Maddon on Burrell: He’s a DH for now

Posted Mar 7, 2010 by Tribune Sports

Updated Mar 7, 2010 at 02:02 PM

CLEARWATER - Here are a few quick tidbits from our pre-game chat with manager Joe Maddon:

- Outfielder Desmond Jennings, hit on the elbow by a pitch a few days ago, is here and is expected to play at some point. If that goes well, he could get a start tomorrow against the Pirates.

- Pat Burrell’s application for the right fielder’s job has been rejected. At least for now. Maddon said he knows Burrell believes that going back to playing the field might help him regain his hitting prowess, but the Rays have better defenders available, and they need Burrell to continue in the DH role.

“I’m not going to play him in the outfield if I think we’re better suited to not having him play the in the outfield and DH (instead),” Maddon said. “You look at our team defensively, and we talk about that every day: We really pride ourselves in that. We’ know that’s a big part of our success, so, obviously, we have some really good defenders out there. I’m not saying he can’t get out there. We’ll see how the season plays out. But for right now he’s a DH.” (Burrell was listed as the right fielder on the lineup card today but switched with Matt Joyce and started in left.)

- Maddon talked about his regular season batting order, reiterated that he’s considering a Nos. 3-4-5 shuffle that would have Ben Zobrist batting third and Evan Lognoria fifth and saying he projects B.J. Upton in the No. 7 spot.

“I’ve often thought, looking at the No. 7 hitter in an American League lineupL if he’s pretty prodigious, that really speaks to a strong lineup,” Maddon said. “That goes bad to the days of ... watching the Indians with David Juistice hitting seventh, I thought, my goodness, there’s a pretty good lineup. So if you can get a real good hitter hitting seventh in the American League, you’ve got a pretty good lineup. And then it’s still good after that also.”

- Tony Fabrizio