June 30, 2023 • 22 mins
After three years of a starting pitcher bromance in bloom, AJ Burnett left our beloved Toronto Blue Jays to sign with the Yankees. In 2009, he returned to Skydome in a head to head matchup against who else? Roy Halladay. This month on Sportsfeld Storytime we look back at the "Playoff Atmosphere" in the dome several years before the actual playoffs would return to Toronto. In episode one, we remember the AJ Burnett era, three years where the Jays were quietly pretty good, and try our best to put some respect on the name of Vernon Wells.
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Sick of hearing all the ads? Subscribe to Soda Premium on Apple Podcasts to get rid of them!
Come join the Patreon family for bonus episodes, mailbags, discord access and even more goodness: https://www.patreon.com/sportsfeld
Follow @Sportsfeld on Twitter! While you're there say hello to @theZubes and @JGoldsbie or reach out to the show and say hey: podcast@sportsfeld.ca
If merch is your thing, be sure to check out the store: http://bit.ly/merchfeld
If you enjoyed today’s show, please rate Sportsfeld 5-Stars on Apple Podcasts.
And as always, thank you for listening to another episode of Sportsfeld.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
For the Toronto Blue Jays A J. Burnett man. He has really been
pitching well for Toronto. He's wonthe seven of his last eight decisions.
He is seventeen and ten in theseason, and he leads the American League
in strikeouts for two hundred and eightthirteen strikes out. Ashbeck and his former
teammate at the Florida Marlins, Rollgoes around, strikes out, swinging a
(00:22):
miss. Lowry strikes out three ksfor Burnett. Back to Burnett to first.
Then he's out of it again.Strike three call veritex gone. Burnett
knocks it down. There's time torecover and does so. Strike three call
(00:49):
fifth strikeout for a J. Burnett. Well, here it is the matchup
that we've been waiting for. Thedoctor, doctor Halliday doing his thing.
I said, possibly playoff type atmosphere, and you've got it tonight. There's
a basic down the line. Snyderover to get it quickly as Damon turns
for second. Here's the throw inand David is out. Joe Girardi up
(01:21):
quickly too. Well. Damon whathe does, what he does best is
put the ball on the ground hardin play. Nice play by Snyder to
pick the ball. Turn around,Let's see if he's in there though.
Thirty two year old A. J. Burnett, where's enemy Colors? Tonight?
He is two and o on theyear A five point two six era
(01:44):
raving a miss. Kevin Cash goesdown swinging in his first game as a
Yankee. Two strike pitch and aswing and a miss. Snyder goes quickly,
oh, two pitch stake three calledsay good night, mister TISCHERA boy
Helliday has just mowing him down.Now I believe and try to put him
away. There's the breaking ball,and that's a base hit down to the
(02:07):
line. Rios is in the score. Here comes wells hoped. The second
goes rolling and it's too nothing forthe Blue Jays. A good piece of
(02:32):
hitting by Scott Rowland found off thefastball and got the breaking ball able to
place it down the line, hitit hard enough to get it past a
rod. Couple runs. In sportsit is Sportsfeld storytime. We were looking
(03:10):
back at the there are some ofthe best and worst moments of our fandom
as Toronto sports fans, and wepicked I'll tell you, Jake, I'm
actually pretty proud of myself for thisone. We hit all the headlines.
Right. We did every least momentwe can possibly remember. I think we're
almost I wout of least moments.We've done, the Kauhi shot, we've
been, the ninety two ninety threeWorld Series. We've done, We've done.
(03:35):
We didn't do ninety two, wedid ninety three. Though we've done
a lot of different things. Thismonth, we're a little bit outside of
the box. I would say,I'll say this. When you suggested this,
he was like, Man, that'sa great idea. I was.
I was into this immediately, Thankyou very much. This month, we
were looking back to the twenty to nine, twenty nine. The tooth
(04:00):
was nine Toronto Blue Jays versus NewYork Yankees. It's Roy Howaday versus A.
J. Burnett. I will tellyou not only was I at this
game, but before twenty fifteen,Jake, before the Blue Jays made the
playoffs. This is what Blue Jay'sfans called a playoff atmosphere. This is
(04:21):
what we were convinced to the playoffatmosphere was all about. Do you remember
this game? I do. I'vebeen trying to remember if I was at
it or not. Though I definitelyremember the game. I've been trying to
place because it's still been like righton the border of when I would have
gotten home from Montreal for the summer, and I can't remember. There's my
(04:44):
gut tells me I was at thegame, but I don't remember. But
I do remember the game, andI do remember the lead up to it
and the sort of I guess forlackbird word hype around it, and how
fun it was after years of mediumto good to bad Blue Jays teams having
(05:05):
a having like having a villain,yes for daring to not want to play
for a non playoff team. Itwas May twelfth, two thousand and nine,
is the day in question, Howidayversus And I'll tell you this.
