Players · B · Pitcher · 2015

A.J. Burnett

Pittsburgh Pirates National League Central

Age: 38
B/T: R/R
Height: 6' 4"
Weight: 230 lb
Number: #34

Born: January 3, 1977 in North Little Rock, AR, United States
MLB debut: August 17, 1999

dbWAR: 2.9
IP: 164.0
ERA: 3.18
FIP: 3.36
K/9: 7.8
FIP−: 85

A.J. Burnett was a starting pitcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates. In 2015 he struck out 143 batters over 164.0 innings across 26 appearances, 26 of them starts, going 9-7. His ERA of 3.18 was 19.7% lower than the league average of 3.96 — 8th of 14 on his team, and 137th of 513 among MLB pitchers with 20+ innings. Stripping out defence, his 3.36 FIP suggests the ERA was no fluke. He missed bats on 22.3% of swings (10.0% of every pitch he threw), walked 7.0% of the batters he faced and struck out 20.5%. His 3.0 dbWAR is built from that FIP rather than runs allowed, so it credits him for what he controls and not for the defence behind him.

League context

Percentile among qualified pitchers, 2015.

FIP3.36

K/97.8

WHIP1.36

WAR3.0

Pitching

Standard and advanced, by season.

																				Trend
2015	PIT	26	26	164.0	9	7	0	174	58	143	49	3.18	3.36	1.36	7.8	2.7	80	85	3.0	—

Batting

Standard and advanced, by season.

																					Trend
2015	PIT	24	52	5	1	5	0	0	20	.119	.116	.190	.071	.182	0.0%	38.5%	.130	-7.7	-32	-0.1	—

Platoon splits

How left- and right-handed hitters fare against him.

Opponent batting by the side the hitter bats from, 2015. Counted from play-by-play, so totals can differ from the box-score season line by a plate appearance or two.
Split	PA	AB	H	HR	BB	SO	AVG	OBP	SLG	wOBA	K%
vs LHB	319	274	69	4	32	57	.252	.351	.343	.317	17.9%
vs RHB	380	359	105	7	17	86	.292	.323	.409	.320	22.6%

Spray chart

Where every ball he put in play landed, 2015.

Loading 31 batted balls…

Hot and cold zones

Batting average by pitch location, 2015.

Below averageLeague averageAbove average

Batting average by location of the pitch that ended each plate appearance, catcher's view. The bordered square is the strike zone; the outer band is chase territory. Cells with fewer than 8 at-bats are left grey rather than shown as signal. League average on the same attribution is .254.

Pitch sequencing

What A.J. Burnett throws in each count, and what he follows each pitch with. Select any cell for the breakdown.

ShowBatter

SinkerKnuckle curveFour-seamChangeup

Select a count to see exactly what A.J. Burnett throws in it.

Pitch arsenal

What he throws, how hard, how often it misses, and what hitters do with it.


Sinker	49.9%	1,248	90.9	1,764	45.0%	11.5%	333	.291	.761
Knuckle Curve	29.2%	731	81.7	1,156	45.8%	39.9%	204	.245	.606
Four-Seam Fastball	11.7%	292	91.1	1,619	42.1%	17.1%	53	.283	.887
Changeup	8.8%	219	85.7	1,339	42.9%	20.6%	44	.273	.620

A.J. Burnett's arsenal by usage. Velocity is average release speed in mph, spin in rpm, and whiff rate is misses per swing — the cleanest single measure of whether a pitch beats hitters. BAA and OPS are what hitters did against each pitch, credited to the one that ended the plate appearance, and are left blank under 15 at-bats.

Head to head

Put A.J. Burnett beside up to three others.

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A.J. Burnett

Similar players

Nearest 2015 seasons by command, run prevention and role, on rate statistics rather than totals.

Tyler DuffeyMIN

ERA: 3.10
FIP: 3.24
SO: 53
WAR: 1.2

Very close

J.A. HappSEA

ERA: 3.61
FIP: 3.41
SO: 151
WAR: 3.0

Very close

Shelby MillerATL

ERA: 3.02
FIP: 3.45
SO: 171
WAR: 3.6

Very close

Alex WoodATL

ERA: 3.84
FIP: 3.69
SO: 139
WAR: 2.7

Very close

How these are computed

wOBA uses linear weights measured from this season's own play-by-play rather than published constants, and wRC+ is park-adjusted against that same league. dbWAR is our own open implementation — not fWAR or bWAR — and the full derivation, including its simplifications, is on the methodology page.