Scott White

Sometimes I need to take my own advice.

A quick look at Pat Burrell's stats last year makes you think he had a typical Pat Burrell year. He hit .256 with 30 home runs -- nothing special there, right?

Wrong.

His low batting average came about because of a particularly poor first half, but he hit .295 in the second half, and his peripheral stats during that time -- during the whole season, really -- indicate that he changed something in his approach at the plate.

He finished with 114 walks and 120 strikeouts -- a 1-to-1 ratio.

Only a few players in baseball put up a 1-to-1 ratio on a yearly basis. I'll list some of them off the top of my head:

Manny Ramirez
Lance Berkman
Carlos N. Lee
Chipper Jones
Gary Sheffield
J.D. Drew
Hideki Matsui
Travis Hafner
David Ortiz
Frank Thomas
Nick Johnson
Conor Jackson
Brian Roberts
Jose B. Reyes
Vladimir Guerrero
Nick Swisher

OK, so there's a few less-than-elite types mixed in there, but for the most part, Burrell is in some pretty good company. But here's the thing: He joined that list for the first time last year. Before then, he had always whiffed at an Adam Dunn-like rate.

I originally made this observation in the offseason, but then, seeing no one else buying into it, quickly dismissed it as nothing more than a statistical anomaly. I didn't end up drafting Burrell in any of my leagues.

So far this season, after going deep twice Monday, Burrell is hitting .435 with three home runs.

And you guessed it: four walks and four strikeouts.

Maybe I'm making too much of the ratio. Maybe he's just beginning the season on a hot streak. But maybe that second half was legit. The ratio sure says something to support it.

I'll never claim I can predict the future for any player, but right now, I wish I had nabbed Burrell in at least one of my Fantasy leagues so I could see first hand if I was right in the first place.

That's all for now.