A.J. Burnett's Statistics Aren't Sexy, but They Get the Job Done

Picture for a minute being in A.J. Burnett's shoes back in the offseason when he learned he was going to Pittsburgh.

At the time, he was sitting just fine in the Bronx, but at the same time, he had a hunch that there was a possibility of being shipped somewhere else. He may have thought he was going to a less-popular place, but not to the likes of PNC Park.

Now look at what Burnett has done. For the first time since 1990—all the way back to when Barry Bonds was wearing yellow and black—a Pirate ace has won six consecutive decisions and is becoming a true leader of a team where leading anything at the top was just a dream.

The Pirates are four games out of leading their division at 34-31 while looking up at the team that won it all in 1990—the Cincinnati Reds.

Burnett has led the way for the Pirates since he started his winning streak. The level of success he has leads to how far the Pirates will go in the Wild Card race—and maybe even in the Central—come September.

Prior to this six-game streak, the Pirate ace wasn't something fans wanted to talk about—from a positive standpoint, anyway; he was only 1-2.

When Burnett made his Pittsburgh debut on April 21 at home against St. Louis, fans witnessed what they had expected to see. Burnett went seven solid innings without allowing a run, struck out seven and only allowed five total base runners. Good stuff.

On May 2, Busch Stadium was not as friendly to Burnett. Burnett allowed a dozen hits and runs each while seeing a game ERA over 40. Surely he would still like to forget about that one.

Burnett has not received a loss since that abysmal outing and sails have been calm when he has been on the mound.

Although the majority of the stats do not look as impressive as say, Matt Cain, he is keeping his ERA down and that's what matters.

The furthest Burnett has gone in these last six wins is 7.1 innings against Kansas City. On June 10 against the Royals, Burnett struck out six and walked only two Royals on two earned runs.

In fact, the most runs he has allowed since giving up those dozen to St. Louis is three, and that was to the Reds on June 5. That night, he had a 5.40 ERA with a 1.80. The next highest in those two categories was on May 19 against Detroit (3.00 ERA, 1.67 WHIP).

The fact of the matter is that A.J. Burnett will not put a shock value to anyone when he is pitching with these stats.

However, there is one simple statistic—if A.J. Burnett keeps his runs down, the Pirates' bats have a better chance of scoring and giving the Bucs a better chance to win, which has been an unfamiliar regularity since the last time a Pirates starter was this consistent.

Stats were obtained from rotoworld.com.