Tag Archives: AJ Burnett

Yankees Add Final Piece To The Puzzle: Raul Ibanez To Join New York

Posted on by Ryan Kantor

Just days after clearing $13 million off the books by sending beleaguered right-hander, AJ Burnett, to the Pittsburgh Pirates the Yankees have filled their last critical need by signing a power hitting DH. Raul Ibanez is set to join the Bronx Bombers on a $1.1 million contract that maxes out at $4 million with incentives. This is welcome news as the Yankees had been looking for a reliable, veteran lefty after they created the hole in the DH slot by trading C/DH Jesus Montero for Michael Pineda.

The Yankees remained patient during the first half of the off-season, while the Angels were signing Albert Pujols and CJ Wilson, the Red Sox were finding new management, and the Marlins were making headlines every week. That patience has paid off. They resigned CC Sabathia early on and then added Michael Pineda and Hiroki Kuroda while subtracting AJ Burnett to strengthen a weak pitching staff. They lost star prospect, Jesus Montero, in the process but plugged the DH hole with Raul Ibanez while prospects like Austin Romine and Gary Sanchez prepare to take over the catching duties. Alex Rodriguez will likely transition into a primary DH role in the coming years, so using a veteran to fill that role in the immediate short-term may have been a plus.

The only priority the Yankees have not checked off their list was signing a lefty specialist for the bullpen and that is of no fault of their own. They came to terms with Hideki Okajima, but the contract fell through when he failed his physical.

The Yankees now have arguably the deepest lineup in baseball. They also have the maybe the deepest rotation outside of Los Angeles–where the Angels boast Jered Weaver, Dan Haren, CJ Wilson, Ervin Santana, and Jerome Williams–and they’ll return one of the baseball’s best bullpens. Personal reasons have made this one of the toughest off-seasons for Brian Cashman, but he has made this one of his most wildly successful baseball off-seasons.

As always, please subscribe to this blog by clicking the “Follow” button at the top of the right sidebar. If you don’t have a WordPress account, you’ll have to enter your email address. You can share your opinions in the comment section below or by tweeting to @Ryan_Kantor. Thanks for reading! 

 

AJ Burnett Will Have New Faces To Pie In 2012

Posted on by Ryan Kantor

258 walks later, AJ Burnett may be looking at his last day as a New York Yankee. After three up-and-down years in New York (mostly down) and the additions of Michael Pineda and Hiroki Kuroda, the Yankee front office is looking to shed some payroll by finding someone to take Burnett’s plump contract off their hands (yes, the Yankees need to cut payroll).

In his first year, AJ was a blessing for a stodgy Yankee clubhouse, bringing a much needed lightheartedness and his signature shaving cream pie face-plants. In the two subsequent seasons, that would unfortunately devolve into self-inflicted injuries and arguments with Jorge Posada. After those two poor seasons, both with ERAs above 5.14, AJ Burnett has become the Yankees seventh best starter and will still command $16.5 million in each of the next two seasons.

According to Ken Rosenthal of Fox Sports:

Deal needs MLB approval. Yankees will pay $20M of $30M left on Burnett’s contract, receive two low-level minor leaguers from Pirates.

When we signed AJ Burnett prior to the 2009 season, I was not pleased. I had always rooted against the tattooed, Greenday fan during his years with the Marlins and Blue Jays. Always seeming more like a talented thrower than a thoughtful pitcher, I put Burnett in the group with Josh Beckett and Carlos Zambrano as pitchers to root against while I cheered for the Mike Mussinas and Greg Madduxs of the world.

I quickly had to get on board with AJ Burnett in pinstripes as he was a part of the Yankees strong 2009 off-season that included CC Sabathia and Mark Teixeira, and his success would be paramount to the Yankees. In his first year, he made this easy to do. His playfulness and on-field success made him a crucial piece to a championship team. He threw 207 innings with respectable 4.04 ERA, and his game 2 performance in the 2009 World Series will be remembered by Yankee fans for years to come. Unfortunately, that would be the climax of his career in New York. He was shelled in game 5 of the 2009 World Series allowing six earned runs in two innings and followed that with an ERA of 5.24 in 2010.

While I thought it was a poor contract at the time, it was largely justified by the results in 2009, when Burnett played a big role in the Yankees’ World Series Championship. Even his back-to-back 5+ ERA seasons haven’t made me forget his contributions. So while I’m far from an AJ Burnett fan, I’m thankful for his contributions to the Yankees 27th World Series Championship. It is time for the Yankees to move forward without Burnett on the roster, and he’d probably benefit from a fresh start and respite from the AL East and the pressures of New York. So, I hope the Yankees are able to complete a trade, but I also thank AJ Burnett for his time in pinstripes and wish him success in Pittsburgh (assuming this trade is finalized) where I (and Jeff Nelson) think he’ll rediscover some of his past glory.

