Sean Burnett

[81omar]

  His rookie year was Ok but his game high for K's in his 13 starts was 4. Even Duke who fooled no one last year had a 5 K game and every team has seen him and had a good scouting report on him. Burnett now doesnt throw as hard as he used to which wasnt great to begin with,and hes definitely not back to the pitcher he was in 2003. It should also be noted that he didnt deserve a call up in 2004,he was really struggling at AAA and his ML era was just over 5.00 with a 1/1 K/BB ratio and a high HR total.

  I would definitely keep him but i wouldnt count on him for anything in a pressure situation till he proves that he can handle it. His numbers in AAA last year were just plain bad. His upside though is hes still only 25 so no reason to give up on him,its better to give him a shot than some 30-something year old journeyman trying to prove his career isnt over

[UtahPirate]

I think that last year's AAA numbers can be written off as typical surgery recovery year performance--and the couple of years before to pre-surgery problems. So it is hard to know exactly which Burnett is going to show up at ST. I am more encouraged by how well he pitched in Venezula this winter. Not a lot of starts, but I think you can see that he may have rounded the post-surgery corner:

"Perhaps Burnett can build off a strong winter ball performance in Venezuela, where he went 1-2 with a 2.45 ERA in six games for Zulia. That came after a frustrating season at Indianapolis in which he was 4-5 with a 4.48 ERA in 15 starts before missing the final two months of the season because of arm fatigue.

“Those last couple of months of last season, when I couldn’t pitch, was rock bottom,” Burnett said. “Of all the bad things that have happened to me in the last few years, that was the lowest. I was so down about everything.

“That’s why pitching in Venezuela was so important. I know if I’m healthy that I’m as good as any pitcher in this clubhouse, but I needed to go out and prove that again. I left Venezuela feeling I was finally all the way back to where I was before I got hurt.”

Andrews was also encouraged by what he saw of Burnett in his final start in the Pirates’ Florida Instructional League camp in October before taking off for Venezuela.

“That was as good as I had seen him since back when he was pitching at Altoona in ’03,” Andrews said. “He finally looked like the Burnie of old again.”

Here's a link to the complete article:

http://www.timesonline.com/articles/2008/01/12/sports/pirates/doc478856e2e77af134180683.txt

I think the Pirates will be very careful with him and give him an opportunity to build on his winter performance and gain some confidence. So he becomes the long-reliever and third lefty in the pen. With so many openings in the pen, that spot would seem to be ideally suited for him.