Thank goodness and good riddance. A.J. Burnett is no longer a Yankee. The Pirates traded a couple of warm bodies, I mean "prospects," to New York for the mercurial right-hander.
How is it a guy with such good stuff and be so consistently inconsistent. Burnett would look like Christy Mathewson for 3 innings and then look like Bill Thornton the next inning? Bill Thornton being a high school and summer league teammate and life long friend who I just felt like throwing under the bus right now for some reason. Actually, Billy could have pitched better than A.J. at times the past two seasons.
I have the reason. The guy is unfocused. It seemed to me that Burnett was more concerned with slamming guys in the face with a post game pie for a walk-off win or acquiring more tattoos than winning ballgames. That stuff is great...when you are winning 18 games with an ERA around three instead of close to six.
The Pirates have had 19 consecutive losing seasons. It isn't as if they've accomplished this dubious record by being smart.
A.J. Burnett isn't going to help the Pirates long term. Oh, he'll eat innings and serve up plenty of souvenirs to the patrons in the right and left field seats but if the Pirates ever get good again, and that's a big if with their incompetent owner Bob Nutting, Burnett will be long gone.
As for Nutting, he doesn't want to win. Winning teams cost money and he makes a fistful of dollars by losing and pocketing luxury tax money from the Yankees and Red Sox and teams of that ilk. You know, winning teams.
So, Pittsburgh, the giant roar you hear coming from the east are Yankee fans yelling, "Thank You Bucs for taking that loser Burnett off our hands."
I pull for the Pirates and hope they do well but I'm glad I'm not a full-blooded Pirates fan. That would make for a pretty tough life.
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