For the Ray fans out there, one of our many prayers (other prayers include the Yankees go bankrupt and we sign Carl Crawford til he is 80) has been answered, Pat "forgot his bat" Burrell has been designated for assignment, finally. Burrell, who has been placed as a platoon player to handle right handed pitching was hitting just .204 this year with only two home runs, hitting .054 against left handers. Rays fans were excited at the end of the 2008 season when they signed Burrell out of Philidelphia, believing they had found a legit power hitter that could DH and play some outfield for the Rays, it was one of their first big off season moves in which they put money out there for a free agent to better the club and help them win. But the Burrell signing may have been one of the worst possible moves, never hitting over .220 in his two years here, Burrell proved that he was aged and he could not handle AL pitching.
The Ray fans now should look forward to 29 year old Hank Blalock, a two time all star. Blalock has had numerous injuries in his short career, but when healthy he has proven to be a power threat in the AL, look at his previous years with the Texas Rangers. Blalock signed a minor league deal with the Rays in the spring and he stated that he would leave if they sent him to the minors but he decided to change his mind and was optioned to AAA Durham where he is destroying pitchers, hitting .354, second in the minors is fully recoverd from shoulder and knee issues that hampered his season last year. Blalock can play both 1st or simply DH, allowing Coach Madden to give Pena a break at first or allow him to focus on hitting, where he is struggling again this year. They Rays offense has been struggling lately after destroying everyone in April. Blalock may be the spark they need to the lineup to start producing some more runs and cause even more problems in the AL east.
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