Pat Burrell, Pete Rose, Mickey Mantle, and ... Jose Vidro?

by R.J. Anderson on May 1, 2009 12:47 PM EDT

The Rays signed Pat Burrell for his hot-streaks, and we're experiencing the first of his Rays career. The ‘heat wave' isn't going exactly as planned. Sure, over the last 43 plate appearances Burrell is hitting .324/.465/.353, but uh, when did Pat Burrell turn into a contact hitter making his living off singles and walks? This got me to wondering, how many other players throughout history have maintained an OBP over .380 with a slugging under .400?

In the Retrosheet era, a .380+ OBP and sub-.400 SLG has occurred 147 times. Call it, "Pulling a Rickey Henderson", because Henderson accomplished the feat so many times. Here's a few others:

Luis Castillo

Joe Morgan

F.P. Santangelo

Mickey Mantle

Greg Gross

Dwight Evens

Wade Boggs

Mark McLemore

Pete Rose

Todd Helton (last year)

Bill Mueller

Walt Weiss

Mike Hargrove

Carl Yastrzemski

Jose Vidro

That's a pretty wide spectrum of talent, and we're basing this on a small sample size anyways. You can view the rest of the list here. We know Burrell's power skills haven't decayed, but for whatever reason his contact skills have been improved. Odd.

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FP Santangelo

What a ballerrrr

by mittens on May 1, 2009 1:07 PM EDT reply actions

Let's say he did this the whole year.

Obviously that’s way below average power for a DH… but, it’s still pretty damn productive, right?

by Suttree on May 1, 2009 1:28 PM EDT reply actions

You mean his last two week's line, with the .465 OBP?

That would give him like a .390 wOBA. Close to the best season of his career.

by R.J. Anderson on May 1, 2009 1:43 PM EDT up reply actions

Is this based on career stats or seasonal?

Sign lady must die.

by EminenceFront on May 1, 2009 1:36 PM EDT reply actions

Seasonal.

by R.J. Anderson on May 1, 2009 1:40 PM EDT up reply actions

Probably much ado about nothing....

I think Burrell’s approach at the plate was never really appreciated in Philadelphia. I’ve heard the Phillies hitting coach in 2003 almost single handedly derailed his career because he encouraged hacking.

Fast forward to now, he’s in a organization that embraces and encourages a patient approach at the plate, maybe he feels a bit more comfortable, swinging at pitches even a bit less then he did with the Phillies, with the benefit of a bit more contact? It’s probably just a run of contact singles, but at least it looks like he is seeing the ball well and is getting on base.

by twenty5psi on May 1, 2009 2:13 PM EDT reply actions

It also could be the pitches he's getting.

I don’t have time to look at Pitch F/X data or anything, but it’s possible teams aren’t giving him pitches he can turn on, so he’s content just to knock singles to center and right field.

If he’s turned into Wade Boggs instead of the 30+ home run slugger were expecting, that’s cool with me, though this is almost assuredly a small sample size.

by Suttree on May 1, 2009 2:55 PM EDT up reply actions