Just Give Us One More Year, A.J.

After watching A.J. Burnett spin a masterful game on Wednesday night, thanks to a ridiculously good 2 plane curveball, I realized just how important Burnett has been these past 2 years.  Burnett has been something the Pirates have lacked since 1992 -- a true, bonafide stopper.  He's not a true "ace" like Felix Hernandez or Justin Verlander, but he is a strong, strong #2.

Burnett has also been a positive influence on the clubhouse and has warmly embraced and appreciated the support the fans have given him.  I didn't anticipate that Burnett would be like this, thanks to a less than stellar impression received about him due to some of his youthful immaturity and perceived "big-timeness" that I thought he would bring with him.

Burnett has already hinted that when his contract expires after this year he may consider retirement.  It seems that when you first start to think about retirement, you're all ready to retire.  But I hope that, selfishly, Burnett will give the Pirates one more year.  Yes, he has kids and a wife that spends more time in Baltimore than Jimmy McNulty and Avon Barksdale from The Wire, but his stuff is not waning in the least bit.

In his first four starts of the season, Burnett has racked up 35 strikeouts in just 24 innings.  I'm not the Elias Bureau over here, but my quick research has showed that this is the most K's compiled by Burnett in a four game period since Aug/Sept 2008 when he pitched for Toronto and had 36 K's, albeit in 29 innings.

A.J.'s contract is up at the end of this year on the tail end of a 5 year/$82.5M deal ($16.5/year).  I would love to see the Pirates re-up him for 1 year at $14-16M.  Normally, the response would be "the Pirates can't afford that", but in 2014 the new national TV deals go into effect and each team's share will rise from $23M to $50M per year.  That's $27M more to spend on major league payroll and I could think of no better place for it, especially when the Pirates' core player are still relatively affordable and under team control.

If Burnett would come back in 2014, he could front a power rotation that would feature Gerrit Cole and possibly Jameson Taillon straight out of Spring Training.  If Rodriguez exercises his player option, he would be the #4 starter.  That would easily be the best rotation since the halcyon days of the early 90's.

So please A.J. let's do this one more time.  I'll even spring for a tattoo for you.

What A.J. Burnett Means to the Pirates

The Pirates (finally) completed their trade for A.J. Burnett yesterday with the Yankees. The Yankees will be paying $20M of the remaining $33M on Burnett's contract -- the Pirates will pay Burnett $5M in 2012 and $8M in 2013 -- and the Pirates sent RHP Diego Moreno and OF Exicardo Cayones in exchange. Neither of these guys will be missed. The Pirates seemed to have tired of Moreno's immaturity, as they stalled him out in High-A with only a taste of AA. Cayones was a Latin American bonus-baby ($400K signing bonus) that has yet to hit a professional home run.

I've seen Burnett described as "old" as a 35-year-old pitcher. I'm 35. Hearing him described as old makes me feel old. Gah....growing old is getting old.

Burnett had a rough 2010 and 2011 with the Yankees due to higher-than-usual HR rates. In my opinion, most of the problem is a lack of separation in speed between his slowly declining fastball (still a top notch 92.7 average) and his firm changeup of 88 mph. You really want to see an 8-10 mph difference between the two. Hopefully Ray Searage can alter that.

But what Burnett does is legitimize this rotation and to a small extent this whole team. He's a "name" and still producing well. Barring injury, Burnett will anchor this rotation and provide 190+ innings this year.

Both Burnett (8.1 K/9 innings) and free agent signee Erik Bedard (8.7 K/9) bring a different dynamic to this rotation in 2012 -- the strikeout capability that has been lacking since...forever. Just as an example, here's the K rates for the rotation in 2011:

2011 -- McDonald (7.47 K/9), Morton (5.77 K/9), Maholm (5.38 K/9), Karstens (5.32 K/9), Correia (4.50 K/9)

Here's what that could look like in 2012:

2012 -- Bedard (8.76 K/9), Burnett (8.18 K/9), McDonald (7.47 K/9), Morton (5.77 K/9), Karstens (5.38 K/9)

Quite a difference. Instead of relying on putting the ball in play, with all that entails in terms of errors and poor decision making of other moving parts, the rotation is now a do-it-yourself type of mentality. I'm just going to throw this ball past the hitter, have my catcher catch it (bye Ryan Doumit), and eliminate the middle man.

This past offseason, the Pirates waded in to free agency early and got guys like Clint Barmes and Rod Barajas as soon as the store opened. Both of these guys are defensive upgrades on their replacements. Barmes should at least be Cedeno's equivalent on offense, too. Barajas has power at least -- hopefully a healthier Chris Synder. The Pirates also stole Bedard at $4.5M, although it will be amazing if he pitches move than 140 innings this year.

The Pirates tried to obtain a big player via free agency, but for the 2nd year in a row they couldn't give their money away. Last year their white whale was Jorge de la Rosa, this year Edwin Jackson. So they did the next best thing and shanghaied someone from another team in A.J. Burnett.

It may be the excitement of the move, still, but I'm excited about the Pirates. I will realistically say this is a 78 win team, but with a bounce or two here and there they could finally break The Streak. If that happens, it will be due to A.J. Burnett fronting this rotation. Breaking the losing streak should finally lead to free agents not using the Pirates as their "back up school" while they wait for Harvard to get back to them.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm going to listen to the Silversun Pickups.