The New Pittsburgh Pirate

A.J. Burnett/AP Images

After three years in the Bronx, A.J. Burnett moves to the Pirates, where he will likely thrive on national league hitters and a struggling team’s playoff hopes.


By Andrew Muckell


New York Yankee fans, now is the time to loosen your shoulders and take a deep breath. P A.J. Burnett, the notoriously under-performing right-hander, was traded to the Pittsburgh Pirates on Sunday February 19th for two young prospects. Yankee fans in the Big Apple are celebrating the move indignantly, but Pittsburgh cannot complain.

Last year, the Pittsburgh rotation consisted of Jeff Karstens, Paul Maholm, Charlie Morton, James McDonald, and Kevin Correia. Combined, these starters won 46 games and lost 53, with a combined ERA of 3.94. ERA-wise, the starting pitchers on the Pirates performed pretty well, and the horrible win-loss ratio is more the fault of the team’s poor hitting. For example, Karstens, who led the rotation with a 3.38 ERA, had a record of 9-9, while Correia, sporting a 4.79 ERA, was 12-11. The statistics show that although Karstens played better consistently, Correia received plenty of offensive help from the Pirate position players.

So what does this all mean for Burnett?

Burnett is one of the better talents in the game. His mid-nineties fastball coupled with a wicked curveball and arguably the best changeup in the game, make him one of the most envied strikeout starters today. His performance in game two of the 2009 World Series dazzled the Philadelphia Phillies and showed the rest of the league his capabilities on the Big Stage.

These are the very reasons why he ticks off Yankee fans. None of these promising descriptions seem to fit mid-season A.J. He is a performer in April and occasionally in October, but from May to late September he becomes an enigma. His 34-35 record and 4.79 ERA in his three years in Pinstripes disappoint, despite playing in the competitive American League East.

The Pirates hope to fix A.J. Maybe taking the tattooed 35-year old out of the New York spotlight will do him well. With the Pirates, A.J. will essentially be facing less menacing eight-player National League lineups, and any contribution he makes will be praised, not expected. Due to the trade of Maholm to the Chicago Cubs, Burnett slides perfectly into an already solid rotation, probably as the Opening Day starter.

The secret to A.J.’s success depends on his comfort level in Pittsburgh. If Burnett feels comfortable and relaxed, the Bucs can expect a mid-three ERA from him. If Burnett holds up his end, all the team has to do then is score.

...We All Fall Down

Jeff Karsten winding up for a pitch/AP Images

They had a winning record and were leading the division in late July, but then the wheels came off. Where did the Pirates go wrong?

By Thomas Rende

This past season we saw a resurgence from a team that started to make strides toward resembling a respectable franchise. The thought of seeing their first winning team since 1992 almost made fans care again (they ranked 15th in the league in attendance). They had a winning record and were leading the division in late July, but then the wheels came off. After gaining the divisional lead they finished the season at a clip of 22-44 and relived another losing season, their 19th in a row. My question is, how did they fall off the face of the baseball earth?

We'll start with the pitching. The Pirates don't present a pitching rotation that makes an opposing team shake in their boots but they were relatively effective last year. They did a good job of keeping the opposing team off base. Paul Maholm and Jeff Karstens were particularly well in this respect as they both posted a WHIP that was under 1.30. The pitching as a whole suffered a drop off when their losing streak began. There WHIP rose to over 1.5 which revealed control issues on the staff and an ERA that got up to 4.78. We'll give them the benefit of the doubt as none of their starting pitchers are over the age of 30, which indicates a lack of experience to major innings at the big league level. Their bullpen is pretty well set but with the the loss of Kevin Correia they might have to pull the trigger on this A.J. Burnett deal to strengthen a mediocre, soft tossing staff.  

At least the offense has the one marquee name that fans can recognize in their program books. Andrew McCutchen is a star in this league but didn't help his fellow comrades in the second half of last season. His OBP went down sixty points to a mediocre .330 and his slugging percentage dropped by over 100 points. These numbers showed a fall off for McCutchen but many speculate he was trying to over compensate for his teammates' horrible play. There wasn't a stark difference in the offensive from the first half of the year to the second for the rest of the offense. The consistency was bad because they didn't play that well in the first half. They ranked 27th in the majors in offense thanks to a feeble 107 home runs and a .307 OBP. They also failed to register more than 2 players with a Wins Above Replacement level above 2. This shows an offense that couldn't contribute anything more than a couple wins to the team. What does the offense need to do? Well, getting better play from Neil Walker and Pedro Alvarez would be a huge plus. These are two extremely talented youngsters that could really bolster a lineup that is lacking depth. They made an under the radar move in acquiring Casey McGehee, who is looking to regain his 2010 form where he hit for 23 home runs and over 100 RBI's. Reacquiring Nate McLouth is a blast from the past, but he hasn't performed well since his last half of a season with the Pirates.

The team has some issues but with additional depth in the pitching rotation and a more consistent offensive effort, this team may flirt with a positive record for once.