WHY AJ BURNETT IS AIRING OUT HIS DIRTY LAUNDRY

It’s been official for a few days now, but AJ Burnett is no longer on the Yankees. He’s with the Pittsburgh Pirates, and I’m happy with that. But we’re still going to talk about him, because he had some interesting things to say about his time with the Yankees starting with this line…

"It was fun the first couple of years. Then it got like, I'm never going to get out of this funk."
That comment sounded as though the marriage between Burnett and the Yankees was destined to get worse if he stayed any longer. AJ sometimes lets his emotions get the best of him, and if he stayed any longer while things got worse with him performance wise, who knows what’d happen with his psyche.

Burnett added on by saying "I let a few too many people tinker with me, maybe. When you let that happen, you start doubting yourself sometimes. You wonder, 'Am I doing it right? Is this how it's supposed to feel?' and things like that. In '09, nobody messed with me. I was able to do what I wanted to do on the mound, whether it was turn around, close my eyes and pitch upside down. Then you have a few bad games and you start changing and listening."

In fact, Russell Martin agreed to Burnett’s comments about AJ letting too many people tinker with him by saying "Exactly,'' Martin said. "A big part of getting better is knowing what information to retain and knowing what information to block out. The best way to do it is, when you’re working on something, work on something specific, work on that well and make it muscle memory. Once you get that going, you can move on to something else. If you’re trying to tinker with eight things at the same time, you’re not going to get any progress.”

After all, he’s right. Martin has tried to get into Burnett’s head, I’d imagine, since he came on board prior to last season. Maybe he tried to “tinker” with him too much for Burnett's liking, who knows. We may never know for sure.Now that Burnett is a Pirate, he needed to air out his dirty laundry. That’s not meant to be taken in a negative way. It’s not like he bashed the Yankees as an organization or anything, he just needed to explain what went on behind the scenes. Although one thing that I’m inferring from these comments is that he and Larry Rothschild may have not been a perfect fit.

It has been well documented in the past that Burnett needed, now former, pitching coach Dave Eiland, and Eiland was the key to “fixing” Burnett following the 2010 season. Read HERE. Trouble is, Eiland was fired and was replaced by Rothschild. I’ve made it clear that Rothschild is a pitching genius, and has been huge for the Yankees since he came over. Read WHY ROTHSCHILD IS A PITCHING GENIUS. Rothschild has tried to “tinker” with Burnett since he was hired by the Yankees, and maybe he fed Burnett too much advice to fix him and it could have taken a toll on AJ mentally. Either way, AJ Burnett is 35 years old, and while it’s hard to believe, his stuff is diminishing, most notably is fastball. Take a look…

The “wFB” is essentially the number of runs saved or allowed using his fastball. “+” for number of runs saved, “-“ for number of runs allowed, with “0” being average. So, to make a long story short, Burnett’s -34 wFB in 2011 means he’s allowed 34 runs more than the average MLB'er using his fastball, worst in the majors. The linear weight metric isn’t perfect, but it gives fans like you and me a general idea of how good or bad a particular pitch is. Read more about the linear weights HERE.

Also, you can see based on the chart that Burnett’s fastball velocity has dropped every year, thus he can’t get away with mistake fastballs like he used to. His “whiff%” or swing-and-miss percentage on his fastball, has been inconsistent the last several years. This is where the “tinkering” comes into play. He’s always been known as a two-pitch pitcher; fastball, curve ball, but with the fastball steadily declining, Burnett needs to get smarter. He needs to “tinker” his mindset as a pitcher. He needs to become more of a pitcher and less of a thrower.

Although it would have been nice if Burnett finished his contract with the Yankees, it just wasn’t meant to be, and a change needed to be made for both sides. The Yankees had three starters vying for one rotation spot, and the two other guys—Freddy Garcia and Phil Hughes—are much more worthy of getting one of those spots than Burnett. We wish Burnett the best of luck in Pittsburgh, and maybe Jeff Andrews, Pirates’ pitching coach, can guide him into the right direction. But based on Burnett’s comments, we now know for sure that he just wasn’t a fit in the Yankees puzzle for 2012.




--Jesse Schindler, BYB Staff Writer
Follow me on Twitter @SchindlerJesse



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