If the Phillies are going to win the National League East for the sixth consecutive season, they’ll need more offense and better relief pitching. GM Ruben Amaro Jr. says he hopes he’s a buyer at the July 31st trade deadline, according to Jim Salisbury of the CSNPhilly.com. But the 14-18 Phillies might have a different approach if they don’t turn their season around.
“July is so far ahead,” Amaro said. “We just have to get on track. But if July comes and we’re playing like this, we’ll be sellers. How we play now will determine whether we’ll be buyers or sellers in July.”
With Ryan Howard and Chase Utley on the disabled list and Freddy Galvis and Jimmy Rollins struggling at the plate, the Phillies' offense ranks 19th in MLB in runs scored. The Phillies' rotation is again one of the best in the game, but their bullpen ERA of 5.59 ranks last in MLB.
Amaro, who was named the team's GM in 2008, has never been a 'seller' in his career as a GM. Cole Hamels and Shane Victorino are scheduled to hit free agency following the 2012 season and would be coveted by other teams.
Hilarious
Kind of like the Mets thinking their team is not going to finish last.
no more like watching the Phillies “bullpen”
the “bullpen” wasn’t that bad until these 3 games against the Mets. It was at least average or slightly below prior to that.
true to a degree, but i dont think you get the worst bullpen statistically in the majors from 3 bad games…even if they are as rough as they’ve been
Well part of it is that we had to leave long guys like Scwhimer and Sanches in way too long.
That series against New York… I stopped lookinga at the line but they flashed it during the game it was like 6.1 innings pitched and 12 or 13 earned runs.
Close to 8 ERA since April 21st?
or kind of like phillies fans who are watching their team on the decline while the young teams in the division like the braves, nats, and mets are on their way up? Standings don’t tell the whole story…….
It happens. Our window may be ending but we didn’t completely blow our opportunity like your team did…
ahh, you say that now, but the phils are doing EXACTLY what the mets did from ’07-’10. So similar its scary.
-No depth on the farm? check
-Overpay for a few pieces (Howards extension, Rollins’ new deal, Blanton, etc) and not allocating resources correctly therefore leading to a very top heavy team? check
-Having an aged and injury riddled veteran lineup? check
-Blowing a ton of money on a closer while ignoring other gaping holes on the team? check
-“Treading water until our guys return?” check
-Having a short sighted GM? check
-Having a manager that doesnt know how to manage a bullpen? check
You get the jist. Yes you’ve got a “WFC” to your credit and I can’t say anything against that, but I can say I have experience, as a fan, dealing with the above and I know where that leads a team. The difference here is that the Mets, while dealing with all that stuff (and madoff….ugh) at least were smart enough to stop doling out contracts and trading young pieces in 2010 and 2 years later we now have a promising young team with pieces in the minors ready to make an impact between now and 2014.
so yes, you can hang your hat on your championship and us “blowing our window,” but I’d rather have lived and learned like we did and move forward with an intelligent and competent front office then deal with the fallout from your current roster, limited resources, and barren farm system.
You missed that whole 5 years of division dominance thing.. yeah exactly like those Mets.
swing and a miss, sport. never mentioned anything about the past 5 years other than giving the phils their due. stop trying to instigate an argument when all ive done is presented some facts to have a discussion.
its all about 2012 and beyond, 2008 is over.
Yeah, those 5 years. Nothing like the 14 from Atlanta. Until you hit double digits, don’t talk about dominance.
You’d rather “live and learn” than win a championship? Isn’t winning a championship the ultimate goal?
no id have rather lived and learned from mistakes and not repeat those of the recent past that a division rival made just 95 miles up the turnpike…..
at least were smart enough to stop doling out contracts and trading
young pieces in 2010 and 2 years later we now have a promising young
team with pieces in the minors ready to make an impact between now and
2014.
Your team wasn’t in a position to make the playoffs in 2010 or 2011. We traded for Hunter Pence last year because they didn’t think Domonic Brown was ready (I disagree but whatever).
We took our shot. We came away with 5 division titles. Unfortunately, it wasn’t good enough to get us more than one WFC.
What’s really killed us is the ability… or inability of Domonic Brown to develop into the player he should be. Cost us Cosart and Singleton who along with May and Galvis could have been the cornerstones of our next nucleus.
“We took our shot. We came away with 5 division titles. Unfortunately, it wasn’t good enough to get us more than one WFC. ”
And can’t argue that point at all, kudos to the phils for their recent success. (being honest here)
As for DB, what seems to be the feelings towards him? Was he a rushed prospect, or overhyped, or something else? I thought he was supposed to be great as well.
Depends on who you talk to.
I think he was a rushed prospect. I don’t think he was over hyped at all. He performed OK in 2011 before the Pence trade. In my opinion, he was out performing Raul Ibanez. The only thing he wasn’t doing was playing defense and hitting for power. He showed great plate dicipline… better than anybody on the team besides Utley.
Ever since they sent him back down, he’s regressed.
Wonder if he’d be a good “change of scenery” guy? Maybe hit his stride in a less media driven city, somewhere off of 95?
I think that’s probably the best thing for him. Send him to a rebuilding organization where he can just go play.
Hate to see it because I thought this kid was going to be the face of the franchise as Utley, Howard, Hamels, and Rollins moved on.
Manuel hates him and the perception by many is he is lazy and overmatched defensively.
