Burnett, Halladay & Who?
Here’s a fun list via Baseball-Reference.com’s Play Index Pitching Season Finder. It’s SP, who were age 31 in 2008 and (naturally) 32 in 2009, who had 30+ GS, 200+ IP, and and ERA+ >=100 in both seasons:
Rk Yrs To From Age 1 A.J. Burnett 2 2008 2009 31-32 2 Ryan Dempster 2 2008 2009 31-32 3 Roy Halladay 2 2008 2009 31-32
Actually, if you look at ERA+ for each of these seasons, A.J. Burnett has been the least effective of these three pitchers.
Rk Player ERA+ GS IP Year Age Tm 1 Roy Halladay 155 32 239.0 2009 32 TOR 2 Ryan Dempster 155 33 206.2 2008 31 CHC 3 Roy Halladay 152 33 246.0 2008 31 TOR 4 Ryan Dempster 123 31 200.0 2009 32 CHC 5 A.J. Burnett 106 33 207.0 2009 32 NYY 6 A.J. Burnett 104 34 221.1 2008 31 TOR
When the Yankees signed Burnett, many in Yankeeland felt like this would be the second coming of Carl Pavano – given A.J.’s habit of landing on the disabled list in years passed. But, in 2009, he managed to avoid missing any starts. Will he do the same in 2010? If I had to guess, I would hope that he’ll be good for at least 27 starts next season – probably more. And, he’ll probably not be as good as Ryan Dempster or Roy Halladay. But, hey, Brian Cashman is only paying him $16,500,000 a season (which, by the way, is the 6th highest salary, to date, for any starting pitcher in the majors). So, what do you want from him? 
Game 2 of the World Series; biggest win of the whole post-season. The only game the Yankees played behind in the series the whole post-season.
Kept the Yankees from going to Philiadelphia down 2-0, which would have meant losing the World Series, in all likelihood.
The team didn’t hit, that game, either. He pitched without the lead until his last inning. It was a tight pitcher’s duel, a high-pressure situation and a high-pressure game.
But hey, if you can use A.J. Burnett to attack Cashman, go ahead and do it; never mind they don’t win anything this year without him, and there was nobody better on the market.
Oh; and nobody serious thought he’d be a 2nd Pavano.
His durability was questioned for that money and that length of contract, but he had started no fewer than 19 games in every season since 2004; Pavano didn’t have one season in his four years with the Yanks where he started more than 17, and in three of the four seasons he started 7 games or less.
In 2005 and 2008, Burnett started more games than Pavano did over his entire time with the Yankees.
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He won’t be as good as Halladay? Hmmm….he won’t be as good as the pitcher with the best track record as an ace in the league. There’s a shocking conclusion.
Oooooooooooooooooh Steve… shame on you! Burnett bashing are we? Such a simple target. And on the Thanksgiving Halliday too!
Nobody thought the Burnett contract was a great one.
Everyone feared injury.
Everyone thought 5 years was too long.
But….
We may have gotten the 2nd best SP on the market at the time. (And we also got the first.) Burnett may have been a necessary evil. 20% done, and so far it’s been OK. I’ll take it again next year with a bit of improvement. Keep the innings. Less walks please. Up the ERA+ to 110+.
He’s a good #3 at #2 money.
OldYanksFan wrote:
Of course, the problem is, right now, on the Yankees, he’s being asked to be a #2 and he’s paid like a #1 for just about every other team in the bigs.
What do I want from him? Another world championship, just as I want from everyone else on the team. No more and no less.
For frame of reference;
Santana, Johan $ 18,876,139, New York Mets
Zambrano, Carlos $ 18,750,000, Chicago Cubs
Zito, Barry $ 18,500,000, San Francisco Giants
Burnett, A.J. $ 16,500,000, New York Yankees
Hudson, Tim $ 15,500,000, Atlanta Braves
Sabathia, CC $ 15,285,714, New York Yankees
Schmidt, Jason $ 15,217,401, Los Angeles Dodgers
Lowe, Derek $ 15,000,000, Atlanta Braves
@ Raf:
Imagine if we had Lowe for that price? Steve would have a field day.
Raf wrote:
Also, CC is on top of that list. I count huge bonus’ as part of their yearly pay, and that brought him to 23 IIRC.
2006 Toronto Blue Jays $2,200,000
2007 Toronto Blue Jays $13,200,000
2008 Toronto Blue Jays $13,200,000
2009 New York Yankees $16,500,000