clock menu more-arrow no yes mobile

Filed under:

Is There Any Hope for Sean Burroughs?

New, 45 comments

Is There Any Hope For Sean Burroughs?

Well, this is a depressing topic. What happened to this guy? You know the contours of his story: son of a major leaguer, famous at 13 due to Little League heroics, hot prospect in high school, first round draft pick, considered to be a future batting champion, comes up to the majors and does OK at first. But his lack of power doesn't improve, he starts to get stubborn about his approach, his performance starts to decline, he has a poor and injury-plagued season in 2005. The Padres sour on him, then trade him across the continent. What are his chances for a rebound?

It appears unlikely that Burroughs is ever going to be a big home run hitter, so if he rebounds it will have to be as a batting average/OBP guy. The list of comparable players, using a mixture of PECOTA, Sim Scores, and my own research, is NOT promising.

Comparable Players to Sean Burroughs, through age 24

Ken Reitz
Phil Mankowski
Bill Spiers
Steve Ontiveros the Infielder
Jack Rothcock (1920s-1930s player)
Roy Howell
Ken Boswell
Ossie Bluege (20s-30s guy)
Andy Carey (1950s guy)
Todd Walker

That's not very good. When pop-gun hitters from the 1920s show up on your list, and you are playing in 2006, you have a problem.

Todd Walker is probably a best-case scenario for Burroughs.

Do you guys see any hope for Burroughs? Is this list too pessimistic? Poll question in the comments thread.