Aside from A.J. Burnett *still* keeping his record of never having a Yankee victory in August, he also debuted a new super-blond hairdo last night. When I saw A.J. in the postgame, I thought he looked like Chord Overstreet from "Glee," aka "Trouty Mouth, as Santana on the show calls him. But a longtime reader pointed out that A.J. looked more like Gomer Pyle in this pic. Shazam!
Anyhow, every time Burnett has a bad outing, which is all too often lately, Twitter and Facebook and Yankees message boards blow up with outraged fans demanding that he be released, traded, or sent to the minors. But guess what? None of that is going to happen. There is still $36+ million left on Burnett's contract. Short of picking up 90 percent of the salary, the Yankees are not going to be able to find anybody to trade Burnett to. And MLB rules prevent him from being sent to the minors.
And forget about releasing him outright. If the Yanks wouldn't release Kevin Brown after he punched a wall, and wouldn't release Carl Pavano after all his issue, what are the chances they are going to release Burnett? Two chances: slim and none.
The other thing fans blew up over last night was Mariano Rivera giving up a two-run homer to Bobby Abreu to give the Angels the victory. People were very upset, and worrying if the end is near. I'm not. At least not just yet. It seems that every time Rivera has a bad game, it's more like multiple bad outings in a row, not just one. They come in bunches. If the two or three awful games becomes five or six, then I will worry. But not just yet.
One other note -- I laughed over the guy in the very cool "Low-Wage Puppet" t-shirt trying to hand money to Torii Hunter to get his eyeglasses back (his glasses had knocked over into the outfield!) Hunter gave him the glasses back, but didn't take the money. Fun moment!
I grew up and played baseball with chord and I'll tell you this much, he's a way better pitcher than A.J.
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