I think there's a pretty simple explanation ... and I've mentioned this before. Biologically, he's older than other guys his age. This makes sense when you consider his history of dominance in leagues full of young players his "age". Imagine putting a 17 year old through the little league world series.  Imagine a 21-22 year old hitting against high school pitchers.

I think dominating the Little Leauge World Series should have been a major red flag against him. The guys that dominate that league are ALWAYS the big kids. Same for high school. In other words, when a kid is just bigger than everybody else at 13 and dominates in Little League, you have to project his future performance as if he's a 16 year old (or 15 ... or 17 maybe), not a 13 year old.

And this gets at a problem with relying too much on "Age Relataive to League" when projecting young players. It's a good tool, obviously. It's impressive when a 19 year old holds his own in a league full of 21-25 year-olds, but you have to look closer sometimes. Is this 19 year old as physically mature as the average 19 year old? Or is he as physically mature as the average 22 year old? If he's more in line with a 22 year old, his performance against 21-25 year olds is much lelss impressive.

Magadan walked, for starters. He wasn't only BA. Career OBP 390, career BA 288. Seany B so far has an OBP 60 points above his BA. That's not bad, but he did regress badly in 2005.

Magadan walked almost half again as often as he struck out. Burroughs strikes out almost twice as often as he walks.

I always thought the Padres would move Burroughs to 2B, this would make his lack of power less of an issue.

If he could make that transition, I could see him as a fairly productive second baseman that can hit over .300.

Ken Reitz stayed in major league starting lineups mainly because he was a great glove man (particularly important in the 70s when over half the NL was hard astroturf). Any way of including defensive significance in the factors for comparables?

I've submitted a small bid for Burroughs in one of my sim leagues.

Personally I don't think there's too much hope for the guy. That said its hard for me to totally write off a 25 year old kid. Its strange to me that he's never really shown any power at any level. I'm only gambling because the price is right. I wouldn't wager a penny more.

I think he's a good kid. He's big and looks like he's strong I don't think anyone understands the complete and total lack of power.

He makes enough contact and has a decent eye. He's got the power of a skinny 2B. I don't think Burroughs will ever be a Star. However, I think that if he dedicates himself to increasing his power it will eventually come. Its going to take a tremendous amount of work.

I think it was time for him to move along from the Padres. Also Petco's clearly not the place for him.

There certainly won't be any attention or pressure on Sean in TB. Hopefully he finds success in one of the best divisions in baseball. Its hard for me to imagine him doing better in the AL East than he did in the NL West however, for his sake I hope it so.

I like the big kid argument.
In 5th grade there was this kid Donnie Smith who was huge.  I remember him wrestling one of the male teachers to a draw during lunch.
Of course, by 9th grade, we realized that he was still only 5'9" and was not strong enough to play an adequate defensive back.  He was out of sports the next year.
Then there was Matt Junkin who was the star center on the basketball team through 7th grade. In 8th grade, he was still only about 5'11", and was barely average.  9th grade was his last year of hoops.

Back to the real stuff.  One time at a BP Pizza Feed, I asked Nate Silver to write more about the different ages at which players can peak.  It is pretty clear that individual players do not make a slow steady progression through their age 27 (or whatever) year, then slowly decline.  It seems that we lose sight of this fact because we are so aware that the graph of the group is a steady curve.

Maybe Burroughs peaked at age 19 or so and never developed for whatever reason (didn't work lift weights, didn't take steroids,  too much yoga).

Ontiveros is a good case study for those who claim that OBP is the single most important offensive stat.  Here's a few of Ontiveros' seasons:

1974  120 games  .265/.375/.356
1975  108 games  .289/.391/.366
1977  156 games  .299/.390/.423

Career  .274/.365/.366

If you look at just his BA/OBP, he looks like a pretty good player.  Problem was he had no power and no speed, a deadly combination.  He was a very unproductive offensive player and didn't have a long or distinguished career.

KT at the Padres BP pizza feed last year commented on how he thought Burroughs just never really learned how to move. Burroughs has zero grace. His swing is all upper body. There's no movement from the hips or legs that would allow him to generate any kind of power. And when he runs, he has that choppy motion. When he plays the game, it just kinda doesn't look right.

I like the big kid argument also. Burroughs is exactly that kid. He's the guy who was always bigger and faster and stronger than everybody else and it got him to the Majors and he'll be darned if anybody will tell him what he's doing wrong.

What about an obvious comp to his dad? they weren't the same type player, but like his Dad he was highly regarded when he was younger (1st round draft choice, played in Majors when he was 19, won AL MVP when he was 23 or 24), but peaked early and then never achieved that high of level again after 1974.

But Jeff Burroughs did have a long 16-yr career and was productive, making another All Star team. Sean's story will be similar i think - long career but never fulfilling the high level of promise he had in his early 20's.

One comment I read over and over is that Sean Burroughs is uncoachable- I read the same about his father, as a young player- rookie even he was wouldn't listen to his coaches or manager- including Ted Williams.

Sheer speculation, but from hat I've read about his father's conduct and attitude it wouldn't suprise me in teh elast if Sean grew up hearing that all coaches are ignorant Jacka$$es and to not let them mess with his approcah/swing etc.

Its early in spring for sure, but I dont think Sean is going to have a chance to turn things around.  From early practices it looks like the Rays are going to give Huff a shot at 3rd and then where is he going to play?  Huff at 3rd is interested on a few levels as he is terrible with the glove but does this indicate that Delmon might get a legitimate shot at RF?  Huff at 3rd also greatly improves his trade value but again can he field the position enough to stay there.  Further I cant possibly see how the Rays could have left side of the infield of upton and huff.  Cantu is not wizard at 2nd as well.

PS, for anyone interested in some Rays workouts,

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bpoe13/show/

Poe

As someone noted, the Rays may give Huff a shot at third.  Also, just read today that the Rays are going to try moving Wes Bankston to third in the minors.  They don't seem to be banking much on Burroughs.