The Joys of Small Sample Size

With Phil Hughes struggling, there is an unexpectedly bright star in the Yankee Universe: AJ Burnett.

Here's the simple reason: A.J. has more wins than the Boston Red Sox, and Larry Rothschild gets the majority of the credit.

His line is far from perfect, but a hit per inning, nearly a K per inning, and a 3:1 K:BB ratio makes me see all the things that will get better as the season continues.

Wraithpk relayed Al Leiter's discussion with Michael Kay on "ferris wheel vs. carousel" to all of us hanging out in the game thread:

Part of what Rothschild was trying to change with A.J. was how he spins back towards second base, then rotates his body as he comes to the plate. Like a carousel, they rotate on a horizontal plane. When you rotate on a horizontal plane like that, missing your release point will cause you to miss your location on a horizontal plane. If you come straight forward, your motion is more like a ferris wheel, you throw on more of a vertical plane. Then, when you miss your release point, you miss your location up or down. That lets you stay on the corners, though. The worst thing you can do is miss side to side, because if you are trying to come inside and miss, it will either hit the batter or be a meatball down the middle of the plate.

With that brilliantly articulated thought in mind, I'd like to propose retiring the Good A.J./ Bad A.J. trope that has dogged Burnett since he arrived.

Last night, he was the Ferris Wheel.