After what seemed like a year's worth of speculation, the Pirates recently completed a trade that brought A.J. Burnett to Pittsburgh. Despite coming off a couple of disappointing seasons in New York, Burnett still possesses outstanding stuff and some of the advanced stats suggested that he had really just been the victim of some bad luck. Pirates fans were hoping that a change of scenery would help Burnett return to form and he would be a workhorse for the Bucs. Earlier today, Burnett managed to bunt a ball into his own face. What the #%$@?!?!? Although the original reports said that Burnett was fine, we are now learning that he will fly back to Pittsburgh to be examined further. Obviously, I'm hoping that this is nothing more than a bump in the road and that Burnett will be fine. I guess the silver lining is that he didn't hurt his arm or shoulder so as long as he didn't shatter his orbital bone a la James Harrison, it shouldn't really affect his ability to pitch a bunch of innings for the black and gold this year. It also helps that it happened a month before the games start to count. Still, it made me think about just how snakebitten this franchise has really been.
