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Pat Burrell Is Bored Playing For The Rays
Pat Burrell March 8th. 2010, 9:30am
With the Rays facing the Phillies yesterday, it was to be expected that the Philadelphia media would catch up with one of the heroes from the 2008 WFC* Phillies squad. And while Pat Burrell chose his words somewhat carefully, it sure sounds like playing for the Rays bores the crap out of him.
First it is the fanbase…
“I don’t know if there is any way of saying this without getting myself in trouble,” Burrell said. “But there is definitely a different excitement level [in Philadelphia]. I think more than anything, there is a stronger tradition for baseball there. That goes without saying…I probably saw the full parameter of the good and the bad. But at all times you knew that people cared. They want you to win and they come out and support you. I’m not sure enough players appreciate that because there aren’t many places like it.”
Then he complained about being a DH…
“When you realize how much time there can be between at-bats sometimes, you have to find a way to fill that time and still stay up to speed with the game. It doesn’t sound that difficult, but it can be at times.”
Certainly not the harshest comments ever, but put together, you get the impression that The Bat is counting the days until he hits free agency again.
You gotta love guaranteed contracts in baseball. Both sides want a divorce and yet they have to live with each other for another year. Of course, in the end, it is the kids fans that suffer the most.
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I’m counting the days until he’s a free agent too. Sounds like Aubrey Huff all over again.
Pat meet Hank. Hank meet Pat.
Pat “this is hank blalock, he is here to take your job for a tenth of the price, good luck to you pat, but mostly goof luck to us”
Maybe we can setup a champagne room in the clubhouse so he won’t get bored between at-bats.
Ideally, if Pat is so bored he’d really bring it this year; that way he’ll play himself into a decent contract that the Rays would be unwilling to match (not that there’s any chance we’re keeping him anyway).
I’d be curious to see an analysis of the batting performance of long-time position players in their first year as a full-time DH. I get the feeling the boredom factor is pretty common.
Funny thing about the first quote is that if Burrell just leaves out the “getting myself in trouble” part, he wouldn’t be getting himself in trouble. Without that first part, it just sounds like he is paying Phillies fans a compliment, something nobody would be shocked to hear. But by adding the first part, all of the sudden it becomes a slap in the face of the Rays and their fans.
At least Aubrey produced.
sounds like a former star, whose skills are declining–yet he is too proud to admit it, so he blames it on EVERYTHING else. yes, we don’t have a ton of baseball tradition in Tampa–being that the franchise is less than 15 years old–personally, I think it would be really cool to help BUILD that tradition–thus eliminating my own bordem.
Both sides don’t have to live with eachother, do they? Can’t Pat say “i quit”? If he had truly wanted to test free agency a year earlier, would he have been prohibited from doing so? I’m quite sure that if Pat and his agent had gone to the Rays last October and said “let me out of this contract now” they would have done so.
I agree with Thomas, above — Pat had a lousy year and he’s looking for excuses.
Trust me Pat we care — and we see you PED-aided career crashing and burning on our doorstep and we’re not too happy about it. In fact, the $9M you make this year while we can’t sign our homegrowns is actually tragic.
The Rays atmostphere is what it is — nothing new there. But a failing slugger without his superman juice, that is something new. Can’t wait until he is on the bench and contracts don’t dictate the starting line-up anymore.
With a terrible clubhouse presence, he is officially the worst signing in Rays’ history, surpassing Guzman.
I didn’t like all the noise coming from the PtB camp this weekend. He needs to keep his mouth shut and produce. I’m going to give him the benefit of April before I start trashing him. That’s probably about the same amount of time the Rays give him.
He and Kapler were bad signings and we have to deal with them this season too. They need to bench Burrell, letting him suck all year just seems so insane to me. There has to be a point when they stop giving him at bats. I would give him 3 games and if he sucks then I’d bench his ass.
Why was Kapler a bad signing? He plays great defense and hits lefties very well… perfect guy to be a 4th OF and platoon bat.
With a farm system like the Rays have, it was a crime to have Kapler playing last year while young players rotted in Durham. Much rather have Joyce/Raggiano/Brignac (Zobrist in RF) up and send Kapler back to retirement and his body building.
When he was bad — April, May and into June — he was completely bad. Two automatic outs against lefties — Burrell and Kapler. This must not stand in 2010.
Let’s just hope this Hank Blalock deal gets done today–I’d be happy if he generated 14 HR and 60 some RBI’s like Burrell did last year–just because we won’t be paying him 8 million a year…with that kind of money, Burrell needs to jack 30 home runs and 110+ RBI’s to justify it–and maybe he should hire a spokesperson so he doesn’t sound like an idiot when he talked to the press after having a horrible year.
I’m counting the days until he’s gone. Keep your mouth shut Pat especially when you can’t hit!
Even… MR. Patience (Maddon) is making noises of having enough from this guy…what I have seen so far (its early) I don’t expect to see much improvement this year….but this is the Question….
If he does get a bad start…first 20-30 games will Maddon/management stick with him?…when we have so many better hitters sitting…..
It will be a serious ego blow to sit the $ 9mil man sit while a $400,000 man plays….see IF they are MEN enough to do it????
[...] newly acquired Hank Blalock can DH and Burrell can take some turns in the field to cure his “bordem” of being in Tampa [...]
[...] newly acquired Hank Blalock can DH and Burrell can take some turns in the field to cure his “bordem” of being in Tampa [...]