The Pirates’ pitchers and catchers officially reported to Pirate City on Saturday but yesterday was the first pitching sessions for two key arms. Sharing the same bullpen hill were AJ Burnett and Charlie Morton, and the day couldn’t have gone much better.
Burnett had been a Bucco for all of 24 hours so for him to be at Pirate City from the get go was a great sign for Pirate fans. And Chuck is coming off major hip surgery and no one was really sure if he’d be ready to go by Opening Day; so for him to be pitching from the mound already is a great sign.
There have been yinzers who said Burnett is the best thing for Buccos, and when other players see a high-profile guy isn’t afraid to come to the Burgh, the city will no longer be an abyss where players come to die alive. Then there’s the camp who only remember Burnett’s Yankee days who expect nothing more than failure from the 35-year-old starter.
But after his interview yesterday, it’s got to be hard for any yinzer not to be at least a little bit glad that Burnett’s a Buc. For starters, he said he’s happy to be here. Sure, he’d probably be happy to be anywhere other than the Bronx after he was pretty much run out of town, but when he said that PNC Park “was one of my favorite places to go play – the backdrop, the city in the background;” he couldn’t have had a better answer.
Plus, he had no problem pointing out his errors in New York, and if admitting you have problem is the first step then Burnett should be well on his way to recovery, and maybe that means the Buccos are too…hey, it could happen.
But even if Buccos fans still weren’t sold on Burnett, they had to appreciate the fact that a pitcher – A PITCHER – talked about how he was glad to get back to the NL so that he could swing the bat and run the bases. Or as Burnett put it, “get the joy back in the game” and “making you feel like a kid again.”
If after all that, you’re still hating on the Burnett deal, just take a look at the guy; he’s pretty much a yinzer already. Unshaven and arm tats, he already fits in with morethan half the fans at Bucco games.
Morton’s story isn’t quite as high profile, but it’s important to the team nonetheless. The Buccos are pretty much on pace for the “best case scenario” if things continue as they are. Chuck’s early-season availability was up in the air to start the offseason but after yesterday he looks like he should be ready to take the mound for his first scheduled start.
There’s still a lot of time between now Opening Day so a set back could happen but for him to be throwing on his first slated mound visit of the spring is a great sign, almost like he’s ahead of schedule, which is great to see, especially after the year he had last year.
Chuck finally looked like the pitcher we thought he could be and with the injury behind him before the year begins, he can pick up right where he left off and hopefully improve even more on what he did in 2011. He put up career bests in every major category and his 0.3 home runs per nine innings topped the NL. With another year of experience he should be even better.
This was just Day 1 off the mound so anything can still happen, but if Spring Training continues to go the way it started, the pitchers look like they’re in for one successful season…a full season.
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