Patty the batty

July has come and gone and we just got word that the player of the month is...wait for it, wait for it...

Ryan Braun.

Oh well, who the frig cares about that anyway.  We are trying to win a championship.  I am certainly going to bathe in his recent success since I have pretty much backed him from day one, and if he goes in the toilet at least I'll have this.  

Pat Burrell has decided to come out of his semi-comatose June swoon and put up Safeco huge numbers in July.  This is a fairly unprecedented turn of events because Pat hasn't had many months as poor as his June was and he hasn't had many months as good as his July.

Pat's Lows and Highs in OPS by month since 2002...

2002:
Low: June- .811
High: May- 1.125

2003:
Low: June- .606
High: August- .854

2004:
Low: June- .717
High: May- 1.122

2005:
Low: July- .855
High: April- .955

2006:
Low: June- .826
High: April- 1.013

2007:
Low: June-.551
High: July- 1.332

One thing not told on here is that Pat has been remarkably consistent the last 3 years.  He has had 1 month with an OPS below .770 and that was June of this year and May of this year was his only OPS below .826.  For a marked man, those are some pretty good numbers.

The two things we can see are a) this is not just the biggest seasonal difference, but back to back montly difference.  His OPS in July was more than DOUBLE that of his in June.  Ridiculous.  The other thing is apparently Pat's dog died in June when he was 11 because he just HATES that month.  Even in 2005 his June OPS was just right behind July.  If we ever are going to bench him, June is the right time of month.

Pat ended June with an 0-4 against the Mets (he didn't play in the last game) dropping his numbers to .203 .367 .368 .735.  That is close to his 2003 line where he was just awful for most of the year.  Pat got to play on July 1st because Charlie keeps better monthly charts than we do and knew Pat was about to explode.  He got 2 walks and no hits in 2 ABs and his OPS stood at a season low of .201 .369 .364 .733.  

Pat then turned it on by which we rarely see around here (at least by non-Howard players.   Pat got a hit in 20 of the Phillies 25 games in July.  In the 5 games in which he did not register a hit, 0-2 with 2 walks, 0-1 as a pinch hitter, 0-0 as he did not play, 0-2 with 2 walks and 0-2 with 2 walks.  He reached base in every game he started.  Those are some pretty good numbers.  His final line for July looks like this...

.435 .564 .768 1.332 17 R 30 H 5 2B 6 HR 22 RBI 21 BB 15 K

He raised his line from
.203 .367 .368 .735
.260 .418 .466 .884

That is 57 points in average, 51 points in OBP, 98 points in SLG and 149 points in OPS.  And he has continued into August as he finished up July.  His line now stands at .268 .426 .484 .911 which ties him  for 4th among MLB left fielders.  More amazingly he ranks t23rd in MLB overall in OPS with Aaron Rowand.  

Here is something else to chew on, especially for the Burrell haters out there.  The Phils have 4 players in the top 23 in OPS (Utley, Howard, Rowand and Burrell).  Florida has 2 (Cabrera and Ramirez).  The Yankees have 2 (ARod and Posada).  Detroit has 3 (Ordonez, Granderson and Sheffield).  St. Louis has 2 (Pujols and Duncan).  Atlanta has 2 (Chipper and newly acquired Teixeira).  Of the 23 teams, 15 are on 6 teams.  That leaves 9 other teams fielding a player who is having a better year than Burrell (if the math doesn't add up it is because Burrell and Rowand share 23rd AND 24th places).

So, 6 + 9 = 15 teams
30 teams - 15 teams = 15 teams

15 teams, or, half of the league, do NOT have a player on their roster having as GOOD as a season as Pat Burrell.  I just want to let that sink in for a moment.

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Yeap, you read it right.  We can nit pick a bit on the numbers, but you get my point.  Yeah, THAT Pat Burrell.  He'd be leading FIFTEEN teams in offense at this point of the year.  He'd be their BIG gun, their GOTO man, their HOT STUD.  The concept is mind boggling based on how he was at the end of June.  

The guy has gotten his share of venom from the fans, but he is putting up another good year after two previous good years and all we want to do is trade him.  I am nto sure how long this will last, but kudos to Pat right now as he could have just given up on the season completely and went into a hole, but instead did a complete turn around and put up his best month ever.