Yesterday Pat Burrell signed a 2 year deal for 16 mil to play for the American League Champion Rays. The main knock against Burrell is his poor defense. The Rays can just insert his bat into the lineup at DH and not have to worry about his questionable defense. The Rays have a very good defensive outfield with Crawford in left, Upton in center and Matt Joyce in right. Mitch Williams said on the Hot Stove Report he is a decent outfielder with a good arm. So if Crawford goes down like last year at least they have a usable substitution. The other knock on Burrell was he has a relatively low batting average. But again this is a case when we need to look a little deeper than traditional stats. Burrell walked from 98-114 times over the past 4 years. His OBA for the past 4 years are 367, 400, 388, 389. Burrell will fit in very nicely with Joe Madden's philosophy about working the count. Burrell can also take the Cliff Floyd role of the veteran to the young Rays. Knowing he only got 16 mil over two years is very surprising. He received alot less money than Edgar Renteria. For a guy who has averaged over 30HRs and 100RBIs. The Phils paid Raul Ibanez who is 4 years older 31 for 3. By all indications Burrell wanted to stay in Philly. Financially Burrell would have been a alot better fit than Ibanez. The Rays now can have the following lineup Iwamura, Crawford, Upton, Pena, Longoria, Burrell, Joyce, Navarro and Bartlett. The money the Yankees have spent on Teixera, Burnett and Sabathia comes to almost the payroll for all the Rays starters, starting rotation and entire bullpen. The Rays are much better now than they were last year. It looks like the 3 best teams in the AL are all in the east.
In the other big news Milton Bradley signed for 3 years and 30 mil with the Cubs. The Cubs were in a opposite situation than the Rays. Tampa needed a right handed bat which is another reason the Burrell signing is so good. The Cubs needed a left handed bat. As during the playoffs the Dodgers used all right handed pitchers. There is no question that Bradley can hit. Though I do believe last year was a career year for him. There is also no question Bradley comes with alot of baggage. If the Cubs moved Mark DeRosa to clear up money to sign Bradley I'm not thrilled with the move. Also the Cubs have a pretty solid outfield already with Soriano, Reed Johnson and Fukudome. Scoring runs was not the problem last year. Also Bradley is not a good outfielder who never seems to play more than 120 games. I won't go into all of Bradley's off the field problems. Frankly I don't have that much time. This signing is a risk. If he stays out of trouble and finally matures, a big if, the Cubs will be very strong again. But the Cubs would have been fine without him. I think if I was the Cubs I would not have signed him. Then if the need for a left handed hitter was that strong I'm sure they could have got one near the trading deadline. This would not have cost them 30 mil.
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I completely agree with your assessment of the Rays. They will not go quietly into that good night despite all of the money being spent by the Yankees. I recall telling you last summer how much I liked Joyce and think that this trade will look better as the year progresses. Let's hope they sell tickets but not too many that all the games are sellouts - you know what I mean.
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