World Series Game 5: A.J. Burnett Sucks

November 3, 2009

By DailySkew

We’ve seen all of the different versions of A.J. Burnett this postseason: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. It’s unfortunate that A.J. Burnett wants to be treated like an ace with $16 million salary and his Jose Molina demands, because he’s no postseason hero. He got mugged in Philly last night. 2 innings, 6 runs, and he made me take a Full Moon nap until the 7th inning. Thanks, A.J. Maybe you should see A-Rod’s psychiatrist, I missed David Robertson and Alfredo Aceves pitch 4 shutout innings. I did see Phil Coke give up 2 HRs and Phil Hughes pitch a relaxed inning.

The Yanks had a chance to comeback in the 8th and 9th, so in effect, they had a moral victory last night. The score was 8-2 at one point, but the final line was 8-6 thanks to some clutch hitting by A-Rod, Johnny Damon, Hideki Matsui, and others. Mark Teixeira? For the first time I am running out of patience with him. I long for Don Mattingly to get the job done. When Mattingly finally had his chance in 1995 to make the postseason, he used all of his last remaining energy and dealt with the crippling pain in his back that ruined his career and forced him to retire. On sheer willpower he batted .417 with an on base percentage of .440 against the 1995 Seattle Mariners. He didn’t care if he would never get out of bed again- he wanted to win and he sacrified his body to do it. It was his last shot at glory and Donnie Baseball did what he had to do. It’s time for Teixeria to step up.

1999 AJ Burnett Bowman Chrome Baseball MLB Rookie Cards – Professionally Graded a PSA 9 (Toronto Blue Jays)

TALK RADIO and the message boards are saying that Joe Girardi made the wrong decision pitching A.J. Burnett on 3-day’s rest. The “logic” follows that Chad Gaudin should have started and lost against Cliff Lee, but then we bring A.J. back for Game 6 fully rested and CC Sabathia for Game 7 (if necessary). My problem with that is : 1) AJ has done well in the past on 3-day’s rest because it doesn’t give him a chance to overthrow or think too much; 2) We lose Andy Pettitte in this scenario, even though Andy doesn’t do well on 3-day’s rest 3) Chad Gaudin vs Cliff Lee is an embarrassing matchup for Yankees World Series game, although in my mind I would have taken AJ out in the 1st inning (I always want to, by the way) and put Chad Gaudin in for long relief.

The bottom line is that AJ BURNETT SUCKED. 3-days rest, 4-days rest, 1 year’s rest- it doesn’t matter- he would have SUCKED no matter what. He takes the fall 100% for last night’s mugging.