Pat Must Go- The Website

http://www.patmustgo.com/index.html

The above link is to a website where you can pledge money toward buying out Pat Burrell's contract so the Phillies can dump him. This is the kind of Phillies fans' behavior I've learned to expect and yet will never understand.

It's no secret that Pat Burrell, his recent hot streak aside, is loathed by most Phillies fans for his apparent underachieving. As I've said before, I've spent way too much time and energy defending the guy. But here we go again-

1. Pat Burrell is an above average offensive player- almost every season. His one truly bad year was 2003- 4 YEARS AGO. Get over it, people. His past 3 seasons (including this one) have all been very good, and are his best other than his monster 2002.

2. The man is never going to hit 45 home runs a year, and yes he's going to strike out like he gets a free large Capogiro gelati for each one. But he also gets on base a ton, meaning he's very good at the important act of not making outs, and he actually does have very good power.

3. Even though he appears to be the laziest left fielder in baseball, he is perfectly average at the position (http://www.baseballprospectus.com/dt/burrepa01.php). The man is just slow; but he's trying his damnedest.

4. The claim of Burrell not being able to hit with RISP is BS. Over his career, he bats almost the same with RISP as without- just like almost ALL players. Clutch hitting is, for the most part, a myth- do a Google search and learn.

Yes, he is probably overpaid for the good offense and mediocre defense he provides, as are many, many major league players. He makes around the same as guys like Alfonso Soriano, Aramis Ramirez, and Carlos Lee, and over the past 3 years has had a similar RC/27 to all 3 of them. And sadly if Pat Burrell was any of those 3 men, Phillies fans would be overjoyed to have him on the team. But since here he's the demon hellspawn Pat Burrell, he's destined to suffer the insults of people who refuse to accept the truth- that Pat's okay.