Thursday, May 24, 2007
Pat the Bat
Despite their best efforts to the contrary the Phillies actually won last night's game against the Florida Marlins despite a horrific ninth-inning meltdown that saw Brett Myers allow four runs and some terrible defensive work by Carlos Ruiz, who ought to have tagged Hanley Ramirez out at the plate to end the game, but did not. Despite their best efforts to lose the game, the Phillies dug-out a 8-7 win, but it was an ugly, ugly win that raises many more questions about the Phillies than it answers.
I decided today to take a quick … emphasis on quick … look at the performance of Pat Burrell thus far this year. After a slow start – one home run in April, in 72 At-Bats – Burrell has picked things up and has hit four home runs in May. Not exactly on a tear, but vastly improving himself. The interesting thing about Burrell’s performance thus far in 2007 is that while he is getting a lot of heat from critics he really is playing pretty well. In many respects, this is one of his finer seasons.
Let’s start with walks. Pat Burrell is a bases on balls machine:
BB/PA
2004: .146
2005: .148
2006: .173
2007: .218
That tremendous ability to draw walks is the reason why his On-Base-Percentage (OBP) is an astonishing .418. How many power hitters draw more walks than strikeouts?
Has Burrell lost any pop? I don’t think so. His slow start in terms of home runs ignores the fact that he’s hit eight doubles as well and his Isolated Power at the plate is .205, off of his .244 from 2006 and his .223, but still pretty good and well above the league average. He’s still a player with a lot of pop in his stroke.
Thus far this season Burrell is hitting well in the clutch, hitting .303, compared to last season’s .222. Believe in clutch hitting or not, but that’s a factor.
Finally, Burrell is actually a better contributor – narrowly – to the Phillies this season than in 2005 or 2006. In 2005 he had 110 Runs Created. At his current pace he’ll have 113. Despite all of the attention given to Jimmy Rollins and to Shane Victorino’s running, Burrell is a better contributor to the Phillies offense:
RC27:
Rowand: 7.61
Utley: 7.52
Burrell: 7.20
Rollins: 5.97
Victorino: 5.42
Alright, tomorrow we'll talk a little about Jamie Moyer.
I decided today to take a quick … emphasis on quick … look at the performance of Pat Burrell thus far this year. After a slow start – one home run in April, in 72 At-Bats – Burrell has picked things up and has hit four home runs in May. Not exactly on a tear, but vastly improving himself. The interesting thing about Burrell’s performance thus far in 2007 is that while he is getting a lot of heat from critics he really is playing pretty well. In many respects, this is one of his finer seasons.
Let’s start with walks. Pat Burrell is a bases on balls machine:
BB/PA
2004: .146
2005: .148
2006: .173
2007: .218
That tremendous ability to draw walks is the reason why his On-Base-Percentage (OBP) is an astonishing .418. How many power hitters draw more walks than strikeouts?
Has Burrell lost any pop? I don’t think so. His slow start in terms of home runs ignores the fact that he’s hit eight doubles as well and his Isolated Power at the plate is .205, off of his .244 from 2006 and his .223, but still pretty good and well above the league average. He’s still a player with a lot of pop in his stroke.
Thus far this season Burrell is hitting well in the clutch, hitting .303, compared to last season’s .222. Believe in clutch hitting or not, but that’s a factor.
Finally, Burrell is actually a better contributor – narrowly – to the Phillies this season than in 2005 or 2006. In 2005 he had 110 Runs Created. At his current pace he’ll have 113. Despite all of the attention given to Jimmy Rollins and to Shane Victorino’s running, Burrell is a better contributor to the Phillies offense:
RC27:
Rowand: 7.61
Utley: 7.52
Burrell: 7.20
Rollins: 5.97
Victorino: 5.42
Alright, tomorrow we'll talk a little about Jamie Moyer.
Labels: Batting, Burrell, Power-Hitting
Comments:
Ruiz came into the game because Barajas was ejected for arguing the call at home plate (which he was wrong about clearly - great call by the ump).
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