We'll get to it in a littlewhile, but BOYD for mid May two
(05:25):
thousand and nine, the Blue Jaysdrew forty three thousand fans that night.
That goes to tell you, likethat was a big deal. The Blue
Jays did not draw forty thousand fanswhen it wasn't a huge deal back in
the day. The Blue Jays didnot draw forty thousand fans in mid May
in twenty fifteen. Right, Sowe'll start at the beginning with a j
(05:46):
Burnett because he's somebody that I think, you know, history, as Blue
Jays fans we look back on andopinion could be maybe a little bit split.
I remember the day they signed himfour the two thousand and sixth season.
It was five years, fifty fivemillion, which in hindsight is hilarious.
(06:09):
That's hilarious money to get a JBurnette at considering how good he was
in three seasons. Obviously he hadopt outs, but he was pretty darn
good over three seasons. Is aBlue Jay The I guess, let's call
it the courtship of AJ Burnett stilllives large in my brain. I remember
him in holiday sitting courtside at theRaptors game as like a big moment of
(06:33):
like, oh he actually like showedup and is willing to be winded and
dying by us. Maybe we havea chance and kind of funny how the
I guess the evolution of the processof signing big name free agents has gone
in the last fifteen years of likehow the courtship now is like sell them
(06:58):
on winning. Yeah, But thenit was like go to a basketball game
with Roy Halliday, which I willsay hard to beat a selling point of
going to a basketball game with RoyHalliday. That sounds about it threw it
gets um another another guy and anothersort of um maybe that guy is the
right word. But um. Therevisionist history and you know, looking back
(07:20):
at it now as Blue Jays fansin twenty twenty one, and you say,
you know, a J. Burnettecame along and was part of some
fairly mediocre years with the Blue Jays. His first year two thousand and six,
they went eighty seven and seventy fiveand finished second in the East.
Like that's that's a high watermark.They were ten games back at the Yankees.
(07:41):
But eighty seven and seventy five,you would take that in a heartbeat.
Other than the two twenty six teamsthat those are two of the better
teams of the new decade for thefor the Blue Jays. It's I also
think it's funny in terms of revisionisthistory. How like I have this memory
that is false of like Aj andprobably because we were this was like just
(08:03):
around the cusp of like moneyball becominga thing. I feel maybe it's a
little bit after but like because AjiBurnett's wins and losses save for his last
room in Toronto, like weren't greatbecause the team was fine. I have
this memory of Aji Burnette being farworse than he was, right, I
have a memory of him being afterlike the false narrative that's been put in
(08:28):
my mind. I guess because thoseteams didn't to your to your point,
teams that were better than we givethem credit for. I have memories of
Aji Burnette coming and being sort ofnote not a bus band means, but
like a disappointment compared to what thehype was. But then you look at
his numbers now, and it's like, oh he was, he was great,
and eleven million dollars is nothing nothing. Eleven million dollars a year is
(08:52):
a steal for a guy who isas good as he ended up being.
And his two thousand and eight isbanana is good. Yeah, two thousand
and eight he is. He goeseighteen and ten right, just over four
two hundred and thirty one strikeouts ERAplus well over one hundred and each of
his season's twenty and seventy is alsovery good ERA with three point seven five.
(09:15):
He only made twenty five starts,though there was some injury stuff the
first two years he didn't make hisfull slate of stars for the first two
years, but in his three yearsas a Blue Jay, eighty one games,
three point nine four ERA five completegames, one shoutout five and twenty
two winnings ERA plus of one hundredand twelve, a FIP of three point
(09:37):
eight two, and he went thirtyeight and twenty six, which as a
number two guy behind Roy Holliday,that's about the best you could possibly ask
for. It's funny to me.I obviously very different situations and very different
pitchers and very different players, butit does kind of strike me as funny
how the sort of the narrative aroundMarcus Stroman and how it was like there's
(10:03):
like off field a side there waskind of like he is he was sort
of paying to be X. Andnow with the Blue Jays currently construction twenty
twenty one, he's exactly the guythat they need in the rotation. Like
his numbers and his style exactly whatyou would plug into the current Blue Jay's
rotation. I feel like with A. J. Burnett, he was he
(10:26):
is sort of viewed as like eithernot being that good or being disappointment or
being the villain from afterwards D're goingto discuss, but like to your point
behind Royaliday exactly the number two youwon. And it is funny that he
ended up like they ended up being. You know, it was it was
used the term bromance. They werelike. It was the it was the
going to see a Raptors game.It was the like they show up the
(10:50):
spring training together laughing and like armsfrom each other. This is man,
this is like the first honestly,god, this is like the beginning of
reading blogs that I can remember islike the yeah, the Howiday Burnett um
romance two thousand and six, twothousand and seven, two thousand and eight.
