Pat Burrell, the Phillies' left fielder, had a nice second half last season and helped propel Philadelphia into the playoffs. I asked some talent evaluators to give their assessment of Burrell:
From an NL scout: "He went the other way a lot more in the second half; he didn't try to pull everything. Before that, it was as if he saw the short fence [in Philly] and saw nothing but home runs. It seemed like in the second half of last year, he figured out that the home runs would come by accident, and he tried to hit the ball the other way.
"It'll be interesting to see him this year. He's painful to watch, because of his physical problems, but it's his free-agent year. He'll either sell out and try to hit a lot of home runs and try to be an AL-type DH, or he'll keep taking steps to becoming a more rounded player and a guy who hits to all fields. He may feel pressure to make up for some of the offense that they lose with Aaron Rowand leaving.
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Buster Olney
