Good riddance, A.J. Burnett.

 

Go reach your untapped potential elsewhere.

 

You talked very big when the season stopped mattering and came up very small when the Marlins needed you most. You wanted so badly to be what Josh Beckett was in 2003 -- not only a part of the winning but the reason for it -- and instead all you did was spit up all over the front of your uniform shirt.

 

And now the Marlins would rather you just go away than have your lightning-bolt arm inside their uniform for even one more pitch.

 

Things are bad enough around this short-circuited team without your special brand of poison, thanks.

 

The one positive here: At least Burnett can't lose another important game for this franchise.

 

In an angry and frustrated outburst Sunday, Burnett whined about players not getting enough positive reinforcement from coaches and his manager. So maybe now he can use all his pending free-agent millions to buy a pacifier. Jack McKeon is running a major-league baseball team, not a baby-sitting service. Funny, there was plenty of positive around this team this season whenever Dontrelle Willis was done pitching.

 

WILLIS EARNED RIGHT

 

Willis has earned the right to criticize the culture in his clubhouse. So has Beckett. But you can't complain about the smell in the building when you are the one helping produce the stink.

 

At the season's most critical time, while the Marlins were chasing Roger Clemens, Burnett went five weeks without winning. In five of his games, the other team ended up with 12 runs. And he accuses others of playing and coaching scared? You might be scared, too, if you had to score 13 runs to win.

 

Is McKeon too gruff? Absolutely. There are plenty of Marlins in that clubhouse who find him annoying and cold. But McKeon, unlike Burnett, won a World Series trophy with this team two years ago. It's a pretty persuasive argument-ender. McKeon's indelicate way worked two years ago, when there wasn't a Burnett around to lose important game after important game.

 

Burnett can be both right and wrong on this. Right, as in accurate. Wrong, as in unprofessional and immature. He deserves to be sent away for what precious little remains of his Marlins career. He has talked about longing to play elsewhere all season, and he pitched like he had already checked out at the end.

 

NOT CHEAP

 

One inning from a $50,000 bonus? The Marlins weren't being cheap by sending him away. They were being punitive. And that is their right as an employer of a misbehaving brat. You know a lot of workplaces where it is OK to rip your bosses in the newspapers? Sports happens to be one of them, but your production had better outweigh your petulance.

 

The Marlins are spent, frayed, broken. But don't accuse them of quitting. They had plenty of desire, just not enough health. And McKeon being nicer or bunting less or making brilliant strategic moves wasn't going to change the fact they had too few people on the field with functioning limbs, although Burnett certainly could have helped matters by not having an ERA over 7.00 with his healthy 100-mph arm.

 

Burnett is exasperating. He might very well become elite next season, for another team, because you can't name five big-league starters with better stuff than his.

 

It's just too bad that, at the end, Burnett's arm didn't come up as big as his mouth.

 

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/sport...rd/12750072.htm

This is worth of a

 

*stands*

 

*slowly claps*

That was a great article.

 

But I still hate Le Batard.

It's just too bad that, at the end, Burnett's arm didn't come up as big as his mouth.

 

:lol

nice article. i still hate lebastard but i gotta agree with his writing

Great article.

I loved it and wrote him to say so.

 

Those of you who listen to him on 790, as was said about Jim Rome's comments yesterday, could just hear him as you read it.

 

It pretty much says it all. Well done :thumbup

Awesome read. You tell'em, Dan. :thumbup

Awesome :thumbup

 

Gotta agree with him

Very well put.

 

Loved it.

Awesome article! :notworthy

I think the Marlins not only had the right to not let him get that extra inning, but they should've thrown him out there for 2/3 of an inning in his next start and then yanked him.

I think the Marlins not only had the right to not let him get that extra inning, but they should've thrown him out there for 2/3 of an inning in his next start and then yanked him.

 

yea, that would have been super!

:plain

I've always found Le Batard to be an excellent writer, but this is one of the few times I think I see what he's saying and actually agree mostly with it (even if the article itself is a tad conflicted).

This is worth of a

 

*stands*

 

*slowly claps*

 

 

*claps faster*

 

*others join in clapping*

 

*cheering erupts*

 

/End teen movie

Keep in mind this part of it though:

 

Burnett can be both right and wrong on this. Right, as in accurate. Wrong, as in unprofessional and immature.

 

You can agree with his comments, and some in the dugout very well may have. Bottom line though, the season is over, Jack was most likely on the way out, and AJ had by most accounts already had his bags packed. He chose to crap on the coaching staff on his way out, and based on that, management chose to hasten his exit. Even if you support AJ's comments, I don't think you can have any beef with what the Marlins did.

 

AJ also had opportunity to diffuse the situation later, after everything had calmed down, and chose not to.

I think the Marlins not only had the right to not let him get that extra inning, but they should've thrown him out there for 2/3 of an inning in his next start and then yanked him.

 

yea, that would have been super!

:plain

 

 

 

well he would have gotten his grand goodbye then.....