The latest on the Phillies, before they take on the Blue Jays with former Toronto ace Roy Halladay on the mound…
- Chase Utley has tendinitis in his right knee and Michael Young has requested a trade, but Paul Hagen of the Philadelphia Daily News says it's a safe bet that the Phillies won't acquire Young to provide depth. The Phillies kicked the tires on Young earlier in the month.
- Phil Sheridan of the Philadelphia Inquirer points out that age will eventually prevent the Phillies' top players from playing as well as they have throughout their respective careers.
- Former Phillies reliever Chad Durbin agreed to sign with the Indians and some don't think Philadelphia needed the depth the right-hander provides. Bob Brookover of the Inquirer heard from one National League scout who says Durbin is "the 13th pitcher on a 12-man staff."
Right now, Phillies….Young for Cliff Lee. Cmon…
Lee/Dom Brown for Young/Hamilton, you got a deal 😛
Hagen’s column was pretty dreadful. Just an excuse to get Utley and Young into the same headline this morning. Phillies definitely need some insurance at 2B, but with a $160 million payroll it sure isn’t going to be Young.
By and large, Hagan and a few others on that staff seem to troll the message boards looking for the most rediculous topics (remember Howard for Puljos?), and then repackage the ideas into a column a few weeks later. There are a few in Philadelphia who are good writers with original ideas, but it seem the majority are just submitting heresay and rumors anymore.
who would the Phillies give up,not to be mean but they did trash a lot of their farm.They did lose prospects such as Draebek which couldve helped them down the road.I guess theyhave some in the single A to trade but it wouldnt be wise.There would be absolutley no way they would accept Blanton unless it was desperate.And you could cross Ibanez off that list.It would be a great deal for the Phils if they could do it for Blanton and if Utley remains healthy he could play third the whole season.and improve their lineup
Thanks Sheridan. You mean as players get older, they don’t play as well as when they were younger? WE did not know that. That makes things clearer. Now we understand why Mike Schmidt isn’t playing third.
Sure, Durbin is the “13th man in a 12-man rotation”…but he had more IP than any PHI RP in 2010. What does that say about PHI’s bullpen?
I guess that means it’s better now than it was last year. Now if we can get rid of the 14th man on a 12 man staff, AKA Danys Baez, we’ll be set. I’ll take my chance with Mathieson or DeFratus.
Nothing? Just because he threw more innings, doesn’t mean they were quality innings. Manuel liked to throw Durbin for two innings, and that was probably his downfall. If healthy, the back end of the bullpen at least is really good.
Madson was out two months and lidge missed the first month. If he was healthy all year Madson probably would have led the bullpen…
Yeah, Utleys 31 and hasnt been around for a decade yet, hes so old!! Howard came in in 2005 hes so old!!! ROllins even has only been playing 10 years and hes the longest tenured Phillie. While Doc Halladay is LITERALLY THE BEST THERE IS, and hes older than them all. Great logic, Lee is older and just about as good as one can get also. Even Oswalt had a 2.50 ish era and went 7-1 with the Phillies last year and hes older than all them position players. Age in this instance is irrelevant. What a lame concept to say 30-31 years old is why they wont perform. Did he say that 17 players were on the injured reserve last year? Or that Polanco played injured all year, Rollins was injured all year? Or Howard missed a month and still hit 31 homers and 110 or so rbis? Some incompetant writers out there!!! 30 years old is NOT old
I agree that 30 years is not old. The problem is that most of the Phillies key players are not just 30 years old.
Utley is 32
Howard is 31
Halladay is 33
Lee is 32
Polanco is 35
Rollins is 32.
I could go on, but these guys are all starting the downslope of their careers. I fully expect them to perform fairly well, but a small regression from their career averages is likely.
you forgot Oswalt he is in his 30s aswell
I would say Halladay and Lee are one of the best,but you have to give kudos to Lincecum and Felix aswell there pretty darn good.
I just typed for 10 minutes and this page asked me to verify my email and every thing I typed was gone! Nice job whoever wrote this software!
I hope Utley will be injury free for the start of the season, he is a fun player to watch. Does anyone know if Tendinitis is a severe or minor issue?
80% death rate I believe.
Generally, tendinitis is treatable but not curable. The goal is to reduce the pain enough to be functional. Utley’s gonna need some days off during the season, but we already knew that.
What I find most humorous about the “Age discussion with the Phillies is this. LAST YEAR, Ruiz missed 41 games, Howard 18 (and played the last two months on half an ankle) Utley 47, Rollins 64, Polanco 30 (and played half the season with half an arm), Victorino was out for two weeks, Madson missed a month and a half, Moyer was gone mid season, Happ was traded two weeks after he came off the DL…
No Lee, and half a season of Oswalt….
ANd they STILL WON 97 GAMES!!!
Banged up, with a total of three or four games with every regular together all year long.
i saw that whole season and I still don’t believe they won 97 games.
That was because of a great september run otherwise they probably wouldve won something in the mid 80s.This year Atlanta is dangerous and the Mets if the rotation picks it up.moreso 2012.And the nationals will soon be of a threat.And one more slight detail no werth this year,but Cliff will strengthen the rotation even more.so i guess it evens out.But you have to be concerned about the lineup a bit
no werth this year and more threats ,but they added Lee.Im a Mets fan but kudos to the Phillies for wining 97 games though.
werthless 190 ba with runners in scoring position equals 126 million dollars , he is so not clutch sure he would pile on when it was a blow out or get you that one run when your down by ten , but rarely ever would he come through when you needed him
Jayson was very overrated. He only hit when we were up big last year or down big. He only started to have clutch hits for us when he hired Boras and he realized he was in the money.
Not to say he didn’t have big hits for us but I think we’ll survive without him. Once he’s in a lineup without Howard and Utley he’ll struggle. i called him Bobby Abreu pt 2. Also I hated the way he caught the ball… Idk how he never dropped one.
You act like he didn’t try to hit with RISP. This post is just a joke. So when he hired Boris is suddenly decided to go ahead and hit with RISP?
I’m sure he did everything he could to the best of his abilities in a contract year.
I’ve always thought that being “clutch” wasn’t an ability. It was just fairly random portion of a person’s career numbers. If someone has a lot of HR’s/BA/whatever they are simply more likely to have high numbers in “clutch” situations.
“Phil Sheridan of the Philadelphia Inquirer points out that age will eventually prevent the Phillies’ top players from playing as well as they have throughout their respective careers”.
Quite insightful. Players grow older and their production eventually declines. So prophetic. If I eat heaping portions of sauerkraut and Hagen Daaz Rum Raisin will I eventually get a tummy ache? Oh please tell?
His and Hagen’s stories were awful.
HMM, Durbin signs an $800k base contract with a losing team becuase everyone else offered him minor league deals. Just goes to show the Phillies correctly gauged his market value when the passed on signing him for the multi year $2MM/per type of deal he & his agent assumed he’d command. When the biggest compliment I can give him is “he’s better than Baez” — that’s not saying much & the rest of the league seems to agree.