Rahimi, Harris & Grote Show
A.J. Pierzynski talks White Sox calling up Noah Schultz, Cubs' cold start
13 Apr 2026
Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
Chapter 1: What insights does A.J. Pierzynski share about Noah Schultz's call-up?
Now coming to bat, a two-time All-Star and World Series champion with your Chicago White Sox, please welcome A.J. Brzezinski! People just like to hate me. A 1-1, A.J. Swing and a high fly ball. Right field. This is going to go. Three-run homer. Sox down to their last strike. Go ahead. Light it up. Who's fifth of the season.
Usually the first thing that comes to their mind is, man, I really hate that guy. Number 12, A.J. Brzezinski. Where's Jonah Hines? Oh, by the way, your guy's charging the mound. Isn't that your number one job as a catcher to not let that guy get there?
With Rahimi Harrison-Grote on 104.3 The Score.
Really a good Jonah Heim point. We are happy to bring in our next guest. You know his music. You know his intro. That is A.J. Pierzynski, the all-star catcher, 2005 World Series champion, host of Foul Territory. And he joins us not only on our hotline, but on Twitch, twitch.tv slash the score Chicago. A.J., how are you? Good. I can't believe how fancy y'all are now.
I mean, it used to just be a radio call-in show.
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Chapter 2: How does A.J. evaluate the White Sox's current pitching strategy?
Now I got to put clothes on to do this thing. I mean, don't you host a show today? What's going on with fellow territory today? Oh, no, we do have a show today, but, I mean, you know, it's a little early for me to – I can't peak too early. I got to kind of try to control my peaking. So, you know, it's a little early to already put a shirt and a hat on.
Yeah, peaking is better than peacocking, so I guess you're halfway there. But thank you for allowing us to siphon some of your on-camera presence for this interview.
Yeah, it's changed. Like I said, people change. You know, you guys change. You guys get bigger and bigger and bigger. And now we have TV cameras involved. Here we are with the WrestleMania-style intro. You know what's happening in Vegas this weekend. I thought you'd at least be happy with the wrestling side of it. Oh, of course. I mean, WrestleMania, by the way.
WrestleMania, I don't think it's doing so good right now. They're struggling, I think, with ticket sales. So maybe you guys can buy me a couple tickets and fly me to Vegas this weekend. We were just in Vegas. Our timing is off. Unbelievable. We were at Circa in the meantime, AJ, we get some, we get some good news.
I feel like at least as far as a pitcher is concerned, I haven't been this excited about the white socks calling up a prospect.
I want to say for me, since Michael Kopech, you know, we get the news about Noah Schultz coming up local guy, a big name prospect, even when he was drafted by the socks, you know, how do you feel about them doing this given their record and their performance so far this year? Well, they have to have somebody that can pitch. Grant Taylor can't start every game for him.
I mean, it's like, holy cow, I thought he was one of your seventh or eighth inning guys, and he's out there opening every game.
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Chapter 3: What challenges does the White Sox offense face early in the season?
I think it's great. Noah Schultz, first-rounder, been there for a while. We'll see what he can do. He looked like he cleaned up his walk issues, which he's had in the past this year, at least early.
early on so far so if he can throw it over the plate he's going to be tough the biggest thing for him is the walks that's always been a question for him and deep deep counts large pitch counts early um you know i said for years noah schultz was three years in his professional career he never pitched into the fifth inning so he did that last year which was a good step for him in the right direction we'll see i hope he does really well he's about a six what is he six nine yeah six nine lefty
I mean, I don't want to face – I faced Randy Johnson. That was tough. I don't want to face a 6'8", 6'9", whatever he's listed at, lefty kind of side sling. And so if he can throw it over the plate, he's got a chance to be really special. We'll see. Hopefully it works out.
Back to the aforementioned player that you just talked about, Grant Taylor. Now, he pitched two innings in being the opener yesterday, which is a stretch because he'd only been pitching one inning at a time. Do you feel like this is the gateway for him to becoming starting pitcher sooner rather than later? Or was this just a one-off because they had a bullpen game?
If you want to make him a starter, why not make him a starter in spring training? Why are we trying to do it in the middle of the season? If his role is to be a starter down the line, wouldn't you think you'd want him to start? I hate to say this, but in AAA, if he's going to be a starter, if he's not ready to start at the big league level, I don't know.
I understand the opener to a certain extent.
But it's usually the teams, and I don't want to say that aren't very good because that's not always true, but it's usually the teams that don't really trust their starting rotation because basically what you're trying to do is steal the first inning for the guy who you have coming in usually next, which is the bulk guy, so they don't have to face the top three hitters in the lineup.