Um, yeah, this is funny. This You're right, this is
right when like my DJF reading DJFgoes runner on first, like you name
(11:13):
it. This is like reading aboutRoy Howiday and a J. Burnette was
was the whole thing. And it'sso funny that that's how the pairing of
friends would be. Like you thinkof the guys who were famously close to
Roy, it was Burnett and theother one was Chris Carpenter, And it's
like Chris Carpenter makes sense to you, right, it's this other similarly like
stoic, quiet guy who goes abouthis business and whip's ass, but like
(11:37):
a J. Burnett was like thewild thing, dirt goatee like hair out
the back of the thing. Um, got a lipper go in like It's
it's so funny that that dichotomy oflike the difference between the two of them,
but the similarity of course is thatthey both like were absolute fucking horses.
(11:58):
Um, I think I think thatwas so cool and and part of
the thing of just like what Royliked was dudes who were fucking bad assid
pitching right, it's sort of likeright, like guy that fucking shoved.
Um. What it is so funnyto you to your point is to look
back and be like it did feellike AJ was not that good. Then
you look at like man two thousandand six, the rest of the rotation
(12:20):
was Ted Lily Casey Jansen, GustavoChasin and Sean Markham. Three of those
guys had ears above five like howdid we how did we ever give any
blame to AJ Burnett when everybody elsewas like on the next year it was
Dustin McGowan, Sean Markham, whowe love, Jesse Lynch and Josh Towers.
Like aside from Doc and AJ,like, man, that's all they
(12:43):
had as pitchers, and like yeah, and even the year sorry, the
year befo, Yeah, the yearbefore obviously we're we were excited for Aj
to show up for exactly this reason. And like the year before, it
was like Josh Towers was your likestarted, Josh Harrison's established a scene.
Both started thirty plus games crazy,and then you had Roy who only started
(13:07):
nineteen that year. Dave Bush fiveand eleven. Dave Bush was your fourth
starter for the Blue Jays in twothousan two thousand and five. I'll tell
(13:28):
you something that I will remember fora long time is I was actually at
a game with my dad in AJ. Burnette's first season as a as
blue Jay two thousand and six,and thanks to the wonder of Facebook reference,
I'm gonna look back at this AJ Burnette against the Washington Nationals and
it was his first win as aBlue Jay and he was so good it
was it was like ridiculous. Hewas like, oh my god, this
(13:52):
is the guy. It was.It was a nine inning, complete game
shoutout. He threw seven k's sixhits. He was absolutely unhit bull.
It may go down as if notthe best one of his best performances as
a Blue Jay game score eighty two. So depending on how you view your
metrics, it was like unquestionably atop two or three a J. Burnette
(14:16):
blue Jay performance. I was in, I was, I was a fan,
but but I think to your pointearlier, is it you never really
bought fully into these Blue Jays unlessyou were like super deep into the cool
aid. Like it's crazy to thinknow, like eighty seven wins was just
like just not impressive. Like eightyseven wins is mediocre. Ten back of
the Yankees, your your four backof being in the wild card, you're
(14:39):
just like you, that's not evenclose. Eighty seven wins, Yeah,
eighties. It was kind of likeit wasn't that it was bad, It
just it just wasn't good enough.Yeah, that's a good way to put
it. And especially like you lookat like all three of the of A.
