Between Phil Hughes’ dominance and Javy Vazquez’s suckiness and Andy Pettitte’s awesome April and CC Sabathia just being the man, it seems like A.J. Burnett has been the forgotten man in the rotation. Hard to imagine when there’s only six pitchers in the game making more money than him, but that’s what’s going on.
Burnett has been pretty damn good in his first five starts, posting a 2.43 ERA, 3.37 FIP, and 4.33 xFIP in 33.1 innings. His strikeout rate is way down at 5.40 K/9, but so is his walk rate at 2.43 BB/9. Burnett’s ground ball rate is back up to 48.5%, his pre-2009 levels. The strikeouts (and sadly, the walks too) will regress back to the mean and he’ll finish with close to one an inning as he always does, but right now A.J. seems to be flying under the radar.
Here’s the lineup, which will face Brian Matusz and thins about pretty quickly after the five-spot…
Jeter, DH
Swisher, RF
Teixeira, 1B
A-Rod, 3B
Cano, 2B
Thames, LF
Gardner, CF
Cervelli, C
Pena, SS
And on the mound, Allen James Burnett.
Despite some afternoon drizzle, the weather looks fine for tonight. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05pm ET, and will be broadcast on YES. Enjoy the game.
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