And I don't know. It's a weird thing. Does it work? It obviously worked yesterday. The White Sox won. Does it work all the time? Not always because all it takes is one guy to have a bad inning, and all of a sudden you're way behind. And you have to bring in your starter, your so-called starter, even though he's your second pitcher in the second inning and try to cover a bunch of innings.
So God forbid the long guy goes down like what happened yesterday when Cannon got hurt.
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Chapter 4: How does A.J. assess the Cubs' slow start this season?
So it's an interesting strategy. I understand the strategy. But I don't know if you can maintain that for an entire season, especially when Taylor's pitching like four out of five and starting and doing all this. It's a lot. Yeah, I mean, it's antithetical to convention, I think, AJ, to the point of extreme. And that's what it is. You know, the Rays are probably the best example of a good team.
They kind of pioneered the opener concept. But, you know, when Taylor's out there for stretches like three out of four games, you hear he's going again. Yesterday, Sox ended up using nine pitchers, as you mentioned, because of the injury to Cannon. This isn't even how you draw it up when you're trying to be creative. No, I know.
And listen, it's a learning process, I think, for everybody involved right now. And they're trying to build depth. They're trying to build an organization that has more than five options as a starter. And anytime your opening day starter gets optioned after three starts, that kind of puts the organization on notice, right? And I feel terrible for Shane Smith getting sent down so early.
But, you know, they're trying to make moves. They're trying to get better. They're trying to be competitive. And hopefully Noah Schultz can help them do that. But at the end of the day, you have to have starting pitching. Starting pitching usually wins over 162 games.
AJ, I'm curious as to your thoughts on the Chicago White Sox offense specifically. They're hitting 193 as a team. They're the only team in baseball with an OPS below 600. Is Will Venable just left to his own devices of picking lineups out of a hat? I mean, how would you go about trying to get something started for the White Sox offense?
Well, I mean, I can't even – I don't know because, again, I'm not in there every day. I know this.
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Chapter 5: What factors contribute to the Cubs' offensive struggles?
They have power. I like my draw at the leadoff spot. I know they moved him out yesterday and they won. Listen, they got to get Murakami going. They got to get Colson Montgomery going, right? They got to get a lot of people going. Kiro's not hitting like he was last year. So is it sophomore slump or is it teams are figuring out what they're doing and now they're making adjustments.
Now it's time for the hitters to make adjustments, right? I don't know what you can do. You have the pieces you have and you can try and you can try to get cute and try to switch up lineups and move guys here and move guys there. But at the end of the day, if the guys aren't hitting, it doesn't matter who you have hitting where, because if they're not hitting, they're just not hitting.
And you need someone to, you need a couple guys to get hot and carry them for a little while. Well, and I think that that's it, too, is we feel like the Sox lineup looked pretty good to start as we saw. That was before everybody made adjustments, as you mentioned. But Murakama really added some pop, at least for the lack of on base.
There was slugging, as we saw, you know, Colson Montgomery, a huge part of that. But to see it kind of shut down like this, like we've seen, teams go through streaks. But what do you think about just the extreme lack of offense we saw like in the past first two games of this thing against the Kansas City Royals? Can we talk – every other team is saying it's cold, so can we say it's cold then?
We can. There's a bunch of people out there saying it's cold. You were a professional hitter. You know better than I do. Listen, I got off to slow starts. I got off to fast starts. It was just one of those crazy years. When you get off to a slow start, everyone worries. Let's say the White Sox did this for a two-week stretch in the middle of July.
People would be like, ah, it's just the middle of July.
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Chapter 6: How does the weather affect player performance in early baseball games?
They're a little bit tired. But because when it happens at the beginning of the year and the numbers are out there and, like you said, hitting under 200, the OPS is what it is, everyone's like, oh, my gosh. They're never going to figure it out. Let's give them a little bit of time. This team was actually, I think, on paper, supposed to be built around their offense, not around their pitching.
And these guys, maybe Kyle Teal is that big of a loss. I don't know. But we'll see when they get fully healthy, everyone back, and we'll see where they end up. Let's talk again in about June and see where they are.
All right, that's fair. Meanwhile, across town, the Cubs have gotten off to a slow offensive start as well. And I'm curious as to your thoughts, not just about the Cubs in general, but... how the National League Central stacks up. I know it's only been a couple of weeks.
They're in last place, aren't they? They are. Yes, they are. Is that supposed to make me happy or sad?
