Pirates Bears and Burnett

I'm finally heading up to my first Pirate game of the year this evening. I start getting antsy this time of year when I've yet to make it to one. Unless I go to Opening Day I tend to skip April as the weather is unpredictable, but normally don't wait this long into May to hit my first. My goal every year is to hit 10, so I'll have to pick up the pace this summer. 

Tonight the Pirates play the Twins so I'm happy to see a team that doesn't make its way to Pittsburgh all that much. While interleague has lost most of its luster, it does break up the monotony of the unbalanced schedule. Plus the Twins have been playing well so it should make for a fun game. 

The second set of good news is that I was able to buy some tickets for opening day of the Pirates new short season affiliate the West Virginia Black Bears. Here are the uniforms that were just announced. I'm very excited for this since the stadium is so close to my house. The towns response to the new stadium has been fantastic so I think the Black Bears will be a hot ticket. Opening Day is June 19th.

The hat on the left is pretty cool. 

Now for a card.....

2015 Gypsy Queen AJ Burnett Black Mini /5

I've been wanting to add some Burnett cards to my collection. He doesn't have any Pirate autos so parallels were the next best option. Burnett's prices on eBay are very team dependent. Anything high end featuring him as a Yankee, Blue Jay or Marlin are super cheap. When you put a Pirate uniform on the card it sends the price up. I paid $10 for this card. Not a great deal, but not expensive enough to cause any buyers remorse. 

Burnett found out firsthand the value of shifting when he left Pittsburgh to sign a 1 year deal for 15mil and a mutual option for year 2. Burnett's ERA skyrocketed while his peripheral stats stayed close to his Pittsburgh numbers. After the season Burnett denied his player option of 12.5 million and signed with the Pirates for just over 8.5 million. It was an interesting story as he told his agent to negotiate only with the Pirates. When it was all said and done Burnett gave up 4 million to play his final season with the team that helped revitalize his career. He has been terrific so far this year as you can make the case that it was the best free agent money spent thus far in all of baseball. 

Right now his ERA is 1.38. While he won't be able to sustain that his FIP is just a shade over 3. Pirate pitchers generally beat their peripheral numbers because of the shifting so he has a legitimate shot to have one of his better seasons. Either way the Pirates are getting excellent value from Burnett. 

Thanks for reading!

A.J. Burnett

(Via my good pal Micah White who is also a diehard Pirates fan.)

Last March, A.J. Burnett said, "If I was to keep playing, I wouldn't want it to be anywhere else but Pittsburgh."  10 months later, that may no longer be the case.  It appears that Burnett will continue to keep playing in 2014, but if it is in Pittsburgh, it will likely be because the Pirates offered him the best deal.  And, as any long time fan of this club will tell you, the chances of the Pirates paying market value or above for any free agent are pretty slim.  If Burnett does land elsewhere in 2014, there are sure to be hard feelings among many Buccos fans, and in some ways, it will look as if he did go back on his word about only wanting to be in Pittsburgh.  However, the Pirates didn't exactly show a great desire to keep A.J. in the 'Burgh when they declined to make a 14.1 million dollar qualifying offer which could have made Burnett's decision easier.

So, did the Pirates make a mistake by not making that qualifying offer?  Last year, Burnett's 209 strikeouts led all free agent starters, and placed him first in K/9 rate.  For the more sabermetrically inclined, his 2.80 FIP and 2.92 xFIP were also tops.  While his 4.0 WAR trailed only James Shields and Jon Lester.  Not to mention that Burnett led the Pirates in all these stats as well as innings pitched.  Shields' and Lester's club options were both picked up for 12 and 13 million respectively, and both are considerably younger than Burnett.  But, we have also seen Hiroki Kuroda, who is one year older, sign a one year 16 million dollar deal with the Yankees.  Given his age and comparable, if slightly less impressive, stat line last season, Kuroda might be the best comparison to A.J. this off season.  And while it's impossible to guess what he will ultimately receive, I think it's safe to say that 14.1 million is easily within the range of market value for other comparable free agent starters.

http://www.fangraphs.com/leaders.aspx?pos=all&stats=sta&lg=all&qual=0&type=8&season=2013&month=0&season1=2013&ind=0&team=0&rost=0&age=0&filter=&players=0&sort=19,d

I'm not usually a fan of printing plates, but A.J. does not have any Pirate related relics or autos on the market.  This printing plate is from Topps Heritage and cost less than $10 on EBAY.