Related Articles

AJ Burnett: Why His Contract Was Not A Mistake For The New York Yankees

AJ Burnett: Cutting Off The Nose To Spite The Face

As always, please subscribe to this blog by clicking the “Follow” button at the top of the right sidebar. If you don’t have a WordPress account, you’ll have to enter your email address. You can share your opinions in the comment section below or by tweeting to @Ryan_Kantor. Thanks for reading! 

Hiroki Kuroda and Michael Pineda To Don Pinstripes

Posted on by Ryan Kantor

It appears that Yankee GM, Brian Cashman, was just taking his time. Yankee fans watched the Angels sign Albert Pujols and CJ Wilson. They watched Mark Buehrle sign with the revamped Miami Marlins and the Rangers win exclusive rights to negotiate with Japanese pitcher, Yu Darvish. Rumors surfaced that the Yankees would add Jair Jurrjens to their shaky, pinstriped rotation in exchange for young shortstop Eduardo Nunez, but nothing came to fruition.

After resigning to the fact that the Yankees may not make a major move this off-season, Yankee fans were hit with two huge moves that may transform a lousy rotation into a deep, World Series caliber group. One that could even be called the strength of the team.

After months of hearing that Hiroki Kuroda was uncomfortable moving to New York and would either remain in Los Angeles or head back to his native Japan, the AP has reported that the two parties have struck a 1-year, $10 million pact. Kuroda is 36 years of age, but his age is not a concern to me and evidently not too big of a concern to Brian Cashman. Last season Kuroda posted MLB career bests in wins, innings pitched, strikeouts, and ERA–finishing the year with 13 wins, 202 IP, 161 Ks, and a 3.07 ERA. Barring unforeseen injury I don’t think a 17 win, 3.60 ERA season is an unreasonable expectation.

In the same day that Yankee fans heard Kuroda would don pinstripes, they also learned that star prospect, Jesus Montero, was traded. The reaction went something like this, “Oh no, they gave away another star prospect. We always do this! This is terrible… Wow, we got Michael Pineda. Hmmm, he’s pretty young, huh (22)? Wow, with Kuroda AND Pineda our rotation is pretty good now. I think I like this deal. Wow, we may win the World Series!”

Moving catcher Jesus Montero stings, but I’m not totally heart-broken for a few reasons. First, The Yankees already re-signed Russell Martin, meaning Montero wouldn’t have played much behind the plate this year. It also hinted at the possibility that the Yankees didn’t feel comfortable with Montero’s defense behind the plate. He’s much less impressive as a DH prospect than a catching prospect.
Second, the Yankees are loaded with good catching prospects. Austin Romine is lauded as a well-rounded catching prospect that can hit (although not as well as Montero) and field. The younger Gary Sanchez gives the Yankees minor league depth at the catcher position, as a top 30 overall prospect according to Baseball America. Trading from a position of depth (likely the most minor league catching depth in baseball) to solve an immediate problem without getting older makes sense.
Prior to Transactions
  1. CC Sabathia
  2. Ivan Nova
  3. Freddy Garcia
  4. Phil Hughes
  5. AJ Burnett
After Transactions
  1. CC Sabathia
  2. Michael Pineda
  3. Hiroki Kuroda
  4. Ivan Nova
  5. Garcia/Hughes

With Posada retiring and Montero now on his way to the Pacific Northwest, the Yankees may have created a hole at the DH slot. This may have been intentional though, as they now can give Eduardo Nunez plenty of playing time on the left side of the infield while keeping Alex Rodriguez and Derek Jeter well rested. The rotation looks fantastic, with two potentially dominant pitchers at the top of the rotation and an incredible amount of depth. The Yankees still need to add a lefty in the bullpen to help Boone Logan, but suddenly baseball season can’t start soon enough. The Mariners and Yankees, after failing to consummate a Cliff Lee deal, reunited to strike a seemingly win-win trade. The Evil Empire is back.

As always, please subscribe to this blog by clicking the “Follow” button at the top of the right sidebar. If you don’t have a WordPress account, you’ll have to enter your email address. You can share your opinions in the comment section below or by tweeting to @Ryan_Kantor. Thanks for reading! 

The Boston Red Sox and Their Awesome Inferiority Complex

Posted on by Ryan Kantor

A resolutely slanted recap of the what Boston was supposed to do,
and how funny it is that they are failing

In the offseason before the 2009 season, the New York Yankees splurged on three big free agents. They paid an exorbitant amount of money to sign CC Sabathia, Mark Teixeira and AJ Burnett. Of course we now know that New York went on to win the AL East by seven games and win their 27th World Series Championship by beating the Phillies in six games.

Two years later, despite oft complaining about the spending habits of the New York Yankees, Boston abandoned fiscal restraint with a chain of moves that brought in star sluggers Adrian Gonzalez and Carl Crawford.

