (and I’m not talking about the walk off either). It looked on TV that even the ball from AJP’s last hit was saved.
I know watching the game live after AJ’s last hit I was like “what is going on?”. Is the dude retiring? It just didn’t look like normal celebration (even though his hit set the Braves up in great position for the win). Even then I thought it might be Pierzynski going out early. Who knows what happens but when I saw this article it didn’t surprise me at all.
mo11217
The end of the game was VERY odd. I was at Turner Field and after they showed the celebration and everyone mobbing Adonis, the cameras all turned to AJ and they showed him on the big screen hugging teammates and left him up there until he headed into the club house. He was covered in water and dirt like he had the base winning hit.