with the Phillies... http://espn.go.com/mlb/story/_/id/10443905/aj-burnett-agrees-deal-philadelphia-phillies
He got 16 mil 500K from Pittsburgh last season don't know how much of that the Yankees picked up. I was surprised that Baltimore was interested in him, he'd have gotten lit up like a pinball machine in the AL East. Heard today on MLB that Hammels will be getting a late start on the season maybe that had some influence. Sixteen mil though$%$%$*.
Insider Article from Law He points out an interesting fact about the CBA Phillies flounder with A.J. Burnett deal February, 12, 2014 Feb 12 2:30 PM ET By Keith Law | ESPN.com Recommend62 Tweet6 Comments25 Email Print A.J. BurnettJoe Robbins/Getty ImagesA.J. Burnett's transformation into a ground ball pitcher won't be as useful given the defense in Philly. Without context, the signing of A.J. Burnett looks like a coup for the Phillies. They signed one of the top dozen starters in the National League from 2013 to a one-year deal that, at $16 million, doesn't overpay based on his recent standard of production. Burnett is 37 years old and has had injury problems earlier in his career as well as a reputation for an unwillingness to play through pain or discomfort that he has disproved in the past few seasons. He was worth 4 Wins Above Replacement in 2013 (using Fangraphs' version, which normalizes BABIP), 3 the year before, and even at that level would represent good value at $16 million. Context is everything, of course, and the Phillies aren't the right team to hand a 37-year-old pitcher a one-year deal unless it is with the idea of flipping him for long-term assets at some point during the season. The Phillies aren't contenders as constructed; even before Cole Hamels revealed his shoulder bothered him this offseason and he won't be ready for Opening Day, they looked like a sub-.500 team. Adding Burnett might have pushed them to 81 wins but not more. Now he looks more like Hamels' replacement for at least part of the season, and if Hamels' injury is serious and not just temporary soreness, the Phillies would be more likely to end up around 75 wins even with Burnett taking the ball 33 times. Burnett is also an exceptionally poor fit for the Phillies' roster. Since arriving in Pittsburgh and working with Pirates pitching coach Ray Searage, Burnett has become a ground ball machine (remarkably without losing his ability to miss bats) and relied on the Pirates' ability to position defenders well to get more outs. The Phillies have a poor defensive left side of their infield -- Jimmy Rollins has declined to below average, and Cody Asche hasn't shown anything to make me think he'll be an average defender this year -- and they don't use the kind of analytics that Pittsburgh used to become one of the majors' most efficient defenses last year. A healthy Chase Utley is an asset with the glove, but Ryan Howard is a huge liability at first. Burnett is going to find the ground balls he generates have better vision than they did in 2013. [+] EnlargeSuzuki Derick E. Hingle/USA TODAY SportsRyan Howard's won't be a boon for Burnett. If the Phillies signed Burnett to make 20 starts and then become trade bait in July, that's a much better plan, as they could use another high-level prospect or two to bridge the gap until the wave of teenage prospects in their system gets another two years closer to the majors. Burnett, however, was willing to sign with only a limited number of teams this winter -- Pittsburgh, Philly and Baltimore among them -- and I expect we'll hear the Phillies had to give Burnett at least limited no-trade protection to get him to sign a one-year deal. The more restrictive the no-trade clause, the worse it is for the Phillies. Meanwhile, the losers in this are the Pirates, who get the shaft from a collective bargaining agreement that, in theory, was supposed to help lower-revenue teams remain competitive. The Pirates didn't make Burnett a qualifying offer for fear he would accept it and saddle them with a $14 million starter who takes up 15 to 20 percent of their payroll, a rational move with the inevitable outcome we have, where they get squat for losing Burnett to free agency. Tying draft pick compensation to free agency was always stupid -- the original reason was to try to put a drag on free-agent salaries back when deals of seven figures got owners and media all hot and bothered -- but it has completely failed low-revenue teams. If the Pirates can't get a pick for losing Burnett, then the system needs to be scrapped because that's one more bit of evidence that it's not working.
...earlier AJ said he'd "either resign with the Pirates or he'd retire" ...but according to AJ, he now claims that the reason he signed with Philly instead of Pittsburg was because he wanted to be "a close as possible" to his family in Maryland. ... If that were truly the reason, why didn't he sign with Baltimore? ...but yeah, it had nothing to do with not wanting to return to pitch in the AL...not to mention the money. ...just goes to show that if someone tries hard enough, they can justify just about anything they.
Sign with the Nationals if that's the case. That being said I would've looked to stay with a better Pirates club.
^^^yup, the Pirates at least have a chance...the Phils are, well, you know. ...of course, some of the "experts" have the Pirates finishing below .500 this year...probably the same experts that were drooling over the Blue Jays this time last year.