The San Diego Padres were coming off a solid season in 2010. They had battled the Giants for the division all season, but a late season losing streak and a head to head loss versus San Francisco ended their run, and the Giants won the division and subsequently the World Series. Adrian Gonzalez didn’t request to be traded, but it was a given that the Padres wouldn’t be able to afford him when his contract expired after the 2011 season. The Red Sox were there to solve their problem. Able to afford a lucrative contract extension for Adrian Gonzalez, the Sox moved some top prospects (keep an eye on RHP Casey Kelly) and brought the super star first baseman to Boston.

Boston wasn’t done. After the Rays had taken the Yankees usual spot atop the AL East, pushing the Yankees to the wild card and leaving Boston to watch the 2010 playoffs being tactfully broadcast on TBS (always better to watch than an ESPN telecast) the Sox decided to lure two of the Rays key free agents to Boston.

Boston awarded Tampa Bay left fielder Carl Crawford a record setting contract, making him the first player in Red Sox history with a contract with an average annual value in excess of $20 million, and the first player in MLB history to receive a $100 million contract to never have a 20 home run season.

Following the two biggest splashes of the offseason, Boston then turned their attention to their bullpen. First giving a 2-year 12 million dollar contract to Bobby Jenks, a formerly great closer for the White Sox, and then adding insult to injury for Tampa, inking the Rays solid set-up man, Dan Wheeler, to a 1-year 3 million dollar deal. The Yankees followed suit by signing the Rays closer, Rafael Soriano, to an oversized contract leaving the Rays looking around wondering what happened to their division winning team.

After all the changes, the Red Sox were the talk of the offseason. Not only did they acquire the two best available players in the offseason, but they fixed the prior year’s weakness with the two signings for the bullpen. All was jolly in New England.

The Yankees had the worst rotation among serious playoff contenders–if they were even grouped in that class. Many experts thought they was too weak to beat out Tampa for the wild card, even with all the players the Rays had lost. They lost out on signing Cliff Lee and the media was crushing them for it. With Andy Pettitte retiring they were in trouble. All was doom and gloom in New York.

But then the year started and the Red Sox couldn’t just play games on paper anymore. They got off to a horrific start, and pressure mounted. Before things could get too bad, a critical series with New York resulted in Boston taking two out of three and starting to play quality baseball. Not too much later they would sweep the Yankees and slice into their early division lead. A blink of the eye later they were leading the division and everyone congratulated themselves on a good pre-season prediction. A-Rod was on the DL and Yankee fans were wondering how much longer they could rely on Bartolo Colon and Freddy Garcia. This was the first time in a long time where you could get almost any logical Yankee fan to admit that the Red Sox seemed like the overall superior team.

Boston only held a 2 game lead in late August despite “dominating” the Yankees in head to head play. The bleacher report even went so far as to say the Red Sox wanted the division more and were giving a “superior effort.” Then the darnedest thing happened, the Red Sox started losing at the rapid pace that they were dropping games to start the year. They lost 14 of their first 18 September games falling as far back as 5.5 games behind New York. Now the thought is that Rays team that’s only two games behind (depending on when you’re reading this) could take the wild card, eliminating them from the post season all together (we’ll save that potential blog post for another day).

The Red Sox have scored the most runs in baseball. Looking at their roster, I’m amazed that they can play this poorly. Sure they have had their fair share of injuries, but when you have the money to buy the depth its really no excuse. They had the newsworthy offseason. 2011 was their year. Red Sox v. Phillies was all but written in stone, and while they could still make a postseason run as the wild card, now is no time to think of appalling and unpleasant things like that. Now is a time to celebrate and commemorate their dissapointment.

The story of the 2011 AL East is no comeback story—the Yankees never fell too far behind. Nor is this a David beating Goliath story. It’d be more apt to relate it to Goliath continuing to consistently beating the piss out of his nearly as big and menacing foe, despite his foe buying all sorts of new armor and swords that were supposed to finally change things.

After the Red Sox admittedly amazing 2004 title and well deserved 2007 title, the inferiority complex that seemed to have found a cozy place in Boston disappeared. It was quickly replaced by an arrogance much like that of Yankee fans except much less deserving. It’s possible that more Red Sox hats were purchased and more people became Red Sox “fans” between ’04-’09 than the previous 20 years. It was reprehesible, and painful for Yankee fans to witness. 

Not to worry. Society has corrected itself. There is evidence that inferiority complex is returning. This year, despite all the hype and all the logical reasons to expect the Red Sox to win the division, the only manager in my fantasy league to not pick the Red Sox to win the division was the one die hard Boston fan. His explanation was something like, ”we never win the division. The Yankees always win the damn division.”

Ohhh it’s back, and society is in a better place for it. The Yankees have won 11 AL East titles dating back to the 1996 season. The Red Sox have won one (2007). If the Yankees hang on it’ll be 12 titles in 16 years. Now we watch to see if the Red Sox can manage to waste away their wild card lead too, now that’ll be a story.

Apologies for the excessive bias, but on rare occasion it’s not even worth trying to hold back. I’ll be eating my words if the Sox somehow beat New York in the postseason, after all they did win the season series handily.