AJ Burnett Plundered By Pirates!
AJ Burnett looked like he was worth every offseason penny, even CC Sabathia-type pennies, before yesterday’s outing against the Pittsburgh Pirates at Steinbrenner Field. Previous to being invaded and violated by the Bucs, Burnett pitched 15.0 innings and only gave up two runs on seven hits, but then looked like previous “high-priced former Florida Marlins pitcher signing for mucho dinero during the offseason,” Carl Pavano. Yes. That bad.
Burnett went 4.1 innings, gave up seven runs (six earned) on 10 hits (including three home runs), walked three, and only struck out one hitter. What the frag happened? Don’t worry, it had to be expected and dare I say, it’s only spring training. For example, Robinson Cano hit .447 last spring and had a horrible April, batting .151. What I’m saying is that things always even out and the cream rises to the top. And to prove that point even further, Cano hit .297 the rest of the season after that ugly April.
And speaking of Cano, he went yard to help the Yankees beat the Pirates 9-8 and up the Yankees’ spring record to 19-10. For all of you that play fantasy baseball and have yet to draft, feel comfortable in going after Cano in the middle rounds and let people take guys like Brandon Phillips, Alexei Ramirez, and even Howie Kendrick before grabbing Cano as a sweet 2B bargain.
One more week before the season opener at Baltimore!!!