AJ Burnett:This bird’s a turkey
By Punch N Judy
According to Tigers skipper Jim Leyland, it’s unwise to judge players – particularly pitchers – at this time of year. The conditions are different. As in I assume, the level of pressure given the state of your team’s spot in the standings.
Tiger fans undoubtedly no that to be true after last year’s season ending three game sweep at the hands of a Royals team laden with double A players who had nothing to lose or gain. It was this time of year (the gory years from 96′to 2005) when some call-up would hit the cover off the ball for Detroit, invoking optimism for next year’s team. It was also the time for guys like Bobby Higginson to pad his home run stats by hitting six or seven homers in 10 games, making for decent numbers on the back of a card.
What all this brings me to is the case of the Blue Jays $55 million dollar man, AJ Burnett. Once again this walking heart murmur is turning it on at the wrong time in T.O, finishing strong for a team that was out of the race in July. And here I thought that exec in Florida who predicted Burnett wouldn’t get a victory per million was either kidding or snacking on sour grapes.
In picking up his 10th W last night Burnett showed some grit by lasting six plus with less than his normally electric stuff. He attributed this to finally learning to harness his arm strength and stay within himself. He also said that earlier in the year he had been overthrowing and wished he could see what would happen if he stayed injury free for an entire campaign. Spoken like a true head case.
Because baseball like no other sport embodies the expression, “a sucker born every minute,” JP Riccairdi would be wise to start sending feelers now on this bum, not only to shed payroll, but also to just rid the clubhouse (and training room) of a player who’s been a malcontent his whole career.