Power and promise
Burnett 49-50 in pitching career, but with plenty of upside Jays bet bundle on chance, by Allan Ryan and Geoff Baker
Oft-injured and off-beat, the man who will follow ace Roy Halladay in a revamped Blue Jays rotation clearly moves to the beat of a different drummer.
Free spirit Allan James Burnett plays the drums, fancies the shock- rock stylings of Marilyn Manson and has received plenty of mileage for his tattoos and jewelled nipple rings.
That doesn’t sound like a guy who came out of tiny Central Arkansas Christian High in the Bible Belt community of Little Rock. Nor does it conjure images of a devout family man — wife Karen, with two sons, A. J. Junior, 4, and Ashton, 1 — who once was a spokesman for the U. S. National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children.
It’s all part of the contradiction in terms known as A. J. Burnett, he of the 98- m. p. h. fastball and vast upside, but also of the 49- 50 career record and label as a volatile and voluble underachiever.
“ I pitch with my heart on my sleeve,” Burnett said yesterday when asked what the Jays had just purchased for their $55 million ( all figures U. S.). Those who know Burnett well say he was doing just that back in September when he sounded off against Florida Marlins coaches, management and some players by saying, “We play scared. We manage scared. I’m sick of it.” The Marlins told him to pack up and go home for the season’s final week.
“ This isn’t a bad person,” his agent, Darek Braunecker, said at the time. “ This isn’t a guy who’s got character flaws. He made some bad judgment calls and said a few things he shouldn’t have, but he is not a clubhouse cancer.”
Burnett’s verbal stand wound up costing him a $ 50,000 bonus when he fell an inning shy of the required 210 frames needed to trigger it — something the Marlins were well aware of. A Marlins exec described Burnett at the time as “a million-dollar arm and a 10- cent brain.”
Burnett later apologized, but the damage was done. He shied away from commenting on the situation yesterday, saying it was “ in the past” and he’s looking forward to the future.
Burnett made six trips to the disabled list over five seasons from 2000 through 2004, most critically for Tommy John ligament transplant surgery on his right elbow that limited him to four starts in 2003. He escaped the DL in ’ 05 but missed a start in late May with elbow soreness.
This won’t be the first time that Burnett will be forced to overcome perceptions. The eighth- round pick of the Mets in the 1995 draft was one of those anonymous prospects tossed into a six- player deal before the 1998 season that enabled the Marlins to dump pitcher Al Leiter’s contract. Burnett quickly served notice of his raw ability in Class A ball that summer by going 10- 4 with a 1.97 ERA, striking out 186 hitters over only 119 innings. One year later, he made his majordebut with Florida and held the Dodgers to a run over 52⁄ innings for the win. But Burnett truly landed on baseball’s radar screen during a 2001 season punctuated by some colourful incidents and one of the wackiest games ever pitched.
Burnett blistered his hand before his second start of the season by trying to iron a pair of jeans in a hotel room. “ Now, I steam- clean my jeans,” he quipped after toughing it out and losing 1- 0 that same night. “ Just hang ’ em in the shower and turn it on hot.” That same year, he shattered the passenger’s side window of a pickup truck carrying Florida mascot Billy Marlin with a warm-up pitch as it circled behind home plate. But the season highlight came that May when he tossed one of the sloppiest no- hitters on record, a nine-walk laugh-fest against the San Diego Padres.
“ I walked nine, but I’m not going to gripe one bit,” he said. “ This is the highlight of my career right now.” A highlight, no doubt, that was usurped yesterday by the Jays mortgaging a chunk of their future on a pitcher hoping to make folks forget his recent past.