Flowers' new look, production gaining attention

CHICAGO -- During pregame praise directed toward the White Sox by Joe Maddon on Monday night, the Tampa Bay manager pointed out that Tyler Flowers looked as if he was in better shape and appeared to be a different player compared to 2013. Flowers, who lost 12 pounds from the end of last season, agreed with Maddon's assessment.

"I can't disagree with him. I feel like a different player," Flowers said. "The whole works, catching, throwing, my stance, the swing, all of that.

"It feels good to be more productive. I think I showed that to the White Sox this spring. Otherwise, I wouldn't have the opportunity to be where I'm at right now. I guess other people see it, too."

Flowers entered Tuesday's start hitting .373 and with 28 hits. Twenty-five of those hits have been singles, which is not exactly the output expected from Flowers. But the White Sox catcher is not complaining.

"Paul [Konerko] was talking to me about it yesterday. I'd say it's a little more of a challenge for someone like myself to be content with things like that," said Flowers. "But Paul put it together real well for me, saying there's going to be times when you're going to be begging for singles, there's going to be times where you're 1-for-4, 1-for-5 with a double and a homer and you're going to say, 'Where are all my hits at?'

"You're going to 0-for for a while and then you're going to hit nothing but homers for two weeks. So, hopefully, this is a good foundation to lead me into whatever the next event is. Hopefully, that'll be hitting for a little more power, but again, if I can hit singles all year and have a high average, I'm OK with that. I don't think that'll necessarily happen, I'm sure I'll hit the barrel sometimes. But I'm definitely not going to complain about getting hits because I've been on the other end and sometimes it's very, very hard to get a hit."