"As Casey Stengel might have said — he said a lot of stuff, so just go with it — there's a befuddling dichotomy to this baseball business, and we hereby nominate A.J. Burnett as today's example of this thesis.

If you think back to July, there was no long-term scenario that struck you as promising — not with regard to A.J., not for the Yankees' season at large. Sure, Joe Girardi still had this thing on the tracks, but there seemed to be an inevitable exit awaiting this club in October, for two reasons: There were no lefty arms, which meant the first six guys in the Red Sox's lineup could go 14-for-24 every game, and there was no No. 2 starter."