Did A.J. Pierzynski flop? Of course A.J. Pierzynski flopped. Demean the guy’s character all you want, say that his motivation is outside the boundaries of baseball normalcy, but never say that this man isn’t at all times thinking about ways he could help his team.
The above image, taken during the second inning of Wednesday’s Game 4 of the NLCS, shows the catcher at his evil best. With Hunter Pence on first base and one out, the pitch bounced away from Pierzynski, and Pence advanced to second. The catcher, however, was cagey enough to note that the fortuitously timed backswing of Travis Ishikawa, which clipped him as he sprung up to corral the loose ball, could actually work to his advantage. The blow wasn’t hard enough to impede his progress, but after one step it occurred to him that falling to the ground might benefit his cause.
So Pierzynski tumbled onto his backside, flipping off his mask and helmet in the process in what looked like a belated attempt to make it appear as if they had been knocked off by Ishikawa. What he wanted: Plate ump Mark Carlson to decide that Pierzynski’s path to the ball had been impeded, rule batter’s interference, and send Pence back to first. What he got: Exactly that.
Shrewd. This is the guy who runs across the pitcher’s mound after being retired on the basepaths, just to try distracting the pitcher a smidge. He’ll intentionally get hit by a pitch and then bark at the pitcher, only to rile him up. He’ll act like he was hit by a pitch that didn’t hit him during a no-hitter. If there’s immediate benefit, great, but one gets the idea from looking at Pierzynski’s overall body of work that the guy’s primary goal is to needle his way under the skin of every one of his opponents until they’re thinking about what an asshole he is instead of paying attention to their jobs.
Still, who but an incredibly aware and overly wily player could even consider pulling off something like this, from the 2005 ALCS?:
(More on the fallout from that play here.)
Ultimately, it all makes Pierzynski an asset to whatever team he’s on, for reasons well beyond his ability to play baseball. There’s a reason that his former manager, Ozzie Guillen, once said, “If you play against him, you hate him. If you play with him, you hate him a little less.” Hate him all you want, but give the guy some credit.
Update: As pointed out by reader RoadDogRuss, this was not even the first time Pierzynski fell down on the job.
The Baseball Codes 
i see your point, JT, but i also think there’s having your team’s best interest in mind, and then there’s outright douche-baggery, and in my mind AJP is in the latter bucket. in the end, a team’s overall reputation gets tarnished by the actions of a few a-holes — it’s what people associate as synonymous with a team. for better or worse, i’m thinking of bonds during BALCO, manny ramirez and now puig for the dodgers (but i’d hate them with or without those tools)…i wouldn’t ever want him on my team – but i don’t have to worry. he’s not giant’s quality.
There’s no question that Pierzynski is in the latter bucket. I’m just appreciating the fact that he actually has a point to his below-the-belt chicanery (even while I disagree with it), and is not just being a douche for douche’s sake. (Except for the times that he is.)
Nice. =’.’=