J. Burnett's teams as a blueJay one eighty plus, yeah,
eighty seven, eighty three in eightysix, and it's kind of like,
(15:07):
I don't want to say the expectations, but like the standards I guess are
kind of remarkable now, especially becausethat twenty eight team that won eighty six
games, finished fourth in the Easteighty six wins with a Pythagorean win loss
of ninety three. Crazy, likethat was a good team. Crazy,
But but people people people think,man that, oh man, I hated
the Black Jays. They were sobad, right, they were a victim
(15:30):
of the time. It was actuallya fairly well built team. Turns out,
yeah, like six six of theirstart of the nine had ops plus
is over one hundred. We're gonnadance around the fact that two thousand and
six three Johnson was a five winplayer. What the talk about guys who
(15:52):
were maligned? And I think Ithink we've course corrected on this, but
I don't know if we will eversay enough about like two thousand and six
Vernon wells man, m that's athat's a six win center fielder. That's
where. That's where that's ridiculous.I always seals. I always found the
(16:12):
sort of the Vernon contract talk tobe so funny. In retrospects. It's
like, maybe you could say itwas too much money, but the years
he had absolutely justified his contract.He was thirty two home runs, he
was three h three, three fiftyseven five forty two one twenty eight WRC
plus a goal glove center fielder likeman, there's not a lot of guys
(16:37):
at the time in the league intwo thousand and six that are equal value.
That's like six win center fielder anda rod has batted second and combined
they are hitting four twelve with sixhome runs and thirty four runs batted.
It not a bad way to starta ball game. On the two two
swung on hit in the air toteak center well it's going back on the
(17:00):
track at the wall. Jeez godwho it was fought by Wells. Wells
jumped over the fence and came backwith the ball. I almost don't believe
it. Who's that divine? Right? Oh my goodness said? You know?
Is a five? Wise is Kittymentioned? Maybe the best outfite they're
playing the wall I've ever seen.But this is a great catch by Vernon
(17:22):
Wells brings it back into the ballpark. Times is leaping thanks. Look at
this thing. I think takes aboutfifteen minutes to come out of the sky.
Second level home run Vernon Wells orcroup by quel by Wells the blue
(17:44):
jaser in fight rating Boston to theline. This one sky till my field
that hit well here it is backto the wall. That call is good
God, oh wof for Vernon Wells. Enough blue cha what do you want?
(18:04):
And he and he signed that extensionin two thousand and seven and it
was seven one twenty six, whichworks out to I'm trying to do the
math on that one twenty six andfive by seven. It's eighteen million dollars
a year. It's hilarious, right, which, by today's standards is zeft
(18:26):
five. It's five million dollars morethan ten of Rowark is making this year.
And it's on like you if yougoogle Vernon Wells contract today, one
of the first things that comes upis Vernon Wells Alex Rodriguez and the ten
worst free agent contracts of all time. Crazy, it's nuts, and like,
(18:49):
yeah, I get it, itdidn't pan out the way they hope,
but also like he was really fuckinggood in two thousand and six.
And I'll say he has two ofhis top five years, two of his
top four years in two thousand andeight and two thousand and ten. Right
in two eight eight he slugs eightforty he ops plus is one twenty three,
he hits twenty one runs in onlyone hundred and eight games, like
(19:11):
crazy Vernon, I'll and I'll bangthis drum for Vernon. Vernon belongs on
the level of excellence, Like it'snot a question to me. He's one
of the best players in franchise history. He's one of those guys along with
Doc and Carlos where he was theonly thing to watch for a lot of
those years. Yeah, and andlike you said, the money ends up
(19:36):
being like what people remember. Butit's like in terms of you know,
he's sticking the most at bats,he's top three in hits, in runs,
in total bases, you name acategory, Vernon Wellos is like top
five in Blue Jay's history in it. I know this is supposed to be
about a J. Burnett, butlike Vernon Wells is unquestionably a top five
(19:59):
Blue Jay of all time terms ofoffense, Like it's me, it's not
it's not even debatable. And ifyou look at career numbers, yeah,
I agree, But but to tieit into a J. Burnett it is
And kind of what you're saying withthe Black Jay's it's it is funny how
maligned those teams are and they're likethey were the best teams we saw for
(20:21):
like a decade. They're really reallygood. We would kill for an eighty
seven win team now in the daysone eighty seven eighty seven games. This
year people were like, oh man, what a huge success. This is
right crazy. You can't you justcan't. You can't please everybody, Jake,
it's that's your that's your rule here. But I get out one of
(20:41):
the side. I'm very biased becauseI loved I love the Black Jays,
I love this era. I amsomebody who is a real apologist for this
sort of stuff because, um,I think that one of these teams to
be so good. Yeah, Ithink that I have revisioned myself out of
how I felt at the time.Yeah, because like I was all,
(21:02):
I was super into. I washugely into these teams. But I think
I've spent the last whatever fourteen yearsbeing like, fuck those teams and the
Black Hats. Oh my god,the Black Hats. I wonder if I
truly, and I know how dumbthis is gonna sound, but truly,
I wonder had they not rebranded withthe black jerseys, if the team would
(21:22):
be better remembered. That's a goodquestion because they just come out of that
era with the with muscle Bird,Yeah, muscle Bird in the maple leaf
the Clemens era, so a greatquestion. Anyway, we will move forward
to the next episode. We're we'regonna talk about Burnett jumping to the Yankees,
which, oh my god, howcould he go to the Yankees?
