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2008 With more than 4,500 career minor league plate appearances to his credit, Burke is a testament to persistence. He gives you a little more on-base ability than the average backup catcher and the added utility of being an emergency corner infielder. Having a journeyman like Burke around in 2006 might have kept the M's from rushing their catching prospects up the ladder. Ironically, his fate this year will depend on whether the team views on of those prospects, Jeff Clement, as a catcher who can DH or as a DH who can catch. 2005 You can't hold it against Burke that the reason he was on the team as its third catcher was that any team carrying the occasionally healthy Sandy Alomar and an irregular like Ben Davis probably needs a third catcher. His future on the roster was tied to Alomar's; when Alomar went to Texas and Williams picked up A.J. Pierzynski, Burke's outrighting off the roster came within a day. PECOTA is suspicious of an aging catcher whose primary skill is hitting for average, and while that .333 number looked pretty on the left-field scoreboard in September, Burke is not a great bet to resurface.
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