There was no happiness to be derived from sweeping the free-falling Braves last night. There was only a sense of completing a long overdue project by doing a somewhat superficial job on the easiest of subjects. However, AJ’s start was the story of the evening.
There’s no doubt that many made too much of the Jays failure to sweep. As frustrating as it was, I’m with Wilner in that I don’t believe there is any sort of lack of “killer instinct” on this club. I’m glad the monkey is off Toronto’s back, but I don’t think his presence meant anything more than we missed the opportunity to win winnable games. Winning the last game of a series is the same as winning the first. Sweeping may give you more confidence going forward, but at the end of the day a win is a win and a loss is a loss.
However, one can’t point to this series as evidence to contradict the “killer instinct” theorists. You didn’t need a killer instinct to beat the Braves. You just needed the ability to kick some dirt on the open grave that is Atlanta’s 2006. Listening to the broadcast on TBS and watching the late-inning shots of the fans in the stands and players in the dugout, it’s abundantly clear that this season is over in Atlanta. There is no hope of a late-season charge. This isn’t the frustration one sees in K.C. players after another Angel Berroa baserunning error costs them a run. This is the frustration of players accustomed to achieving something (the expectation was there, even if some members of this particular team may have never made the playoffs), and finding suddenly, while they momentarily turned their backs, someone stole the prize.
The Mets are running away with the division and 10 teams stand between the Braves and the wild-card. A fantastic run is coming to an end and no one has any idea how to pretend it’s not. I never particularly liked the Braves during the 1990’s and early 2000’s. Andruw and Chipper Jones didn’t have the appeal of other superstars and Atlanta’s continuous presence became grating. However, I also liked Greg Maddux and, to a lesser degree, Tom Glavine, as well as many of their lesser names, from Pete Orr to Quilvio Veras to Jermaine Dye. One also had to admire the job that John Scheurholz, Dayton Moore, Bobby Cox and Leo Mazzone did. Now, when I think of a postseason without Atlanta it seems like something is amiss with that scenario and I wonder if I’ll feel nostalgic in October. I’m not sure yet, but I think that I’ll certainly be better able to appreciate their fantastic run once it’s over and I realize that I cannot remember a postseason without Atlanta. The ship is sinking, but it was a fantastic voyage that was never properly appreciated. Of course, maybe they have a great comeback in them, but the faces in the home dugout yesterday don’t believe they do and that says enough to me.
To move on from a hastily-written obituary to Atlanta, in midweek the Red Sox swept the Washington Nationals. The Yankees took two out of three from the Phillies. We outscored the third-worst team in the National League, in the midst of a 10-game losing streak and reaching 20-year lows, by 5 runs over 3 games. We finally swept a series, a road one no less, but it’s no time for celebration. For the first time in years I felt something approaching pity for Atlanta baseball fans. However, more important that a sweep for Toronto fans was the return of AJ Burnett.
Burnett pitched quite well last night and showed us a glimpse of the potential that has excited so many over the years and which won him a $55 million contract in the offseason. He wasn’t fantastic, but he was very solid and our rotation becomes much better with him slotted right behind Doc. He didn’t get the win, but in his first start back from injury, it’s as good as we could have realistically hoped for.
For his first game back I decided to (amateurly) chart AJ’s pitches, to get a better look at our newest pitcher, as I missed one of his two previous starts and had rarely seen him pitch for the Marlins, because he missed their 2003 World Series run. Burnett throws a fastball, a hard curveball and a changeup. I stuck with the simple the straight fastball-changeup-curve ball breakdown, while charting him last night. At the bottom of this article is a list of every pitch Burnett threw, but first we’ll look at some general figures that this start provides.
A matter of disclosure: Burnett threw 91 pitches, the boxscore says he threw 53 for strikes, while my charting says he threw 55 strikes, so obviously watching it in a noisy basement with distracting family members and two phone conversations is not the best way to scout a game. However, I’m going to use my results to reach conclusions.
| Pitch Type | Thrown | Strikes | Strike Percentage | BIP Percentage | Strikeouts On | Low Speed | High Speed | First Pitches |
| Fastball | 67 | 41 | 61.20% | 23.88% | 2 | 93 | 98 | 22 |
| Curve | 22 | 12 | 54.54% | 0% | 5 | 79 | 88 | 3 |
| Change | 2 | 2 | 100% | 0% | 0 | 85 | 86 | 0 |
Of his 91 pitches, Burnett threw 67 fastballs, 22 curveballs and 2 change-ups. Burnett’s two change-ups were at 85 and 86 miles-per-hour and both were thrown for strikes to Adam LaRoche. Burnett’s threw 12 strikes and 10 balls with his curveball, with one of the balls being a hit-by-pitch. Burnett got 5 of his 7 strikeouts on his curveball, with 3 looking and 2 swinging. The best contact any Brave made with his curve was a foul ball by Jeff Francouer, as nobody put one in play for either an out or a hit.