How could he? How could somebodypick the ninety seven win Yankees over it
(21:45):
with Roy Alladay all that and moreand the next episode of Sports Felt Storytime
next week. Co
For the Toronto Blue Jays A J. Burnett man. He has really been
pitching well for Toronto. He's wonthe seven of his last eight decisions.
He is seventeen and ten in theseason, and he leads the American League
in strikeouts for two hundred and eightthirteen strikes out. Ashbeck and his former
teammate at the Florida Marlins, Rollgoes around, strikes out, swinging a
(00:22):
miss. Lowry strikes out three ksfor Burnett. Back to Burnett to first.
Then he's out of it again.Strike three call veritex gone. Burnett
knocks it down. There's time torecover and does so. Strike three call
(00:49):
fifth strikeout for a J. Burnett. Well, here it is the matchup
that we've been waiting for. Thedoctor, doctor Halliday doing his thing.
I said, possibly playoff type atmosphere, and you've got it tonight. There's
a basic down the line. Snyderover to get it quickly as Damon turns
for second. Here's the throw inand David is out. Joe Girardi up
(01:21):
quickly too. Well. Damon whathe does, what he does best is
put the ball on the ground hardin play. Nice play by Snyder to
pick the ball. Turn around,Let's see if he's in there though.
Thirty two year old A. J. Burnett, where's enemy Colors? Tonight?
He is two and o on theyear A five point two six era
(01:44):
raving a miss. Kevin Cash goesdown swinging in his first game as a
Yankee. Two strike pitch and aswing and a miss. Snyder goes quickly,
oh, two pitch stake three calledsay good night, mister TISCHERA boy
Helliday has just mowing him down.Now I believe and try to put him
away. There's the breaking ball,and that's a base hit down to the
(02:07):
line. Rios is in the score. Here comes wells hoped. The second
goes rolling and it's too nothing forthe Blue Jays. A good piece of
(02:32):
hitting by Scott Rowland found off thefastball and got the breaking ball able to
place it down the line, hitit hard enough to get it past a
rod. Couple runs. In sportsit is Sportsfeld storytime. We were looking
(03:10):
back at the there are some ofthe best and worst moments of our fandom
as Toronto sports fans, and wepicked I'll tell you, Jake, I'm
actually pretty proud of myself for thisone. We hit all the headlines.
Right. We did every least momentwe can possibly remember. I think we're
almost I wout of least moments.We've done, the Kauhi shot, we've
been, the ninety two ninety threeWorld Series. We've done, We've done.
(03:35):
We didn't do ninety two, wedid ninety three. Though we've done
a lot of different things. Thismonth, we're a little bit outside of
the box. I would say,I'll say this. When you suggested this,
he was like, Man, that'sa great idea. I was.
I was into this immediately, Thankyou very much. This month, we
were looking back to the twenty to nine, twenty nine. The tooth
(04:00):
was nine Toronto Blue Jays versus NewYork Yankees. It's Roy Howaday versus A.
J. Burnett. I will tellyou not only was I at this
game, but before twenty fifteen,Jake, before the Blue Jays made the
playoffs. This is what Blue Jay'sfans called a playoff atmosphere. This is
(04:21):
what we were convinced to the playoffatmosphere was all about. Do you remember
this game? I do. I'vebeen trying to remember if I was at
it or not. Though I definitelyremember the game. I've been trying to
place because it's still been like righton the border of when I would have
gotten home from Montreal for the summer, and I can't remember. There's my
(04:44):
gut tells me I was at thegame, but I don't remember. But
I do remember the game, andI do remember the lead up to it
and the sort of I guess forlackbird word hype around it, and how
fun it was after years of mediumto good to bad Blue Jays teams having
(05:05):
a having like having a villain,yes for daring to not want to play
for a non playoff team. Itwas May twelfth, two thousand and nine,
is the day in question, Howidayversus And I'll tell you this.
We'll get to it in a littlewhile, but BOYD for mid May two
(05:25):
thousand and nine, the Blue Jaysdrew forty three thousand fans that night.
