No, No, No! Leave Burnett Alone!

The Daily News is reporting that the Phillies have interest in Toronto Blue Jays pitcher A.J. Burnett. Can someone please tell the front office that A.J. Burnett is not only an injury concern, but he's an outright shitty pitcher concern. He has control issues! We have two other pitchers in Brett Myers and Adam Eaton with control issues!

A.J. Burnett has never made 34 starts in his career. Also, he makes $12 million a year in 2009 and 2010 with a limited NTC that blocks trades to 15 teams. Oh, he can opt after this season too. Currently, his WHIP this year is a whopping 1.51! To give you a comparison, Adam Eaton and Brett Myers have a WHIP of 1.56. Yes, Burnett has been that bad.

This year, Burnett is giving up more line drives and fly balls than he has ever giving up in his career at 22% and 53% respectively. However, 15% of the flyballs he has allowed have been infield flies. Also, he has allowed less than 1 home run a a game.

One may argue that his defense in Toronto has not been that great. The Blue Jays have fielded only 67% of the balls hit in play and that is lower than normal. Also, his FIP of 3.62 would suggest that his ERA of would drop with better fielders behind him.

FIP is:

Fielding Independent Pitching, a measure of all those things for which a pitcher is specifically responsible. The formula is (HR*13+(BB+HBP-IBB)*3-K*2)/IP, plus a league-specific factor (usually around 3.2) to round out the number to an equivalent ERA number. FIP helps you understand how well a pitcher pitched, regardless of how well his fielders fielded. [Hardball Times]

So, would a move for Burnett be worth it? With his injury and contract concerns it is hard to say it would. The Blue Jays are interested in players like shortstop Jason Donald, catcher Lou Marson, and outfielder Greg Golson. Personally, I feel that if any of these trades involve Lou Marson, the Phillies have to say no. They have to begin to try and develop a future catcher because Coste is old and Ruiz is horrible offensively. Golson may become expendable if the Phillies decide to extend Pat Burrell, but we'll see. As of right now there are too many "ifs" surrounding A.J. Burnett and it is hard for me to see that any of them would be worth it. A.J. Burnett alone will not make this team a National League pennant contender.