As a friend mentioned to me, Pat Burrell is one expensive bench player at $9.5 mil. Burrell is out of the lineup tonight for the fourth time in five games. Definitely seems like the Phils are attempting to showcase David Dellucci, who has a .976 OPS in 128 ABs this season (not including the 0-fer tonight). Dellucci, a left-handed hitter, had an .879 OPS in 435 ABs last year with the Rangers. As crazy as it sounds, Dellucci might be every bit as productive as Carlos Lee for the remainder of the season.
Pat Burrell is doing his thing, with an OBP near .380 and a SLG around .500. He’s suffered a power outage in July, however, perhaps because of the sporadic PT. Burrell is one of the few legitimate above average hitters on the market; a team like the Yankees is in perfect position to acquire him without giving up much besides cash. He’ll make $27MM for 2007-08. Baseball Prospectus figures him to be worth just $8.5MM during that span. With the Thome deal as a standard, some team may be able to convince Pat Gillick to take on $10MM of the remaining contract.
