For A.J. Burnett, It's All About 'Change'

A.J. Burnett has now started three games for the Yankees this season. He is 3-0 with a 4.67 ERA. Of course you would like to see the ERA dip a little lower, but it is a marked improvement from last season when Burnett finished the year 10-15 with a 5.26 Earned Run Average.

Burnett breezed through six innings last night against the Baltimore Orioles before giving up two home runs and four runs in the seventh. Burnett’s final line was 6.1 innings of work, giving up seven hits and four runs while striking out five and walking two.

We have seen a much improved pitcher this season in A.J. Burnett. What’s the difference? More confidence? Better command? Lively pitchers?

Yes, we have seen all of that. We have also seen Burnett utilize a changeup this season. In the past the right hander always talked about adding the changeup to his collection of pitches but we never saw it used regularly. This season that has changed, no pun intended.

Burnett does not have the common changeup that is approximately ten miles per hour slower than a faster. Burnett’s changeup is only about five to six radar ticks lower thatn his number one pitch. The key to his changeup is it’s downward motion, something the new Yankees catcher Russell Martin recognized early in spring training.

Opponents now need to worry about three pitches when Burnett is on the mound, not just the normal fastball and curveball combination. This ads another dimension to the pitchers game, something Orioles catcher Matt Wieters agrees with.

“He had a really good changeup tonight, which last year he didn’t use that much,” Wieters said. “It’s going to take some adjustments now to get used to him throwing three pitches now instead of the two he used to throw.”

Burnett said after the game that he has also recognized the advantage of using his changeup and has noticed the swings it is getting by the opposition. You can expect Burnett to continue using the new pitch. Martin will make sure of that.

The Yankees need A.J. Burnett to be a consistent pitcher this season. Behind Sabathia, the rotation has been a question mark since the offseason. Phil Hughes is going through a bad start to this season, Ivan Nova has been decent, and Freddy Garcia has not started a game yet due to off days and rain outs. With Burnett pitching well, the rotation will look much more stable.