That goes to tell you, likethat was a big deal. The Blue
Jays did not draw forty thousand fanswhen it wasn't a huge deal back in
the day. The Blue Jays didnot draw forty thousand fans in mid May
in twenty fifteen. Right, Sowe'll start at the beginning with a j
(05:46):
Burnett because he's somebody that I think, you know, history, as Blue
Jays fans we look back on andopinion could be maybe a little bit split.
I remember the day they signed himfour the two thousand and sixth season.
It was five years, fifty fivemillion, which in hindsight is hilarious.
(06:09):
That's hilarious money to get a JBurnette at considering how good he was
in three seasons. Obviously he hadopt outs, but he was pretty darn
good over three seasons. Is aBlue Jay The I guess, let's call
it the courtship of AJ Burnett stilllives large in my brain. I remember
him in holiday sitting courtside at theRaptors game as like a big moment of
(06:33):
like, oh he actually like showedup and is willing to be winded and
dying by us. Maybe we havea chance and kind of funny how the
I guess the evolution of the processof signing big name free agents has gone
in the last fifteen years of likehow the courtship now is like sell them
(06:58):
on winning. Yeah, But thenit was like go to a basketball game
with Roy Halliday, which I willsay hard to beat a selling point of
going to a basketball game with RoyHalliday. That sounds about it threw it
gets um another another guy and anothersort of um maybe that guy is the
right word. But um. Therevisionist history and you know, looking back
(07:20):
at it now as Blue Jays fansin twenty twenty one, and you say,
you know, a J. Burnettecame along and was part of some
fairly mediocre years with the Blue Jays. His first year two thousand and six,
they went eighty seven and seventy fiveand finished second in the East.
Like that's that's a high watermark.They were ten games back at the Yankees.
(07:41):
But eighty seven and seventy five,you would take that in a heartbeat.
Other than the two twenty six teamsthat those are two of the better
teams of the new decade for thefor the Blue Jays. It's I also
think it's funny in terms of revisionisthistory. How like I have this memory
that is false of like Aj andprobably because we were this was like just
(08:03):
around the cusp of like moneyball becominga thing. I feel maybe it's a
little bit after but like because AjiBurnett's wins and losses save for his last
room in Toronto, like weren't greatbecause the team was fine. I have
this memory of Aji Burnette being farworse than he was, right, I
have a memory of him being afterlike the false narrative that's been put in
(08:28):
my mind. I guess because thoseteams didn't to your to your point,
teams that were better than we givethem credit for. I have memories of
Aji Burnette coming and being sort ofnote not a bus band means, but
like a disappointment compared to what thehype was. But then you look at
his numbers now, and it's like, oh he was, he was great,
and eleven million dollars is nothing nothing. Eleven million dollars a year is
(08:52):
a steal for a guy who isas good as he ended up being.
And his two thousand and eight isbanana is good. Yeah, two thousand
and eight he is. He goeseighteen and ten right, just over four
two hundred and thirty one strikeouts ERAplus well over one hundred and each of
his season's twenty and seventy is alsovery good ERA with three point seven five.
(09:15):
He only made twenty five starts,though there was some injury stuff the
first two years he didn't make hisfull slate of stars for the first two
years, but in his three yearsas a Blue Jay, eighty one games,
three point nine four ERA five completegames, one shoutout five and twenty
two winnings ERA plus of one hundredand twelve, a FIP of three point
(09:37):
eight two, and he went thirtyeight and twenty six, which as a
number two guy behind Roy Holliday,that's about the best you could possibly ask
for. It's funny to me.I obviously very different situations and very different
pitchers and very different players, butit does kind of strike me as funny
how the sort of the narrative aroundMarcus Stroman and how it was like there's
(10:03):
like off field a side there waskind of like he is he was sort
of paying to be X. Andnow with the Blue Jays currently construction twenty
twenty one, he's exactly the guythat they need in the rotation. Like
his numbers and his style exactly whatyou would plug into the current Blue Jay's
rotation. I feel like with A. J. Burnett, he was he
(10:26):
is sort of viewed as like eithernot being that good or being disappointment or
being the villain from afterwards D're goingto discuss, but like to your point
behind Royaliday exactly the number two youwon. And it is funny that he
ended up like they ended up being. You know, it was it was
used the term bromance. They werelike. It was the it was the
going to see a Raptors game.It was the like they show up the
(10:50):
spring training together laughing and like armsfrom each other. This is man,
this is like the first honestly,god, this is like the beginning of
reading blogs that I can remember islike the yeah, the Howiday Burnett um
romance two thousand and six, twothousand and seven, two thousand and eight.
