Over the offseason, Brian Cashman dropped a wife and a stalker, but he picked up two fairly good starting pitchers. This was done because of the anchor dragging down the Yankees starting 5, that is A.J. Burnett. Good move right? Well yes and no.
Yes because we got Michael Pineda who will be a solid number 2 or 3 in the rotation for years to come. No because now we might lose A.J. Maybe he isn't as bad as we think he is. True the sub-.500 winning percentage and near 5 ERA as a Yankee is hard to dismiss, but as Yankees sportswriter Wallace Mathews points out, Burnett is better than we think. He has ate up a lot of innings over the last few years and has been a steady back en of the rotation guy.
He was a ground ball machine last year and had a surprisingly high strikeout per nine innings ratio that was up there with the best in the league. His mechanics were off-and-on throughout the year so maybe if him and Larry Rothschild can figure that out he will be okay. Or maybe if he can find the extra 2 mph he lost off his fastball. Or maybe if he can locate his curveball. Or maybe, or maybe, or maybe....
Or maybe he isn't worth the 33$ million that he is owed over the next two seasons and the Yankees just need to drop the contract and hope they can get a prospect out of him. He is the Barry Zito of the New York Yankees. The Fausto Carmona. The most likely place that A.J. will land is in Pittsburg. As in the Pirates. His career has sank farther than Lindsey Lohan's in the last few years.
So consider this a farewell A.J. I am going to be sad to see you go, but it is a bittersweet feeling. Thinking that your spot in the rotation will be filled with Hideki Kuroda is the sweet. The bitter is having to shop around and find a new punch line for the upcoming season. Andruw Jones, I'm looking at you.
Yes because we got Michael Pineda who will be a solid number 2 or 3 in the rotation for years to come. No because now we might lose A.J. Maybe he isn't as bad as we think he is. True the sub-.500 winning percentage and near 5 ERA as a Yankee is hard to dismiss, but as Yankees sportswriter Wallace Mathews points out, Burnett is better than we think. He has ate up a lot of innings over the last few years and has been a steady back en of the rotation guy.
He was a ground ball machine last year and had a surprisingly high strikeout per nine innings ratio that was up there with the best in the league. His mechanics were off-and-on throughout the year so maybe if him and Larry Rothschild can figure that out he will be okay. Or maybe if he can find the extra 2 mph he lost off his fastball. Or maybe if he can locate his curveball. Or maybe, or maybe, or maybe....
Or maybe he isn't worth the 33$ million that he is owed over the next two seasons and the Yankees just need to drop the contract and hope they can get a prospect out of him. He is the Barry Zito of the New York Yankees. The Fausto Carmona. The most likely place that A.J. will land is in Pittsburg. As in the Pirates. His career has sank farther than Lindsey Lohan's in the last few years.
So consider this a farewell A.J. I am going to be sad to see you go, but it is a bittersweet feeling. Thinking that your spot in the rotation will be filled with Hideki Kuroda is the sweet. The bitter is having to shop around and find a new punch line for the upcoming season. Andruw Jones, I'm looking at you.
No comments:
Post a Comment