The Peter Golenblog: The Younger Alternative to Wagner now a Ray ?

Balls! Idiot! It can only mean one thing…Golenbock!

Finally, what to do with Pat Burrell, who has joined Ben Grieve and Vinnie Castilla as those most often cited as “the worst Ray of all time.”  Grieve, who looked at more called strikes than any batter in history and never uttered a word or made a facial expression in disgust, and Castilla, who came to the Rays and decided to make as many errors as he could and strike out as often as he could in order to get his ass traded somewhere else, were horrible.  Burrell, who hit thirty home runs four years in a row before coming to Tampa Bay, struck out as often as Grieve for his $8 million, hit fourteen home runs, drove in sixty, batted crappy, and was a downer in the clubhouse.  Reports of his drunken behavior did not sit well with the front office either, which is why the Rays would consider trading him for Milton Bradley, the second-most disruptive player in baseball.  Bradley can switch hit, and he’s not a bad outfielder.  Burrell was too slow to play the outfield, which is why the Rays made him a DH.  And as a DH, he was a dismal failure.  If the Rays had batted anyone else at DH, they’d have won five or six more games.