Um, yeah, this is funny. This You're right, this is
right when like my DJF reading DJFgoes runner on first, like you name
(11:13):
it. This is like reading aboutRoy Howiday and a J. Burnette was
was the whole thing. And it'sso funny that that's how the pairing of
friends would be. Like you thinkof the guys who were famously close to
Roy, it was Burnett and theother one was Chris Carpenter, And it's
like Chris Carpenter makes sense to you, right, it's this other similarly like
stoic, quiet guy who goes abouthis business and whip's ass, but like
(11:37):
a J. Burnett was like thewild thing, dirt goatee like hair out
the back of the thing. Um, got a lipper go in like It's
it's so funny that that dichotomy oflike the difference between the two of them,
but the similarity of course is thatthey both like were absolute fucking horses.
(11:58):
Um, I think I think thatwas so cool and and part of
the thing of just like what Royliked was dudes who were fucking bad assid
pitching right, it's sort of likeright, like guy that fucking shoved.
Um. What it is so funnyto you to your point is to look
back and be like it did feellike AJ was not that good. Then
you look at like man two thousandand six, the rest of the rotation
(12:20):
was Ted Lily Casey Jansen, GustavoChasin and Sean Markham. Three of those
guys had ears above five like howdid we how did we ever give any
blame to AJ Burnett when everybody elsewas like on the next year it was
Dustin McGowan, Sean Markham, whowe love, Jesse Lynch and Josh Towers.
Like aside from Doc and AJ,like, man, that's all they
(12:43):
had as pitchers, and like yeah, and even the year sorry, the
year befo, Yeah, the yearbefore obviously we're we were excited for Aj
to show up for exactly this reason. And like the year before, it
was like Josh Towers was your likestarted, Josh Harrison's established a scene.
Both started thirty plus games crazy,and then you had Roy who only started
(13:07):
nineteen that year. Dave Bush fiveand eleven. Dave Bush was your fourth
starter for the Blue Jays in twothousan two thousand and five. I'll tell
(13:28):
you something that I will remember fora long time is I was actually at
a game with my dad in AJ. Burnette's first season as a as
blue Jay two thousand and six,and thanks to the wonder of Facebook reference,
I'm gonna look back at this AJ Burnette against the Washington Nationals and
it was his first win as aBlue Jay and he was so good it
was it was like ridiculous. Hewas like, oh my god, this
(13:52):
is the guy. It was.It was a nine inning, complete game
shoutout. He threw seven k's sixhits. He was absolutely unhit bull.
It may go down as if notthe best one of his best performances as
a Blue Jay game score eighty two. So depending on how you view your
metrics, it was like unquestionably atop two or three a J. Burnette
(14:16):
blue Jay performance. I was in, I was, I was a fan,
but but I think to your pointearlier, is it you never really
bought fully into these Blue Jays unlessyou were like super deep into the cool
aid. Like it's crazy to thinknow, like eighty seven wins was just
like just not impressive. Like eightyseven wins is mediocre. Ten back of
the Yankees, your your four backof being in the wild card, you're
(14:39):
just like you, that's not evenclose. Eighty seven wins, Yeah,
eighties. It was kind of likeit wasn't that it was bad, It
just it just wasn't good enough.Yeah, that's a good way to put
it. And especially like you lookat like all three of the of A.
J. Burnett's teams as a blueJay one eighty plus, yeah,
eighty seven, eighty three in eightysix, and it's kind of like,
(15:07):
I don't want to say the expectations, but like the standards I guess are
kind of remarkable now, especially becausethat twenty eight team that won eighty six
games, finished fourth in the Easteighty six wins with a Pythagorean win loss
of ninety three. Crazy, likethat was a good team. Crazy,
But but people people people think,man that, oh man, I hated
the Black Jays. They were sobad, right, they were a victim
(15:30):
of the time. It was actuallya fairly well built team. Turns out,
yeah, like six six of theirstart of the nine had ops plus
is over one hundred. We're gonnadance around the fact that two thousand and
six three Johnson was a five winplayer. What the talk about guys who
(15:52):
were maligned? And I think Ithink we've course corrected on this, but
I don't know if we will eversay enough about like two thousand and six
Vernon wells man, m that's athat's a six win center fielder. That's
where. That's where that's ridiculous.I always seals. I always found the
(16:12):
sort of the Vernon contract talk tobe so funny. In retrospects. It's
like, maybe you could say itwas too much money, but the years
he had absolutely justified his contract.He was thirty two home runs, he
was three h three, three fiftyseven five forty two one twenty eight WRC
plus a goal glove center fielder likeman, there's not a lot of guys
(16:37):
at the time in the league intwo thousand and six that are equal value.
