Burn Ett Burn It All!

The Yanks are making waves again this week with a proposed 5 year 85 mil offer to often injured seldom on the mound A.J. Burnett. While the Braves are said to be in the hunt for A.J. as well I'm glad the Sox are going to sit out on this one. The guys only started more than 30 games twice in his career and his elbow has been banged up more over his career than Jenna Jameson. Last year was the first time he had won more than 12 games in a season. Not that money is the issue here, but what kind of investment is this guy. To me it seems like he pitches out of his mind in contract years and is dinged up the rest of the time while he's collecting checks and having his wife take limos from Baltimore to Toronto. Now adding Burnett make the Yankees a force to be reckoned with, don't get me wrong, but how does this help them get over their playoff hump. Neither guy really scares me in a 7 game series. I'll take Beckett and Lester or Dice K over these pretenders any day.

While the Yanks clean up the underachieving, tommy john surgery having, pre-madonna pitchers the Sox will have to settle for a stud first baseman with Triple Crown potential and a gold glove. Ho Hum! My only wonder now is if Pedro will come back where he belongs.

Get this guy a Cheese Burger

Well the Yanks set their line in the sand and vastly overpaid for C.C. Sabathia. Now I know this strikes mass panic in the hearts of Red Sox nation because Sabathia has owned the Sox over his career especially in the playoffs. I mean everyone knows C.C. dominated the National league over the second half of the season last year and carried the Brewers to the playoffs. He's a Cy Young Winner and three time All-Star how can you go wrong signing this guy. He'll instantly give you the poised postseason horse your franchise desperately needs right?

Wait. What's that you say? He actually has only one win in five career postseason starts and a whopping 7.92 ERA. Ohh and his numbers in two games started in the 2007 ALCS against the Sox are horrific (2 starts 2 loses, 10.45 ERA 10 innings pitched, 17 hits, and 12 earned runs with 7 walks and 9 K's). Well maybe they did over pay a little $160 million or give him too many years 7...SEVEN years! I'm sure it will all work out in the end, Ehhhm Carl Pavano. Good luck NY way to spend in a down market.

Pats and Present

Now I don't know about the rest of you Pats fans out there, but this season has been a fun ride. Sunday's late comeback win over the lowly Seahawks lead by (Gulp!) Seneca Wallace is case-in-point. Typical of this Pats season the perceived strength with the lose of Brady the "Bend and then Break" Pats D looked lost at times and couldn't stop the pass. Now I know this is the NFL and every team has talent, but Deion "F'n" Branch shouldn't be torching your secondary; unless this is 2003 and Tom Brady is sporting a playoff beard. The lose of Bruschi will hurt the Pats run D immensely, but honestly he wasn't much of a factor this year in the pass game. Not that Junior or Rosie are washed up, but I don't see them contributing much to the pass D either. Although it was good to have them once Teddy went down with what looked like a nasty knee injury. Another huge hit was the shoulder injury to Vinny Wilfork. This one could be devastating. I consider Vinny the catalyst of this D, because when he's stopping the run and eating up double and triple teams the Pats D rolls. Ty Warren missed his third game as well; LeKevan Smith is only going to take you so far. Ohh, James Sanders went down too, so we got that going for us.

On the bright side Brandon Merriweather, who was the draft pick that came to the Pats in return for Deion Branch, showed some clutch. I really think this guy is going to be a big play maker. I just wish he had picked-off Eli back in February so we could have started the Hall-O-Fame talk. The offense lead by Cassel and Wes Welker continued to make big plays and keep the Pats in this game. Anyone else think Welker deserves some MVP mention?

For now the Pats destiny lies in others hands. The Jets or Dolphins win their next three and they're in. The Pats have to win and take care of business in the next three at Oakland, home vs. Arizona, and at the Bills. All three of these are games the Pats should win, but do they have enough bullets left in the chamber?