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Situational hitting seems to be some of what drew the Phillies to Raul Ibanez. Here are some of the situational hitting numbers for Ibanez and Burrell for 2008:

Ibanez was better. To make any decision based on those numbers would be absurd, though. Burrell, for example, had 12 plate appearances with the bases loaded in 2008. Here’s what the two have done over their careers:

Generally speaking, Ibanez was better. Burrell’s numbers with runners in scoring position and two outs are a tiny bit better if you go by OPS, and his results with two outs and men on are better. Overall, though, Ibanez has hit better in those situations.

This all seems fantastic. There’s a problem, though. Burrell is a better hitter than Ibanez overall, which means that there must be some situation in which he’s a lot better than Ibanez. And there is:

Enormous difference in how much they got aboard with the bases empty. Burrell also outslugged Ibanez by a lot. In 2008, 344 of Ibanez’s 707 plate appearances, about 49%, came with the bases empty. For Burrell it was 377 of 645 plate appearances (about 58%) that came with the bases empty. That seems counter-intuitive, to me at least, given that Burrell hit behind Utley and Howard and Ibanez spent much of the year hitting behind low on-basers, including Jose Lopez (.322) and Jeremy Reed (.314). I’d guess some of the factors include Burrell leading off an inning more often than Ibanez (just barely, though, about 20% of his plate appearances compared to about 19.7% for Ibanez) and the number nine hitter in the AL not making an out nearly as often as the nine hitter in the NL. Howard or Utley also cleared the bases with a home run a little more regularly than Lopez or Reed.

If you look at the career numbers, Burrell is still better, but not by as much:

The gap narrows there, but Burrell is still getting on base a lot more of the time.

Also of note is that if you consider all situations with any runner on base, Burrell has also been a little better overall if you measure using OPS. In his career, Burrell has hit 267/378/488 (.866 OPS) with runners on while Ibanez has hit 302/366/490 (.857 OPS).

The Phillies have invited ten players to spring training as non-roster invitees, most notably Mikes Cervenak and Koplove.

The article linked above also reports that the Phillies have signed 11 minor league free agents. Included in that group is 24-year-old right-handed pitcher Yorman Bazardo, who has appeared for the Tigers in three of the last four years. Righty Yoel Hernandez was also signed — Hernandez threw to a 5.28 ERA in 15 1/3 innings with the Phils in 2007. He was great in his first 11 appearances, throwing to an 0.75 ratio while allowing four earned runs in 10 1/3 innings (2.70 ERA). Over his last three appearances in 2007 he allowed five runs in two innings. He is 28.

Brian Stavisky is a left-handed 1B/corner outfielder who has a career minor league line of 307/396/474. He’s 28 and all but about 200 of his at-bats have come below AAA.

Jimmy Rollins and Ryan Howard may play in the World Baseball Classic.

This suggests that Rocco Baldelli was misdiagnosed with mitochondrial disease and actually has channelopothy, which may be more treatable.

This says the Angels are close to re-signing Juan Rivera.