If you've been following closely this season, you've noticed that Pat Burrell rarely finishes a game he starts. Many of us let out a sigh (or worse) when he's removed from a relatively close game in the 6th or 7th inning, fearing that our gascan carrying bullpen will cough up the lead and thrust Burrell's defensive caddy into action with the lumber. So, I decided to take a look at all of the instances in which Burrell has departed early and how it's affected our team. All of the details below the fold...

First, the basics.

Complete Games Played: 38
Games Replaced Early: 73
Used as a pinch hitter: 10

First, let's take a moment to appreciate that....he's only played 38 complete games all season. Staggering really. Now, on to the goodness.

Burrell has departed from 56 games in which the team  had the lead. The Phillies are 49-7 in those games. Burrell has left with the team trailing in 13 games (2-11 record), and with the team tied in 4 games, in which they ended up going 2-2.

His replacements, overall, have posted this line

49 AB, .204/.277/.367

6 singles, 1 double, 2 triples, 1 HR, and 5 BB

In the games where he's come out early and the team lost, his replacements have been even worse

1/8, 0 BB and 0 extra base hits. The only hit came from Michael Bourn on 7/26 against Washington.

Well, that's the offensive aspect, but what about the defense? In the 73 games where Burrell has come out, his replacements have racked up a total of 37 putouts, with 0 assists. In the games the team had the lead and lost, 4 assists in 7 games, and 2 of those came in one game, July 6th at Colorado by Bourn.

If you calculate Burrell's season averages and add in his missing 49 AB, he'd be at 24 HR and 82 RBI. It's impossible to say "taking him out cost us X games", but Manuel should not be putting the team in that situation, especially with our bullpen being what it is.

UPDATE: I forgot to include this information in my original reply, but I also noted in what inning Burrell was removed in the games he's come out early

6th inning: 7 times

7th inning: 26 times

8th inning: 24 times

9th inning: 14 times

10th or later: 2 times