i think burrell walks after this season, because i can’t see the phillies paying 12-15 million to keep him here when they wouldn’t give rowand 10-12 to stay.

i wouldn’t mind letting burrell go, cuz i would rather spend the money on pitching. i would like to have a guy with speed, that gets on base in that position – someone who will help this team generate runs by means other than the long-ball.

i would take the 12 million that burrell will cost, and add about 5-8 million to that and give it to sabathia.

also, i know juan pierre has fallen out of favor in los angeles, i would take a shot at him to play the outfield. he wouldn’t cost much, especially if the dodgers can resign manny, they will have nowhere to play pierre.

Problemssss:

1. He has a long, arduous swing
2. His swing is initiated with left elbow and hands way to high. I do agree to an extent that it does not matter where a batter’s hands come to set in the stance, but it is crucial that the hands and knob of the bat get on the plane of the pitch during negative move (some call it load or trigger).
3. He is not balanced. During his swing, as soon as his hands clear is his left shoulder, he collapses the complete left side of his body. This causes a severe upper cut swing.
4. His hands and the barrell of the bat do not stay on the plane of the pitch. He chips upward through the plane of the pitch, and not directly back through the plane of the pitch towards the pitcher. That is the key to driving the ball!
5. He is not hitting off of his front foot because of the collapsing left side of his body and a significant body imbalance leaning towards the catcher.
6. He opens his hips and right shoulder up prematurely causing the barrell of the bat to pull away and to the right side and away from the optimal point of contact.

I work with 10-12 year olds who can flat out drive the ball after a few simple corrections. Milt and Charlie……how you can continue to let Jenkins hit with his dreadful swing mechanics?????? It’s beyond me.

so lets say we let burrell go. you spend the money on a pitcher. you can have golson as a 5th outfielder but you know hes not ready to start everyday yet. a few of our prospects have developed lately and some of them on the rise might make some others expendable. do you trade some of our top prospects for a power-hitting left fielder going into the last year or two of his contract? JA Happ is going to be lost in the mix here I think. He needs to start regularly but i dont think hell do that here. maybe you move him with a package that includes a good relief prospect and a good outfield prospect for the best guy you can get. i dunno.

it creates such a problem. its so much easier to keep burrell then you dont have to worry about all that. then all you have to do is get an elite starter which is safer to do by trade then by free agent signing because of the absurd amounts of money being thrown around.

Is Durbin just signed for this year? He’ll get a nice contract going into next year…

They’ll have to increase payroll to get a pitcher.. BUT.. if they don’t resign Burrell.. that money is sitting there for you.. but then we’ll need someone to replace him.. Baseball’s offseason is nuts

We all thought that our infield alone was good for close to 150 HR this year.. Howard 40-50, Utley 30, Rollins 20-30, Feliz 20, Catchers 15-20

If those guys are hitting the long ball, you can get away with speedy outfielders who don’t drive the ball as much as Burrell… If Golson could stop striking out all the time, he would be awesome.. an OF consisting of Werth, Golson, Victorino would be great defensively..

We would all like to see them draft well, and develop top young talent, and be able to trade players for additional top talent.. so that you have YOUNG superstars in waiting under your control for 5 years or so.. With that remaining money you are saving, be able to go out and sign established players to contracts, and have them perform as expected.. If you continue those patterns, you keep yourself operating as a winning team for quite some time, and hopefully give yourself a chance to breakthrough and win a World Series.

I wish they would do a better job of those things, just like everyone else does

But Burrell, Rollins, Utley, Howard, Hamels, Myers, Madson, have all contributed to this team’s rise from the joke of NL East. to one of the top teams in the entire National League… They have Utley locked up, They have Howard and Hamels under their control for 3-4 years still… It will be interesting to see if they resign Burell, and what they do with Myers and Madson in the future.. this team, as currently constructed should have until the end of next season to breakthrough.. if they can’t get it done at that point… step back and make some moves. as Feliz will be gone too, we could be looking at a roster overhaul sooner than later.

I think one has to be careful about theories like Moneyball. Certainly it has valuable ideas and interesting thoughts but how many championships has Moneyball produced? None that I know of.

oh wait, a minute, did u guys say Jenkins is the key? buzzkill. James – pass that over here mAAAHn.

And yes Fred, he also says that the strikeout is by far the worst thing you can do in baseball. Way worse than even a ground out.

Bottom Line: The averages aren’t the answer. The phils aren’t getting on base enough.

Get off Rollins’ case. Considering last year was an aberration, he is pretty much matching his career averages. Jimmy is what he is. A better than average shortstop and a .270 hitter.

The big guns, Utley and Howard, are killing this team. After two years of .309 and .332 average, Utley’s .284 isn’t getting it done in the 3 hole. (Not to mention he looks like he’s in la-la land land half the time.) Howard’s record setting pace of 162 strikeouts absolutely takes the wind out of the sails in crucial moments. (And I argue strikeouts do count – they’re a momentum killer.)

Between the two, these guys make 17.8 mil. Start earning that jingle.