Just curious, Was Greg Maddux an ace? Age 30-36 he was a clear #1 and his career K/9 of 6. His best seasons were 7.3 and 7.8. As long as his BB/9 runs don’t increase it isn’t a big deal. The credit for the home run yesterday goes to the hitter. The pitch was far from a meatball.
An interesting stats …. Maddux faced around 20,500 batters and only allowed something like 350 3-0 counts ….his BB/9 was 1.8 for his career and under 1.5 from 30-36. After that he wasn’t an ace but a very good #3. And he played part of his career in the roid era.
Burnes doesn’t need to fan 10-12 per 9. If he manages a K/9 per 9 that’s plenty good enough if he can get the BB/9 under 2.0. He’s currently at 1.5 this season and was 1.8 two seasons ago. And 2.6 for his career. But that doesn’t matter when your are struck ing 10-12 batters .