Rosenthal's Latest: Teixeira, Burnett, Sherrill

Why would teams really be afraid of Burnett's contract? The AAV isn't bad, and there's only a two month window where he could get really injured. If he walks they get automatic picks.

No team is afraid of his contract, this is a classic example of the media having no idea what they are talking about. Half the league didn't go scout Burnett last night because they are scared of his contract. 12m a year for him is a tremendous bargain, and teams should only pray they could lock themselves into that contract. Unless of course he all of a sudden gets injured and needs Tommy John, and that's just impossible to predict, for ANY pitcher.

"The A's chose first baseman Chris Carter over Emilio Bonifacio in the Dan Haren trade."

I find this to be an interesting decision on Beane'e part. At the time of the trade, Mark Ellis was still going to be a free agent after this year, but they had nothing at second base. Cardenas and Weeks weren't there yet, so I'm shocked as to why Bonifacio wouldn't be part of that deal.

Especially to replace him with Chris Carter, who has awesome power potential, but the guys a first baseman and the A's already have Barton.

Obviously Beane and Forst saw some things they really liked about Carter, and didn't seem too hot on Bonifacio.

I mean Carter's gotta be pretty good, he did get traded straight up for some guy named Quentin. I heard he's doing pretty well onw.

The Braves and Dbacks seems to be an interesting idea. The hold up I believe that makes the deal unlikely is that the Braves probably would want either Max Schezer or Conor Jackson as the cornerstone of the deal, and both those players are two valueable to Arizona. On the other hand, you cannot fault the braves for asking for either one of those as the cornerstone of a potential return, simply because they are the type of players the Braves want in return. I think a match could be found here, its just that Arizona does not have the depth in its farm system at this point to mix and match up potential parts of a deal. No doubt though, If I were Frank Wren, I would exhaust every effort to see if a matchup could be found, becuse Scherzer or Jackson would be a great addition to the Braves' Future. Obviously, Justin Upton is untouchable, and I am not sure if the braves want to have interest in chris b young.

I don't think teams are afraid of the money in Burnett's contract, but the opt-out clause. That makes it difficult to price him. He's worth significantly more if he doesn't exercise it, so if you're looking at him do you assume he's using it or not?

"Unless of course he all of a sudden gets injured and needs Tommy John, and that's just impossible to predict, for ANY pitcher."

All of a sudden gets injured?

Let's go over his track record.

03: TJ surgery
04: Shut down in September b/c of elbow
06: DL twice
07: 2 more stints on the DL

Yeah, injuries are impossible to predict. But some pitchers have greater odds of missing the rest of the season than others.

Do you think the injury concern re: Burnett has nothing to do with the media stating that gm's are afraid of his contract?

Do you think the GM's looking at him are not concerned about his health way more than other pitchers out there?

It's not a matter of just the 12 million a year. I don't think that number in itself is what makes his contract scary.

I'm glad they picked Carter, or else the White SOx might not have Quentin.