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Pat the Bat is a Ray

burrell.jpgNow that the biggest dominoes in the free agent market have fallen, the rest are starting to topple, too. Pat Burrell was one of the bigger bones in the metaphorical boneyard, and he fell today. He’ll bring his bat (and indifferent glove) to the Tampa Bay Rays, the team the Phils defeated in the World Series.

The Florida team inked him to a two-year, $16M deal today, and his combination of potent offense and sub-par defense makes him a perfect fit at DH, though he’s never played the position full-time at the major-league level. In 22 games at DH in interleague play, he’s put up a futile .153/.258/.224 line, even if 97 PAs in eight years is a rather small sample space.

Still, the move will bring a big bat to plunk down somewhere in the middle of their order, possibly anchoring sluggers like Longoria or Pena. Traditionalists may sniff at Burrell’s .257 lifetime BA, but he’s exceeded .360 OBP six times and .500 SLG five times in the past seven years.

Burrell is one of the top “Three True Outcomes” (TTO) hitters of the modern era, ranking sixth in TTOs/PA. The concept of TTO—strikeout, walk, and homerun—refers to the only three results of a plate appearance that result directly from the pitcher-batter interaction (that is, defense is not a factor). 42.9% of Burrell’s plate appearances are TTOs, putting him between Mickey Tettleton (43.5%) and Jay Buhner (42.3%) on that list. Active players Adam Dunn (48.9%) and Jim Thome (47.6%) are ahead of him on the list, along with Mark McGwire (45.6%) and Rob Deer (49.1%).

Whether Burrell’s career ends up more like Thome or Deer, he’s likely to fit in fine with a Rays team that ranked fifth in the majors in strikeouts, third in walks, and tenth in home runs. And he may have found the perfect landing spot for a guy with a glove of stone.

One Response to “Pat the Bat is a Ray”

  1. mikedee Says:

    Sorry to see you go Pat! Have fun in FL…

    We’ll always remember you riding down Broad street on those clydesdales!

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