Prior to his being traded to the New York Yankees, the subject of Bobby Abreu's value as a ballplayer and his relationship to the fans of Philadelphia was one of the most widely discussed topics concerning the Phillies.
For a time, he was considered vastly underrated, and by the time he left in July of 2006, most would probably say he was overrated. But his mid-season trade has done to that topic what the Internet did to the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue: it still comes up in conversation occasionally, but it's not the staple it used to be.
Whether he likes it or not, the mantle of Most Polarizing Player (the MPP, which if it had a trophy would be -- apropos for Philly -- a giant bronze battery with massive "+" and "-" on each end) has been handed to Pat Burrell. Most would agree Burrell has had his ups and downs in Philly, but other than that, his value to the team is largely open for regular debate. As a matter of fact, if we are being honest, most of us, yours truly included, have that debate in our own minds, let alone with other people.
Below are five (in honor of Pat the Bat's uniform number) sets of statistical comparisons which are not meant in any way to sway you to give Burrell a thumbs up or a thumbs down. No, no. These numbers are meant to place you squarely on the fence like most of us when considering Burrell's value over the past seven seasons to the Phillies.
- Less Filling: From 2000-2006 among players who have come to the plate with at least 300 baserunners on in front of them, Burrell ranks 194th in terms of percentage of runs driven in (15.15%). Tastes Great: Despite the poor ranking, his standing is still better than Mike Piazza, Derek Jeter, Jason Varitek, and Derrek Lee, players whose "clutchiness" are seldom questioned.
- Less Filling: In 2006, with runners in scoring position and two out, Burrell batted just .167. Tastes Great: Over the course of his six-year career, The Bat has 610 plate appearances with runners in scoring position and two outs and has a .871 OPS with 199 RBI.
- Less Filling: With a runner on third base and less than two outs, Burrell has struck out 48 times in 291 plate appearances when simply making contact would have scored the runner, or, roughly one out of every 6 times. Tastes Great: If Burrell comes to the plate with a man on third with a tie score in the ninth inning, he has never failed to drive that runner home (granted, there have only been two occurrences in his career, but still, he's never failed).
- Less Filling: By many objective measures of range (PMR, Plus/Minus, etc.) Pat Burrell typically ranks near the bottom among left fielders. Tastes Great: In most years, Burrell ranks among the leaders for fielding percentage and outfield assists for left fielders (some would say that Burrell has a lot of assists because runners feel he has a weak arm and therefore take more chances on him than they would against other arms, thereby artificially inflating his assist total, but Burrell has been around the league long enough for runners to know he has a good arm, so the number of assists likely reflects a good arm).
- Less Filling: In 2006, Burrell was 70th in all of baseball in terms of win probability added while Ryan Howard ranked second. Tastes Great: According to Kevin Roberts of the Courier-Post, Burrell hit .423 after opposing pitchers walked Ryan Howard in 2006, including a .769 slugging percentage.
Historically, Burrell has received so much attention because of the quality of his collegiate resume and the size of his contract (due $27 million in 2007-2008). But heading into the 2007, a more pertinent reason exists: he's the only true right-handed slugger on the Phillies have (Wes Helms career .447 slugging percentage does not make him a slugger) and therefore, his success balancing the lineup and making pitchers pay that choose to pitch around Chase Utley and Ryan Howard is crucial.
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Hall of Famer Mike Schmidt Criticizes Burrell, Adam Dunn:
"I look at Dunn and Burrell and I go, 'My God, if these guys cut their strikeouts down to 75 or 80, they put the ball in play 85 or 90 more times a year.' That's at least 15 more home runs a year and at least 35 more RBIs a year... I mean, why would Dunn and Burrell watch what Pujols does and not want to be like him, as good as he is?... When their careers are over, they are going to wonder how much they left on the table, how much they left on the field. If only they had choked up with two strikes, spread their stances out. What they are doing now is not great, it is mediocrity."
For many, their initial reaction might be something along the lines of, "That's great Schmitty, but didn't you strike out a ton too?"
Indeed, he did. For most of his career, Schmidt was well above the league average for strikeouts per plate appearance. But by the time his career was ending, Schmidt had definitely decreased his K's and was even below the league average.
Burrell and Dunn on the other hand, don't appear to be learning anything and are well above the strikeout rate Schmidt settled into for the prime of his career.
Phillies fans can take solace that Burrell is at least holding steady, while Dunn seems to be getting worse, not better.
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Resources: Statistical data from the Day By Day Database and Baseball-Reference.com. Graphics from FanGraphs.com.
