I split this out for further discussion. I've been wondering about the Pierzynski signing for a while now. He does not seem to fit the Red Sox offensive model at all. In a Lindy's Red Sox preview article this spring, John Farrell was quoted as saying, "The Red Sox have been very patient at the plate in recent years, and their offense has been strong. We will continue what made the Sox offense successful, and that includes grinding out at bats, wearing out the starting pitcher, and getting to the bullpen in the middle innings.” Team Director of Pro Scouting, Jared Porter, echoed this when talking about the 2013 acquisitions, saying, "all stood out statistically as well rounded players who could complement the players we already had in place for 2013. Whether it was pitches per plate appearance, power, on base ability, defense, baserunning, or undervalued bounce back types; they all stood out amongst other free agents as great fits for us from a pure performance standpoint.”
It's clear the team values patience at the plate and getting on base, and the stats back that up. The 2013 Red Sox saw 25,668 pitches as a team last year, the most in MLB. They were one of only 2 team seeing more than 4 pitches per at plate appearance, and all of their players except Iglesias (3.78) with over 225 PA took greater than the MLB average of 3.83 P/PA (Victorino was league average). The Sox have been P/PA heavy for a while now; since 2003 the team has top 3 every year, and finished 1st 6 times.
The value of seeing a lot of pitches throughout the line-up is clear. I don't have time this morning to find offensive numbers when pitchers have thrown more than, say, 20 pitches in an inning, but would guess there is an inning pitch point where effectiveness is reduced greatly. Maybe someone can look this up. Teams also get to the bullpen faster when forcing the starter to throw a lot of pitches, and the cumulative effect of this can put stress on a bullpen later in a series. If you force the pen to throw 4 innings in each of the first two games of a series, they will in all probability have a few unavailable and tired arms in the third game.
AJP does not fit this see a lot of pitches model. He saw, as AD noted above, only 3.27 P/PA in 2013, the second lowest total in MLB (Jose Altuve was at 3.25), and well below the 3.83 average. In his career, AJP has seen 3.31 P/PA, and has only been above 3.5 once since becoming a regular player.
I did not understand his signing, and do not like it.