Burrell Back in Philly?: It Just Doesn't Make Sense

My Fellow Phans,

An issue that I have seen brought up more and more is the issue of recently cut Bat Burrell returning to his former team. As much as I love good ol’ Pat the Bat, there is simply not a place for him on the current roster. We have a solid group of players who each know and have their roles and it is not something that you want to mess with. If someone came to me right now and said that the Phillies were going to sign Burrell, I would ask them to consider the  following  before doing so.

The first would be, who is Burrell going to replace on our current roster. Our starting 8 is set when healthy so he would not fit there. Well then who on the bench would he replace?

How about Ben Francisco? Well Ben is an above average backup player who would put up better numbers if he just got more playing time. He could easily be a starter for a number of teams and the Phillies are lucky enough to have him as their 4^th outfielder.  Plus, Francisco can actually field; Burrell has been reduced to a designated hitter or a pinch hitter on a National League ballclub. Your 4^th outfielder needs to be versatile and able to fill it at a moment’s notice; Francisco can do that. Sorry to say that Burrell cannot.

I won’t even suggest him replacing Wilson Valdez or Juan Castro when Jimmy Rollins gets healthy due to the fact that they are our utility infielders and they are invaluable on a Major League Baseball team. Using the same logic, I count Brian Schneider out of this conversation because he is our backup catcher and we need to have a backup for Chooch.

So that leaves out two power lefties off the bench: Ross Gload and Greg Dobbs. Let’s start with Gload. He was simply one of the best pinch hitters in the league last year. Plus, he is arguably your best hitter on the bench. He is also your emergency 5^th outfielder and although he is not a traditional outfielder, he still moves better out there then Burrell does. So in short, Gload is too valuable to replace.

That leaves Greg Dobbs. Dobbs is the poor man’s version of Ross Gload. He is left-handed, plays both corner infield spots and the outfield as well. As his offense has struggled this season, as has Burrell’s numbers. While there is a small reason to consider replacing Dobbs with Burrell, I would take his ability to play the field, granted shaky at times, over Burrell’s inability to do much anymore.

In the end it looks like Burrell does not have a place on our bench, unless we decide to drop a reliever and carry fewer pitchers. Why on earth would that even be considered with the number of injuries to our pen already this season? Are Burrell’s numbers this year even good enough to warrant that type of thinking? I really do not think so.

Sorry to say this, but Burrell is not a fit for Philly this season. I love the man and what he helped do for this city, but we have moved on here. You will always be in our hearts Pat, but sadly not on our roster anymore.

Until we meet again Phillies Fans; Happy Readings and Go Phillies!!