I'm guessing it doesn't make you sad.
uh no uh listen i picked the cubs to win the division i still think the cubs are the of the cream of the crop in the nl central i think they'll figure it out now listen losing kate orton really really hurts uh bregman's gonna figure it out i mean you look at some of their numbers they're gonna be they have a bunch of veteran guys it's not like they're running a bunch of young guys kind of like what we talked about the white socks that don't have a track record dansby
Bregman, PCA will figure it out, right? Ian Happ, Nico Horner, all these guys, Carson Kelly, they've been around a little bit, so they've kind of figured it out. Now, the one that surprised me is Michael Bush going 0 for 30. I thought he was too good. Now, it happens to everybody in the big leagues at some point. But I never thought I'd see him go over 30. So that was a shocker to me.
And then he ended up getting the hit last night that kind of got him going. That was a big win for them last night against the Pirates who were in Wrigley trying to sweep them. They figured out a way to rally late.
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Chapter 7: What are A.J.'s thoughts on the new ABS technology in baseball?
Now the Pirates made some defensive miscues, but they figured it out. They figured out how to win that game. And they're like, what, one game behind? Everyone in the NL Central is like one game on. The Brewers got off to a huge start. They've lost five in a row, just got swept by the Nationals at home. I bet you they didn't think that was going to happen. So I think the Cubs are going to be fine.
I think show does look good. You know, I think their pitching is really good. Cabrera's look good. The back end of their bullpen is really good. So I think the Cubs are going to be fine. Again, it's two weeks and it's cold out. The wind's blowing in at Wrigley. You guys can't have it blowing out every day. Well, and it was blowing out yesterday, just to make your point. That helps, too.
It was wind-aided for everybody. And that was my issue, AJ, was a lot of times we've talked about the weather helping the opponent, but theoretically it should help the home team, too, and I feel like that occurred yesterday. Normally, both teams have to bat, right? They both get 27 outs on the same field. That's what they tell us.
It's not like one team... It's not like the old Metrodome where people accused the Twins of turning the fans on when they were hitting, and when they were not hitting, they'd turn them off so the ball didn't go as far or something like that. At Wrigley, it's outside, and the wind blows the way it blows, so... I think both teams have to hit. And again, I'm not worried about the Cubs.
I think they're going to be fine. I just don't see how in this division, listen, Pittsburgh off to a nice start. Cincy doing fine.
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Chapter 8: What upcoming events does A.J. mention related to the White Sox?
Milwaukee is Milwaukee. St. Louis obviously is not trying to win. They're trying to kind of in a rebuild mode. They want to win, but they're in a rebuild mode. The Cubs should be the pride of this division. They should win this division. You have to get into the groove of the season. I think that's what people don't understand with baseball.
It's not football where, oh, game one, game two, oh, no. Well, in baseball, two weeks is not a whole lot. It's basically, what, under a tenth of the season in. Again, let's get into June. Let's see how they're doing in June, and they'll be fine. I know people are going to die when I say this. Cub fans, calm down. Actually, you know what? No, Cub fans, panic, please. Panic in the street.
If it was a reasonable take, then it was not a reasonable take. I can appreciate it. AJ, what did you think of Ozzie Guillen getting his number retired and that announcement coming through? It's about time. I've been kind of beating this drum behind the scenes for a couple years now. Because, first of all, if it hasn't been issued, Right. Then what are we doing?
If it's not issued, then that means they're going to retire it at some point. So what were they waiting for? That's why I didn't understand. Listen, Ozzie, rookie of the year, great player for the White Sox, won a World Series, managed his team for a long time, still is around the White Sox organization, still loves the White Sox organization. I just didn't know it took so long.
I'm so happy for Ozzie. I'm happy for his family. I can't wait to see him cry like a little baby when he gets up there and has to give a speech. Um, it's going to be a great weekend and I'm happy that the White Sox finally came around and did it.
AJ, I got to ask you another question, uh, more league wide, just because obviously your position as a catcher, what do you make of what we've seen so far from the new ABS and the challenges and how this thing has kind of gone?
I love it. I think it's great. If you guys go to games and you watch it, it involves the fans. I mean, the fans are into this stuff, man. Like, they're like, oh, oh, every – as soon as someone taps their helmet, the whole crowd just looks at the big screen. And, oh – No, oh, and then it's a tenth of an inch off, and the crowd's like, yeah, especially in big moments. So I think it's great.
I think it keeps umpires on their toes. Now, I did a game opening weekend. The Braves ran out of challenges in the bottom of the first four hitters into the game because they were wrong twice. So that puts you behind the eight ball a little bit, but I've said this before. I think it's great. The more involved we can get, the more correct calls we can get.
The only thing I wish, I wish it was 3D the way the strike zone is supposed to be calculated by umpires. So we've seen some that are a tenth of an inch low because the strike zone is in the middle of the plate, not the front of the plate. And the ball is probably a strike coming in, but because of where it's measured. It's considered a ball.
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