This Makes Way Too Much Sense

My buddy for Mister Nascar has been saying for the past couple years that he thinks Pat Burrell needs his eyes checked. Apparently, the Phils agree. Check this out from Monday's Daily News:

"I just don't think Burrell is seeing the ball," said Mike Bucci, who played professionally for 9 years after being drafted by the Texas Rangers out of West Chester University and then spent 5 years managing in the Rangers and Indians systems.

Joe Klein, executive director of the independent Atlantic League and former major league general manager with the Rangers, Indians and Tigers, agrees.

Well, it makes sense. Hitting a baseball is one of the hardest tasks in sports. And hitting it without seeing it clearly obviously increases the degree of difficulty immeasurably.

It would also help explain why Burrell (who has declined all interview requests this offseasaon) has led the majors in taking called third strikes in each of the last two seasons (68 times in 2005 and 63 last year) while frequently swinging at pitches far out of the strike zone.
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"When I was coaching in the minors, I had a couple players who had real good years and then came back and had off years," he explained. "I'd say to them, 'When was the last time you had your eyes checked?'"

One notable case, he said, was a shortstop named Dave Darretta. A high draft pick of the Rangers, his hitting had started to regress. After having his eyes examined, he improved to the point where he hit a home run to help his team win the Gulf Coast League championship in 1984.

"Burrell absolutely reminds me of that," said Bucci, now a job-placement specialist at the Health and Science Center in Media who still conducts hitting clinics on the side. "When you jump out of the way of the ball the way he does and then the pitch is a strike, that just tells me he's not seeing the ball."

I guess that's one take on his problem. Another could be that he's more preoccupied chasing the ladies than improving his hitting, but I've already beaten that horse to death. Another could be that he just plain sucks, which unfortunately is likely the case.