Sean Burroughs
From BR Bullpen
Sean Patrick Burroughs
- Bats Left, Throws Right
- Height 6' 2", Weight 200 lb.
- High School Woodrow Wilson Classical High School
- Debut April 2, 2002
- Born September 12, 1980 in Atlanta, GA USA
[edit] Biographical Information
"Sean Burroughs, a third baseman for Team USA in the Olympic Games in [Sydney, Australia, has made history today (September 27, 2000). Mr. Burroughs is the first former player from a Little League Baseball World Series championship team to receive an Olympic Medal." - from an article at Little League Online
Sean Burroughs, a first-round draft pick in 1998 played five major league seasons in the early 2000s but failed to become the superstar everyone was expecting. He is of athletic lineage, being the son of former MVP Jeff Burroughs. In November 2010 he made news as he signed a minor-league contract with the Arizona Diamondbacks after being completely out of organized baseball for almost four years. Amazingly, Burroughs made it back to the majors in 2011 with the Diamondbacks.
From 1999-2002 in the minors, he mostly hit over .300 while moving from Single A up to Triple A. While he did not hit many homers, he hit plenty of doubles, and most scouts thought those would turn into homers as he grew older. He made the top 10 of Baseball America's Top 100 Prospects list three years in a row from 2000 to 2002. However, he was very much a bust in the majors, after starting out with promise. He hit .271 in part-time duty as a rookie in 2002, then improved to .286 in 2003 and .298 in 2004 as the Padres' regular third baseman. However, the expected power never appeared, as he hit a career-high 7 homers in 2003, and when his average fell to .251 in 2005, Burroughs lost his starting job.
After having failed to develop as expected in the major leagues, he came back to the minors in 2005 for 32 games, hitting .290 in the Pacific Coast League. In 2006, he played 37 games in the International League, hitting .214. He got a brief look with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays in 2006, but hit only .190 in 8 games. He was a non-roster invitee in 2007 with the Seattle Mariners, played 4 games for Tacoma, then was released. His lifetime minor league batting average was .312 at that point, but his career appeared to be over.
Burroughs explained the five-year gap in his career by the fact he had a drinking problem which kept him from performing at a level corresponding to his abilities. "I was not taking the game seriously," he explained. He kicked off the habit in the summer of 2010, started working out again, earning a second chance from D-Backs GM Kevin Towers, who had originally drafted him 12 years earlier. He started the 2011 season hitting .386 in 27 games at AAA Reno before getting the call back to "the Show".
Though he is (correctly) listed as being born in Atlanta, GA (while his father was playing with the Atlanta Braves) he did not grow up there. He grew up in Southern California and was the star of two Long Beach, CA Little League World Series teams that won titles when Sean was 11 and 12 years old. He then won an Olympic gold medal for the United States in the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
