Yep. We can celebrate the future that is Freddy Garcia and Michael PinHEADa instead of AJ. He was traded because of the overwhelming surplus of pitching that threatened our well-being last March, and which almost lasted to Opening Day.
But... we all know the lines: He couldn't pitch in the AL East. He couldn't pitch in New York. He couldn't pitch for Girardi. He couldn't pitch for Rothschild. He didn't get along with Tex. He needed a change. He didn't have a fastball. He didn't have command. He wasn't worth the money. You're glad he's gone. YOU-ESS-AY... YOU-ESS-AY... YOU-ESS-AY.
Cashman's biggest blunder. Ever.
Makes the Tyler Clippard deal look like the signing of Lenn Sakata.
At the worst, we could have held onto AJ and, after he showed some zip in spring training, dealt him for honest value. Compared to the Burnett deal, the Redsocks got a steal from the Dodgers, when they dealt the last month of Becket, AGone and Crawford for some actual live arms. At least they got something. We got nothing. We just gave the guy away. Sixteen wins. Ace of their staff. He's got 172 strikeouts - only 14 below Grandyman. Unbelievable.
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Who knew? AJ sure did suck last year and the year before that. Nonetheless, Cashman is s'posed to be a smart guy. Seems to me that he should have some s'plaining to do, but other than this web site, nobody calls him on it. (OK, I admit I stopped reading the fan boys at RAB -- way too practical and parsimonious with the Steinbrenner fortune, but still, I haven't heard a word about it.) I mean, is there no accountability for guessing wrong, repeatedly?
I've been with duque on this from day one. You never have too many decent [or better] starting pitchers because some of them always get hurt or turn into the real Ivan Nova.
AJ is like the lottery...hey, ya never know. Could we have got more for him? I suppose so, that seems obvious.
Would he have been better than Freddy? Probably, but this is not exactly a slam dunk, given the past couple years.
Is he pitching for a sub-.500 team, in a podunk media market, where the fans (both of them) don't expect much of anything from anyone in a Pirates uniform? Yes.
And what did he do in New York? Not what he did this year.
So, look, you can carp all you want about tossing him to the Appalachians (although he does look kind of like one of those guys in 'Deliverance'), but touting 16 wins and all those strikeouts (against powerful division foes like Houston, Chicago, Milwaukee) as if he would have done the EXACT SAME THING in the Bronx is what the egghead types call a logical fallacy.
The thing about AJ is, his entire career has been built on his 'great stuff' even in the face of the fact that he's basically a .500 pitcher. Mechanics, head case, whatever it is, one good year in Nowheresville is pretty meaningless.
That's why nobody ever wrote a song about Pittsburgh that said, 'if you can make it there, you can make it anywhere'.
If you can make it in Pittsburgh, you can make it in Kansas City.
I feel like a folk-singer in the last stanza of "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" It's the chorus that goes...
"When will they ever learn? When... will... they... ehhhhhhhh-ver learn?"
People. Duque won't stop AJ-trolling as long as we keep paying attention. I am urging you to please ignore him.
If he stayed with us he'd be 3-10 with an ERA of 5.95.
- B3
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