I look back on it and I’m not saying A.J. Burnett is the reason we didn’t win the World Series, nothing like that. But without being cocky and arrogant, I think if I would have pitched up to my par it would’ve been a lot smoother going into the postseason and we’d have had a lot better chance. I really felt, damn, they really could’ve used A.J.

– A.J. Burnett.

Burnett goes on to refer to himself in the third person twice more in the same Daily News article, for an impressive total of four. Not bad, sir.

Also of note: Burnett and his wife both find the band Disturbed worth traveling for.

Turns out the secret to CC Sabathia’s 25-pound weight loss this winter was another guy with the same initials.

“Not eating Cap’n Crunch every day,” Sabathia revealed when asked what changes he made to his diet to help him trim down from 315 lbs. to 290 since the end of last season. “I’m actually what it says on the back of my card.”

– Mark Feinsand, N.Y. Daily News.

Wow.

I’m in no position to judge anyone for his dietary choices, it’s just a bit surprising to me that anyone would waste so much space and calories on Cap’n Crunch. It’s not even close to the Top 3 sugary cereals. Those are, in order: Lucky Charms, Cinnamon Toast Crunch and Golden Grahams. And I avoid even those, because if I’m going to destroy my body it’s going to be with bacon dammit, not breakfast cereal. I generally start my days with a bowl of Kashi Honey Sunshine, which is actually shaped just like Cap’n Crunch, and is clearly not as good for me as it purports to be because it’s decent-tasting.

Cap’n Crunch reminds me of dog food, and for a very specific reason: My late dog, Muffin, ate Cap’n Crunch for breakfast every morning even though no one else in my family did. I don’t really know how it started — I was 7 or so — or why we had the cereal in the house to begin with, but she wouldn’t even eat Purina or whatever she was supposed to eat. She just wanted Cap’n Crunch. Also: Burgers. Dog ate a lot of burgers. Shockingly, she weighed twice as much as she should have and eventually died of dog diabetes. Good dog, though. Very chill. Slept a lot.

Anyway, good for the big fella for dropping down to his listed weight. No idea if it will actually impact his pitching at all, but you figure it’s got to help with his already impressive stamina.

It’s not my team. I don’t own it. They do. I’m a big boy. . . . In any job you better be prepared for every decision to not go your way. That’s part of being an employee. There were internal debates and discussions on it and disagreements in terms of how you should proceed, and ultimately Hal’s in charge of making the final call in what he feels is the best direction at that time frame. He made that call. This is Hal Steinbrenner’s and his family’s franchise. It’s not mine and it’s never been, obviously.

I’m in charge of making recommendations, and there’s a chain of command that certainly was followed. But this is not something that was done without me being aware of it. I had my say.

– Brian Cashman, on the Rafael Soriano signing.

Beyond the obvious comparison to be made with the Mets — with all the hand-wringing over meddling ownership — this is just straight-up weird.

I’ve certainly heard it suggested before that a team’s owner has overruled the GM in contract negotiations (Vernon Wells in Toronto and Eric Byrnes in Arizona come to mind), but I’m not sure I’ve ever heard a GM explicitly say he didn’t advocate a deal.

Maybe Cashman’s just being completely forthright here, since he does have a habit of letting certain would-be private details spill out into the press. But I wonder why he’d be so eager to distance himself from the contract, even if it is one that would be irresponsible if signed by any of the 29 teams with finite resources.

If I resist speculating about the Mets’ internal politics without concrete evidence, I should extend the Yankees the same courtesy. But certainly this suggests that Cashman is not operating with the autonomy I previously assumed he had been since George Steinbrenner’s health started failing.