Jeromy Burnitz

Jeromy Burnitz

Over on his fine, fine blog, Chris asked why Cubs fans were so up in arms about the Cubbies signing Jeromy Burnitz.

I can't speak for all Cubs fans. Some days, I don't think I even speak for most, or even a few. But these were my thoughts I put over there, and I thought I'd share them here, too (because I don't think I've posted anything of merit since 2004):

This may not be a great answer for a couple of reasons. One, I'm very, very sleepy. And, two, I'm not a stats guy.

But in short, it's not his stats in comparison to current and former players that bug me.

It's his style of play. He's got a free-swinging, gets-a-homer if and only if a pitcher makes a mistake style that bugs me.

I take your point that if we're going to have a guy who's like that, I'd rather pay $5 mil for him than $17 mil, or whatever we were paying Sammy, who has fallen in three years from a guy who can hit your best stuff, to a guy who is merely mistake pitch hitter.

Our biggest problem last year, outside of injuries, was inconsistency and impatience at the plate.

I'd rather pay 6 or 7 mil for a bit more discipline at the plate, for someone I could depend on, late in the game, when we're down 3 runs, to take a few pitches and work on a pitcher, instead of swinging for the fences on the first pitch of every at bat with nobody on base.

We've got far too many guys in the Cub lineup who want to swing at the first pitch (Patterson, Barrett...hell, you've watched Nomar [Chris is a Sox fan] for the past few years). I'd like a guy or three who could work a count, wear a pitcher out.

I'm not sure who that might be...but patience embodied, to me, is not Jeromy Burnitz.

So, I don't think it's Burnitz personally. I think it's a player like Burnitz. In this case? The player like Burnitz is Burnitz.

And on a personal note, I don't like him simply because I've got a lifelong history of people named Jeremy/Jeromy screwing me over, stealing would-be girlfriends and generally making themselves a thorn in my side. But that's more of a personal thing.

One more thought, made a few minutes later. I've never heard anything bad about Burnitz from the locker room, and the couple of stories I've read about his signing point out that he's fairly well-liked, and a good presence to have in the clubhouse.

Not to sound all pollyanna or anything, but I'll mark that as a positive in his favor.

A solid presence in the locker room? Beats the hell out of the Black Hole of Morale that was Senor Sosa.

Once more, minutes later

On the downside (and this hurts me, putting all these numbers up on my blog...I hates me some numbers:

From the Cub Reporter:

Burnitz in 2004 @ Coors Field: 303 PA, 322/386/670, 24 HR, 68 RBI, 29 BB, 57 K

Burnitz in 2004 on the road: 302 PA, 244/327/448, 13 HR, 42 RBI, 29 BB, 67 K