That means that Burnett threw 41 strikes with his 67 fastballs and got two strikeouts on fastballs, in the first and second inning to Renteria and Francouer, respectively. His fastball was put into play nearly 25% of the time he threw it, but it wasn’t hit particularly hard and he was locating it well throughout the zone. As you can see, Burnett tried to establish his fastball early in the count, not only the first time through the order but he continued to do so as the game progressed.
Noticeably, he fed Adam LaRoche a steady mixture of pitches, as he threw him 4 fastballs, 3 curves and both change-ups, while he threw Betemit and Renteria combined 21 fastballs and 4 curves. In his two none-hit-by-pitch at-bats to Chipper he fed him exclusively fastballs until he had two strikes, when he went to the curve to strike him out both times (once on a second curve after the first missed). He went to the curve a bit more in the second time through the order, but he still relied on the fastball, particularly to Betemit, Renteria and Horacio Ramirez.
| Inning | Fastballs | Curves | Changeups |
| 1-3 | 29 | 8 | 1 |
| 4-6 | 38 | 14 | 1 |
All in all, it was a very satisfying return and even though
Burnett basically relied upon two pitches all evening, he still demonstrated
why many believe that, if healthy, he could become a solid #2 starter.
Here's the breakdown in more detail:
First Inning (11 pitches, 7 strikes)
Batter: Wilson Betemit
94 mph fastball (FB); flew out to LF
Batter: Edgar Renteria
97 mph FB; called strike
97 mph FB; called strike
97 mph FB; ball
83 mph curve ball (CB); called ball
97 mph FB; strikeout swinging
Batter: Chipper Jones
96 mph FB; ball
95 mph FB; ball
96 mph FB; swinging strike
96 mph FB; called strike
82 mph CB; strikeout looking
Second Inning (15 pitches; 10 strikes)
Batter: Andruw Jones
96 mph FB; single to centre
Batter: Brian McCann
96 mph FB; called strike
80 mph CB; ball
95 mph FB; grounder to SS
Batter: Jeff Francoeur
96 mph FB; foul ball
96 mph FB; ball
96 mph FB; ball
96 mph FB; foul ball
85 mph CB; foul ball
96 mph FB; ball
98 mph FB; strikeout swinging
Batter: Adam LaRoche
96 mph FB; ball
96 mph FB; called strike
85 mph change-up (CU); called strike
83 mph CB; strikeout swinging
Third Inning (12 pitches, 8 strikes)
Batter: Scott Thorman
93 mph FB; grounder to Burnett
Batter: Horacio Ramirez
94 mph FB; called strike
95 mph FB; swinging strike
95 mph FB; ball
96 mph FB; foul ball
79 mph CB; ball
96 mph FB; grounder to 3B
Batter: Betemit
97 mph FB; called strike
96 mph FB; foul ball
96 mph FB; ball
83 mph CB; ball
81 mph CB; strikeout looking
Fourth Inning (20 pitches; 11 strikes)
Batter: Renteria
96 mph FB; ball
96 mph FB; ball
94 mph FB; called strike
95 mph FB; ball
96 mph FB; foul ball
96 mph FB; fly ball to centre
Batter: C. Jones
81 mph CB; hit by pitch
Batter: A. Jones
96 mph FB; ball
91 mph FB; ball
96 mph FB; single to 3B
Batter: McCann
96 mph FB; foul ball
79 mph CB; ball
96 mph FB; single to LF
Batter: Francouer
95 mph FB; hit into fielder’s choice
Batter: LaRoche
96 mph FB; single to LF
Batter: Thorman
83 mph CB; called strike
80 mph CB; ball
95 mph FB; ball
82 mph CB; ball
96 mph FB; fly ball to RF
Fifth Inning (18 pitches; 10 strikes)
Batter: Ramirez
94 mph FB; ball
92 mph FB; ball
93 mph FB; ball
93 mph FB; called strike
94 mph FB; called strike
95 mph FB; grounder to 2B
Batter: Betemit
95 mph FB; ball
94 mph FB; ball
94 mph FB; called strike
94 mph FB; ball
96 mph FB; double to LF
Batter: Renteria
96 mph FB; called strike
82 mph CB; ball
96 mph FB; grounder
Batter: C. Jones
96 mph FB; foul ball
94 mph FB; foul ball
79 mph CB; ball
81 mph CB; called strikeout
Sixth Inning (15 pitches, 9 strikes)
Batter: A. Jones
94 mph FB; grounder to Glaus
Batter: McCann
93 mph FB; ball
79 mph CB; ball
93 mph FB; ball
93 mph FB; called strike
94 mph FB; swinging strike
77 mph CB; walk
Batter: Francouer
95 mph FB; called strike
80 mph CB; swinging strike
94 mph FB; ball
81 mph CB; swinging strikeout
Batter: LaRoche
79 mph CB; ball
86 mph CU; swinging strike
88 mph CB; called strike
95 mph FB; grounder to 2B
