The Ultimate Pat Burrell Post: Part 6 - Defense

Continuing with our Burrell posts, our final installment of the arguments made against Pat has come. This post will focus on the defensive capabilities that Burrell possesses. With this, we will touch on his speed and base running.

The statement we so often hear:

Burrell is a liability in the outfield. He has very little range and is very slow to get to balls hit to him. His sub-par defense hurts our team.

As we have done with all our other posts, let's first look at his numbers...

Year - PO / A / E / RF / fPCT
2004 - 217 /9 / 4 / 1.92 / .983
2005 - 236 / 10 / 7 / 1.71 / .972
2006 - 204 / 8 / 3 / 1.93 / .986

This shows us...Burrell is not a good fielder. His range factor is very weak and his fielding percentage changes year to year. Last season he committed three errors but had seven in 2005. Someone would have to be drunk, high or Charlie Manuel to say "Burrell is a great fielder." Your left fielder, however, typically isn't your stellar athlete. Also, compared to other left fielders, is he that horrendous?

In 2006...
Average fPCT for NL left fielders: .982
Burrell: .986

Average RF for NL left fielders: 1.97
Burrell: 1.93

Average errors by NL left fielders: 4
Burrell: 3

Average assists by NL left fielders: 5.8
Burrell: 8

Synopsis: In 2006, compared to the rest of the National League left fielders, Burrell was shockingly above average in fielding percentage, errors committed and assists. He was also only .04 less in range factor. Does this mean he is a credit to our outfield and deserves an award? Not at all. It just simply states that while he will never have the ability of Crawford, Beltran or Jim Edmonds, he is not as horrible as people make him out to be. Once again, we are not saying Burrell will ever win a gold glove or that he deserves praise because of his athletic ability. But we are saying that it is rare to have a team with a left fielder with supreme defensive skills. Yes...teams have them. But your average team in baseball is in the same situation as the Phillies: poor defense in left.

Plus we must not forget the cannon that Burrell possesses. I don't know how to find a stat on throwing arms. I am sure, however, some Dungeon and Dragons nerd out there made up one with his TI-83. And guess what...Burrell's arm would probably be up on the top of that list. There are two basic principles of defense: catching and throwing. We already established that Burrell isn't the best when it comes to getting to the ball, but once he does finally grab a hold of it, he can throw it with the best of them.

And as stated earlier, we will touch on Burrell's speed and baserunning. Here it is:

He is slow and sucks at running the bases...there. I can't defend it. But I can say that he has been running on a bum foot the past two seasons. And the surgery he had on his foot prior to this last season takes almost a year to fully heal. (I heard that on Daily News Live) So will he be running like J-Roll this upcoming season? Don't hold your breath. But you can't hate on a man for being born a slow runner...or white.

Almost done these posts. The next and final one will touch on everything else we missed. It will probably turn into a joke post talking about how we actually admire his pimp juice more than anything else.

LATER