Yankees trade AJ Burnett to Pirates

[themaskedriger]

http://espn.go.com/new-york/mlb/story/_/id/7585280/aj-burnett-trade-pittsburgh-pirates-new-york-yankees-agree-trade-sources-say

Glad he's finally gone. Probably wouldn't won the 2009 WS without him, but the Yankees have enough pitching this year to need to keep him around.

[XGRaViSmOrSX]

glad he's gone. he really just didn't seem to be able to handle to big expectations of new york fans/media. He'll be better off in Pittsburg even if he won't win anything.

[Danish]

Thank god for many reasons, here's my thoughts on the guy...besides the fact that he is not performing up to his paycheck, he's not even close to it. His ERA last year was in the 5's IIRC and with the Yankees acquiring Pineda and Kiruda they really don't want to deal with the negativity that Burnett brings to the team. Not that he is a bad guy, he loves the pie in the face fun but he just can't seem to get his stuff together and I think it's good the Yankees are cutting ties with him even though they are gonna end up eating part of his contract which is a shame. It really shows how much the Yankees want to move AJ because the prospects they are getting from the Pirates are not even anything special, one a relief pitcher in the minors who people question his maturity and the other is young but is a below average hitter, he plays outfield....so I'm not exactly sure what the Yankees see in these guys. I think they like this guy Diego Moreno's live arm, and hopefully with a good minor league season he could get called up to help the Yanks because relief pitching is always needed.

[Danish]

Surprises me that Burnett turned down a trade to Anaheim, they just signed Pujols and CJ Wilson and have some amazing pitching as well, that coulda been a great place to AJ to not be under so much pressure with all the other big names on the squad, but he nixed it and now he'll get to play for the shitty Pirates, lol.

[themaskedriger]

Yeah that surprised me too. I think for some reason he's really against living on the west coast. The prospects the Yanks are getting agreed aren't good and will never probably make it to Yankee stadium, but I think the win for Cashman is getting the Pirates to eat $13 million on AJ's contract.

[Double R]

LOL Pirates

Fuck them.

[inebrieated assistan]

His wife hates to fly so the west coast was out of the question.

[itdiestoday]

I always thought AJ would do well in NY. Its surprising that he flopped, especially being that he played in the same division prior to coming on to the Yankees. Im sure he will return to some what of his old form playing in the NL central.

On another note, Pineda and Kuroda is a great addition to the NYY staff. They are going to be great contributors.

[Stealth]

He was a horrible pitcher, my friends used to call him AJ Walker: Yankee Pitcher

[Danish]

Cashman on Francessa the other day was saying that they are not sure who their number 2 is going to be, but he likes Pineda at no. 3 because he feels that he needs to develop a third pitch, he's mostly a fastball slider guy right now. I think Kuroda will be no. 4, so that leaves 2 to either Hughes or Nova, I would guess it would go to Nova based on his year last year, but Hughes could have a good spring training and win it. I think more than likely it will be CC, Nova, Pineda, Kuroda, Hughes as the starting 5 with Freddy Garcia as the #6 guy or long relief.

[Project Monkey]

If Pineda develops his changeup, he'll be pretty phenomenal.

But as for the Burnett trade, I imagine he'll do well outside of NY. I think it was just too much pressure for him. His FIP was terrible. He just sucked.

[Project Monkey]

I think Pineda easily beats Nova, btw. I'm looking at Pineda as the #2.