More on Pat the Bat

My take on Pat Burrell's surprising statistics as the 3rd all-time on the Phillies home run list:

The public perception of Burrell is completely warped because of the steroids era. He is the BIGGEST victim of all the inflated offensive numbers. I can't believe no one recognizes this or talks about this. In any other era, he is a perennial all-star. But in the steroids age, he is an underachieving disappointment.

Your note about his place in the team's record books prompted me to go and look at his numbers. He's averaged 30 HRs and 102 RBIs over 10 seasons. That is rock solid offensive production from any left fielder. In fact, it compares very favorably to former Reds' George Foster (29/102 - albeit over 18 seasons) - and they both had the same .480 slugging % or Yaz 22/90 (albeit a much longer 23 seasons).

Admittedly, I'm kind of surprised that 252 HRs is 3rd all-time on the Phillies. But at the time he was drafted, is there any Phillies fan that would not have been thrilled had they been told, we just selected Pat Burrell and you can put him down for 30/100 in each of the next ten years. heck, after the fact i think Phillies fans would be both surprised and hopefully appreciative of those numbers.

BTW, JD Drew's 12 year season average is 26 HRs and 85 RBIs.