WHY BURNETT'S A BUILDING BLOCK PUZZLE

I believe the Yankees have building blocks that signify moves and when 1 move is made, the others can be rearranged to finish the puzzle. In this case, we’re talking about AJ Burnett being the biggest and most important block of the puzzle board. Once that block can be moved, whether it be Pittsburgh or Chicago or Oakland, only then can the other blocks fall into place…be it Johnny Damon, Eric Chavez…or whomever. The Yankees want to free up money and we have a surplus of pitching. There is no doubt Brian Cashman wants the Burnett block moved. When and where is another story, but once he’s able to do that, the Yankees can sign people alittle more freely. What? Do you think that after the signing of Bill Hall and Russell Branyan there finished this winter? I don't. Sure, right now the Yanks made 2 minor league deals with Hall and Branyan, but they used "funny" money. They still want to move AJ and free up some of that ugly salary so maybe they can add one for bat or... "block" if your reading this post. If AJ doesn’t get moved, I am not so sure they’ll be able to do much more.

Now I wrote WHY IT’S TIME TO FORGIVE & BURNETT, a play on words to basically suggest, “Hey, if we’re stuck with our guy, let’s make the most of it.” After all, things have been worse with worse pitching in the Yankees' past… Steve Trout was a disaster for the Yankees back in the day and he left quickly.

(In Photo: Denny Neagle)

We had guys like Denny Neagle and Kevin Brown and Carl Pavano who only appeared in 26 games in 4 years. I mean, if you throw all these guys together with Burnett, AJ’s looking damn good right now, isn’t he? The point is, he’s not a #2 starter anymore for the New York Yankees... he’s a #5 starter and guess what, on the Yankees, that’s OK. On the Royals or Athletics though, he’d be a #2 starter. But not in the Bronx, not anymore. Now if you don't support guys who suck, who am I to "make" you. What do I care if you don't want to support him? I'm telling you from my own personal opinion, I like to try and back our guys no matter what...that goes back to the days of Bobby Meacham...read HERE.

If Cashman didn’t want AJ moved, we would not be reading about the Yankees trying to unload him as hard as they are...HERE and HERE. They’re desperate, but if they needed to, they’d live with him until they didn’t have to any more. But if they move Burnett, that expensive block, it opens up the board. Then we can move the other blocks more freely, and perhaps, just perhaps Eric Chavez does make a return to pinstripes. Maybe then we see Raul Ibanez get signed, or Johnny Damon back in the Bronx as alittle extra pop and outfield help.

Do I know any of this as fact? No, but it’s a great discussion to have, because so far no one saw Russell Branyan coming. We even wrote about Branyan in a piece called WHY THE YANKEE BENCH WILL BE A FACTOR, and merely offered him as an option, but Branyan was rarely discussed. But back to Burnett… you have to realize that his days in New York are numbered at this point. Could he be headed to Pittsburgh? Could Chicago be where he’ll land or is it possible Cashman will stand pat? I’m not sure, but I’m stuck with a block puzzle I just can’t solve and it’s got Burnett’s name all over it.

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