WHY IT’S DO OR DIE FOR AJ BURNETT

We’ve heard it time and time again but this time we’re serious. With Phil Hughes pitching pretty well last night in Seattle and the Yankees still on a 6 man rotation, time is ticking. Yes, I would suggest this is still an audition phase for who will be the Yankees rotation for the playoffs, but let’s be frank, we’re not there yet and every game counts.

AJ Burnett needs to pitch his guts out tonight. He needs to keep his mechanics chaos at bay and come out guns blazing with his new and improved mechanics tune up. He needs to focus on every batter and hopefully good old Yoda Rothschild can help straighten young Skywalker's mind again.

I feel like I wrote the exact same stuff about AJ Burnett last year when he was falling apart in September. And I did. I went back in the archives and I found this story I wrote titled WHY CONFIDENCE IS KEY. I wrote it on September 17, 2010. Unbelievably similar to right now. Amazing how AJ works, very predictable.

Déjà vu? Yes. Look, I’m not sure what is wrong with AJ but like I’ve stated, he a good pitcher who needs help, he's not an ace and never was.

I wrote in WHY CRUCIFYING BURNETT NEEDS TO STOP, “The Yankee brass sold us all a bill of goods in 2009 propping AJ Burnett up on a pedestal when he came over to the Yanks. CC, AJ and Teixeira came over and it’s was their brilliant P.R. machine at work, hinting about the Yankees new “aces” and a “1,2 punch” and yes, for 2009, it worked in their favor. But, honestly, anyone who knew AJ’s career numbers and injury record knew this was bogus. If you believed it, you were dreaming. Again, AJ Burnett is no superstar pitcher, he’s a talented pitcher that is constantly a work in progress..."

AJ is a fourth starter on the New York Yankees, not a second starter. He’s a number 2 starter on the Royals, you know what I mean? But all that doesn’t really matter right now, AJ Burnett is about to pitch the biggest game of his life tonight in Seattle and I suspect if he’s a failure tonight, AJ may be cut from the rotation. That's just my gut talking, nothing else.

Now, If I had to put a rotation together at this moment, it would be the following:

• CC Monster

• Ivan Nova

• Phil Hughes

• Freddy Garcia

This rotation has changed in my head every single day for the past week, because you’re only as good as your last start and when a pitcher pitches well, you want to keep that momentum going and throw him in the rotation.

Bottom line though, Burnett needs to pitch like his life depends on it. He needs to do that and prove he has something and maybe, just maybe AJ gets a spot. But by now, September 13^th, it may just be too late.

Please comment and let me know what you think and follow me on Twitter @BleednYankeeBlu and join the group Bleeding Yankee Blue on Facebook, just type it in.