MLB Lightning Strikes 8.4.2011

The trading deadline was not the finish line.

Soxfinger is about to press the button.

Amid all the threats from White Sox GM Kenny Williams (AKA the James Bond villain known as Soxfinger) that he was going to blow up his roster for underperformance, there wasn’t much of a chance of him doing it while the team was at or near .500 and within 3 or so games of first place.

Now, after the trading deadline, the White Sox have lost every game they’ve played and looked awful doing it.

Their veterans are putting out the aura that they’ve relaxed with the passing of that arbitrary date of July 31st.

In case they hadn’t noticed, most of them have contracts which will allow them to get through waivers. The others who’ll be claimed—Mark Buehrle, Carlos Quentin, Matt Thornton—had probably better prepare themselves to be moved.

Soxfinger might even do something drastic with Gordon Beckham.

They’re 6 1/2 games out of first now and have lost 5 straight.

Williams is going to blow it up. Soon.

—

Red Sox evaluation validation.

With the news that the Red Sox made an aggressive and substantial offer for Ubaldo Jimenez, his value was validated.

Whether that’s accurate or not remains to be seen and judged. The Red Sox have made mistakes in their evaluations, especially with pitchers. But the Red Sox have such industry-wide respect for intelligent analysis that the perception will mute the worries about his performance over the past calendar year. It was so with Jose Bautista when the Red Sox tried to pry him from the Blue Jays and it’s the same with Jimenez now.

—

THIS IS WHAT YOU BOUGHT!!!

Perhaps if I alter my familiar rant regarding A.J. Burnett—“THIS IS WHAT YOU BOUGHT!!!”—and added statistics to prove the point of “THIS IS WHAT YOU BOUGHT!!!” people will start to get it through their thick skulls that THIS IS WHAT YOU BOUGHT!!!.

Here are Burnett’s career numbers and averages.

Year	W	L	W-L%	ERA	G	GS	IP	H	R	ER	HR	BB	IBB	SO	HBP	BK	WP	ERA+
1995	2	3	.400	4.28	9	8	33.2	27	16	16	2	23	0	26	2	4	7
1996	4	0	1.000	3.88	12	12	58.0	31	26	25	0	54	0	68	7	3	16
1997	3	2	.600	4.39	12	11	55.1	36	34	27	3	43	0	63	8	0	12
1998	10	4	.714	1.97	20	20	119.0	74	27	26	3	45	0	186	8	2	6
1999	6	12	.333	5.52	26	23	120.2	132	91	74	15	71	0	121	5	2	16
1999	4	2	.667	3.48	7	7	41.1	37	23	16	3	25	2	33	0	0	0	126
2000	0	0		2.19	3	3	12.1	4	3	3	0	9	0	12	0	2	2
2000	3	7	.300	4.79	13	13	82.2	80	46	44	8	44	3	57	2	0	2	92
2001	0	0		1.93	2	2	9.1	4	2	2	0	4	0	10	0	0	0
2001	11	12	.478	4.05	27	27	173.1	145	82	78	20	83	3	128	7	1	7	105
2002	12	9	.571	3.30	31	29	204.1	153	84	75	12	90	5	203	9	0	14	122
2003	0	2	.000	4.70	4	4	23.0	18	13	12	2	18	2	21	2	0	2	91
2004	0	0		4.91	2	2	7.1	9	5	4	1	4	0	10	1	0	3
2004	7	6	.538	3.68	20	19	120.0	102	50	49	9	38	0	113	4	0	7	112
2005	12	12	.500	3.44	32	32	209.0	184	97	80	12	79	1	198	7	0	12	116
2006	2	0	1.000	1.89	4	4	19.0	11	5	4	1	6	0	22	2	0	1
2006	10	8	.556	3.98	21	21	135.2	138	67	60	14	39	3	118	8	1	6	115
2007	0	0		1.80	1	1	5.0	3	1	1	0	1	0	7	0	0	0
2007	10	8	.556	3.75	25	25	165.2	131	74	69	23	66	2	176	12	0	5	119
2008	18	10	.643	4.07	35	34	221.1	211	109	100	19	86	2	231	9	2	11	104
2009	13	9	.591	4.04	33	33	207.0	193	99	93	25	97	0	195	10	1	17	114
2010	10	15	.400	5.26	33	33	186.2	204	118	109	25	78	2	145	19	0	16	82
2011	8	9	.471	4.54	23	23	142.2	129	78	72	21	63	1	123	7	0	14	93
13 Seasons	118	109	.520	4.03	304	300	1912.2	1725	940	857	193	806	26	1741	96	5	113	106
162 Game Avg.	13	12	.520	4.03	34	34	215	194	106	96	22	91	3	196	11	1	13	106
FLA (7 yrs)	49	50	.495	3.73	134	131	853.2	719	395	354	66	377	16	753	31	1	44	111
NYY (3 yrs)	31	33	.484	4.60	89	89	536.1	526	295	274	71	238	3	463	36	1	47	96
TOR (3 yrs)	38	26	.594	3.94	81	80	522.2	480	250	229	56	191	7	525	29	3	22	112
NL (7 yrs)	49	50	.495	3.73	134	131	853.2	719	395	354	66	377	16	753	31	1	44	111
AL (6 yrs)	69	59	.539	4.27	170	169	1059.0	1006	545	503	127	429	10	988	65	4	69	103

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table
Generated 8/4/2011.

He’s consistently inconsistent. That makes him consistent.

He might pitch as he did last night again in his next start.

Or he might pitch a no-hitter.

That is A.J. Burnett.

THIS IS WHAT YOU BOUGHT!!!

Accept it and stop complaining.

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