That's like six win center fielder anda rod has batted second and combined
they are hitting four twelve with sixhome runs and thirty four runs batted.
It not a bad way to starta ball game. On the two two
swung on hit in the air toteak center well it's going back on the
(17:00):
track at the wall. Jeez godwho it was fought by Wells. Wells
jumped over the fence and came backwith the ball. I almost don't believe
it. Who's that divine? Right? Oh my goodness said? You know?
Is a five? Wise is Kittymentioned? Maybe the best outfite they're
playing the wall I've ever seen.But this is a great catch by Vernon
(17:22):
Wells brings it back into the ballpark. Times is leaping thanks. Look at
this thing. I think takes aboutfifteen minutes to come out of the sky.
Second level home run Vernon Wells orcroup by quel by Wells the blue
(17:44):
jaser in fight rating Boston to theline. This one sky till my field
that hit well here it is backto the wall. That call is good
God, oh wof for Vernon Wells. Enough blue cha what do you want?
(18:04):
And he and he signed that extensionin two thousand and seven and it
was seven one twenty six, whichworks out to I'm trying to do the
math on that one twenty six andfive by seven. It's eighteen million dollars
a year. It's hilarious, right, which, by today's standards is zeft
(18:26):
five. It's five million dollars morethan ten of Rowark is making this year.
And it's on like you if yougoogle Vernon Wells contract today, one
of the first things that comes upis Vernon Wells Alex Rodriguez and the ten
worst free agent contracts of all time. Crazy, it's nuts, and like,
(18:49):
yeah, I get it, itdidn't pan out the way they hope,
but also like he was really fuckinggood in two thousand and six.
And I'll say he has two ofhis top five years, two of his
top four years in two thousand andeight and two thousand and ten. Right
in two eight eight he slugs eightforty he ops plus is one twenty three,
he hits twenty one runs in onlyone hundred and eight games, like
(19:11):
crazy Vernon, I'll and I'll bangthis drum for Vernon. Vernon belongs on
the level of excellence, Like it'snot a question to me. He's one
of the best players in franchise history. He's one of those guys along with
Doc and Carlos where he was theonly thing to watch for a lot of
those years. Yeah, and andlike you said, the money ends up
(19:36):
being like what people remember. Butit's like in terms of you know,
he's sticking the most at bats,he's top three in hits, in runs,
in total bases, you name acategory, Vernon Wellos is like top
five in Blue Jay's history in it. I know this is supposed to be
about a J. Burnett, butlike Vernon Wells is unquestionably a top five
(19:59):
Blue Jay of all time terms ofoffense, Like it's me, it's not
it's not even debatable. And ifyou look at career numbers, yeah,
I agree, But but to tieit into a J. Burnett it is
And kind of what you're saying withthe Black Jay's it's it is funny how
maligned those teams are and they're likethey were the best teams we saw for
(20:21):
like a decade. They're really reallygood. We would kill for an eighty
seven win team now in the daysone eighty seven eighty seven games. This
year people were like, oh man, what a huge success. This is
right crazy. You can't you justcan't. You can't please everybody, Jake,
it's that's your that's your rule here. But I get out one of
(20:41):
the side. I'm very biased becauseI loved I love the Black Jays,
I love this era. I amsomebody who is a real apologist for this
sort of stuff because, um,I think that one of these teams to
be so good. Yeah, Ithink that I have revisioned myself out of
how I felt at the time.Yeah, because like I was all,
(21:02):
I was super into. I washugely into these teams. But I think
I've spent the last whatever fourteen yearsbeing like, fuck those teams and the
Black Hats. Oh my god,the Black Hats. I wonder if I
truly, and I know how dumbthis is gonna sound, but truly,
I wonder had they not rebranded withthe black jerseys, if the team would
(21:22):
be better remembered. That's a goodquestion because they just come out of that
era with the with muscle Bird,Yeah, muscle Bird in the maple leaf
the Clemens era, so a greatquestion. Anyway, we will move forward
to the next episode. We're we'regonna talk about Burnett jumping to the Yankees,
which, oh my god, howcould he go to the Yankees?
How could he? How could somebodypick the ninety seven win Yankees over it
(21:45):
with Roy Alladay all that and moreand the next episode of Sports Felt Storytime
next week. Co
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