Pittsburgh Pirates A.J. Burnett Reflects on 2012, Looks Ahead to 2013

Pittsburgh Pirates A.J. Burnett spoke with 93.7 The Fan during PirateFest

A.J. Burnett has a Free Shirt Friday giveaway during the 2013 season.  Yeh, he’s officially arrived.  We heard that the only thing he thought that could make the shirt better was if it was sleeveless.  The guy is pretty funny.

The right-hander spoke with Bob Pompeani at PirateFest this past weekend.  The topics included the collapse, the subtraction of Rod Barajas-who Burnett called ‘one of his best friends,’ and the addition of Russell Martin.

In regard to the collapse in the second half of the season, Burnett said, “it went quick…I still have a bitter taste in my mouth..a lot of us do.  I did better the first half.  Walk got hurt at a bad time.  We did a lot of growing, and I know you have heard that before….how much growing do they need to do.”

Burnett knows what’s up.  The guy just says it like it is.  He points to a number of different things as possible causes:  youth, inconsitent performances from himself and James McDonald specificially, injuries and the All-Star break timing.

One of the interesting quotes was that he couldn’t believe the Pirates weren’t playing baseball in October, because “nobody wanted to play the Pittsburgh Pirates in the first half…nobody.”

It can garner a laugh now after the season is in the rearview mirror, Burnett joked about Rod Barajas not being able to steal a bag as he began to talk about Russell Martin.

Burnett talked about playing for the Marlins and the similarities between the Bucs and Miami.

Here is the link to the podcast at 93.7 The Fan.