WHY BURNETT'S HISSY FIT DON'T FLY

(Photo: New York Daily News)
It's one thing to be passionate about the game your playing, it's another to be angry for being pulled and not being good. When I think of passion, Paul O'Neill comes to mind because he wanted to hit the ball every single time to get his team a win. You have to respect that. You also have to respect a guy wanting to play all 162 games, wanting to help your team win, but everyone knows, not all players get that chance. And remember Reggie Jackson being accused of dogging it by Billy Martin? In that public display, I may even side with Reggie, just because it was based on Billy's opinion and nothing more. But let's face facts, what's not OK in my mind is publicly trying to embarrass your manager because you don't like being taken out of the game even though your performance was pathetic. (Read HERE) That almost doesn't make sense. AJ Burnett may have wanted to stay in last night's game, but go yell at Joe Girardi in the clubhouse... keep it off the field.

Look, I've had my share of criticisms of Joe Girardi but at the end of the day, he's the manager, he calls the shots and he clearly needed to make a decision in the second inning of last night's game. AJ Burnett pitched his way out of the Yankees starting rotation last night as far as I'm concerned and he added insult to injury by pulling a fit.Now, you can make the argument that Burnett was just passionate and wanted to pitch his heart out last night. I say that's bunk. If he pitched his heart out, he wouldn't have sucked, plain and simple. Now look, if Burnett was pitching a no hitter into the 5th last night and suddenly walked 3 the load the bases and was pulled, I would have sided with Burnett. But he didn't. Burnett showed me nothing last night and Girardi had to make a move. In fact, I bet most of us were rooting to get him off the mound.

Look, there is no doubt the Yankee rotation has question marks. Right now we have a tired CC Sabathia, an Bartolo Colon that seems to be breaking down. AJ Burnett is bordering on becoming a basket case and Freddy Garcia slit his finger opened and landed on the DL.
Ironically, the guys that were the most unsure of the season, Ivan Nova and Phil Hughes, are proving the doubters wrong and pitching their balls off, but there is no doubt last night's pitching performance by AJ Burnett has given us more instability. But should we panic? Not yet.

Look, there is a bright side to this, we can still get wins with what we have and if AJ were to possibly move to the bullpen, he may be able to reinvent himself. Then again, would the Yankees do that? I'm not sure yet, I'll get back to you on that.

I have always backed AJ, this is true, but now he's hurting the team regularly and it's time to go. A bullpen assignment would be smart right now and going 2 innings out of the pen could actually help the team. But will his mental instability just eat him up out there? Probably. To be honest, it's unclear what needs to be done with AJ Burnett, but something needs to be done now.

What can you say, just a yearly concern when it comes to Yankee pitching. Year after year right around August, things happen and concerns among the Yankee fans rise. One things for sure though... AJ's hissy fit doesn't fly in my book. He didn't earn to right to flip out.

Hey AJ, pitch better, then we don't care what you do, but don't pitch well and complain about being pulled? Well, that makes no sense to me. It really doesn't.

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