The Phillies have one thing that the other teams in the division don’t have and that’s owners who aren’t afraid to drop some money to win.
The Nationals will become the new/old Marlins where they are the development team for some talent that will eventually go elsewhere when they can’t afford to resign them.
People also need to remember that the season is a marathon not a sprint.
the real difference is that the farm isn’t that barren and the phillies have several players on the roster that would bring a serious return if they decide to become sellers – unlike the 07 08 09 mets who let rot and brought up nothing. take a look at trevor may. the phils could trade hamels, blanton, or worley and have another ace to plug in as early as next year.
seems worth it to me if you are putting a big piece in the lineup
Not to mention, you got a championship out of it. Isn’t that all that matters? I’d give up a few years of “rebuilding” if it netted a championship at the start.
Yeah, it’s just disheartening when the teams that followed (2010, 2011) were better. I think the team in 2009 was about the same level of talent and they ran into a much better team in the World Series.
Well, based on what I’ve seen so far, there is a lot more suggesting the mets won’t finish last than the phillies
You like that sound? It’s the sound of a window shutting!
Who could they sell off? Maybe Hamels if they can’t come to some sort of agreement on an extension between now and then. I can’t see them moving Howard, Utley or Rollins. Maybe Pence? Tough spot for them to be in right now. Their pitching is as good as it comes so you’d want to keep that in tact if at all possible.
Hamels or Victorino… I’d hate to see it though. Not Pence, he’s all we have right now, especially with no guarantee of of Utley or Howard returning as their usual selves
True, they def. don’t have much to trade. Roy, Lee, Howard, Utley, Paps, Planco, JRoll, Victorino… are going anywhere with their salaries. Pence would be the only one worth his $ and they shouldn’t trade him. Maybe they can trade Hamels, Blanton, Worley or DBrown. Good luck Phillies.
Phillies have no interest in trading anyone except Victorino and Hamels if they are out of it, and they’ll get plenty back for those two.
They won’t get ‘plenty’ back for a half-year of Shane Victorino. Maybe a handful of low-tier prospects or one high-end prospect. Don’t see any ‘contender’ giving the Phillies their #1 or #2 prospects for Victorino. Hamels is a different story.
They could trade Lee and Halladay, but it all depends on how much they want to blow the team up. If the Phillies ate some of their respective contracts, they could get a very good return for the two.
I don’t think it’ll come to that given the two Wild Cards… more of a Warning Shot from Amaro to get the team to play better.
The only three players they can really trade are Hamels, Pence, and Victorino… and is Victorino really going to get you much? Pence isn’t going to equal the two studs we gave away and the lottery ticket in Santana. The only real chip is Hamels.
If they and Washington continue playing like they are come July, watch Mike Rizzo asking RAJ about that pitcher named Cole Hamels. I could only imagine those phone conversations…
Washington will be fading. I think they will be in the same boat as the Phillies in the dog days….Solid starting pitching and nothing else
I think the Nationals are going to come down to Earth a little bit… especially their home record… but they’re not going to completely fade away.
Strasburg getting shut down should help the cause though.
for the braves you mean? lol. but seriously there’s been a ton of speculation that if the nationals are still contending by the end of the season, the innings limit on strasburg becomes a bit more flexible. and if they get into the playoffs, do you think they’d hold off from using their best pitcher?
that being said, I agree they probably will fade, but the Braves have a pretty complete team, so unless the phillies do a complete 360 and turn their season around, the bravos are the team to beat in the east.
Hey buddy good to see you hating on the Nats again! I’m personally looking forward to what that Nationals offense can really do once it all returns from the DL. And that’ll happen during those dog days patburn’s talking about.
He’s not hating on them, he’s saying they’ll come down to earth a little bit. They have a 2.70 team ERA, you honestly see that sustaining itself? Every single one of their starting pitchers has a WHIP under 1.019.
Then again, I don’t think they’re THIS bad on offense. Harper should give them a bit of a boost, as should Morse whenever he returns. It’s still not much of an offense with everybody in there, but I think they’ll stick around this year.
I always compared the Nationals to a fast supercar (ferrari, bugatti etc…) and their seasons to a full tank of gas. Stunning at first and riding good but eventually they just succumb to terrible gas mileage. Kindof obscure but a good comparison.
There is no way Mike Rizzo has any interest in Hamels now or in the offseason. Hamels will never play for the Nationals.
good, we need to spend on hitting not pitching
Take out Hamels and put in Victorino and you’d probably be correct.
It’ll probably take Rendon, so it’s not happening.
They could get quite a bit for Hamels. Good strategy by Amaro, although from the Mets point of view, I was hoping they would flip Wright for May.
most teams wont give up too much for hammels knowing he is just going to hit free agency, with the new CBA and not getting draft picks back anymore teams wont be willing to give up much for a rental
hamels would probably cost draft picks because he’s not going to sign for less than 12 million
A player has to spend the entire year with same team in order to bring back draft pick compensation
He’s a proven post season winner. He’s a rental but he’s a difference maker down the stretch.
Only gonna get worse in next few years with those terrible contracts that will handicap them.
Not necessarily… The only real contracts that are going to hurt them going forward are Lee and Howard. Papelbon and Rollins don’t really make enough money to handicap a team to the point where they can’t move at least half the contract.
Utley’s only got 2 more years left on his deal, Halladay’s got one more guaranteed I think.
Howard’s will go down as one of the worst contracts in MLB history. That itself will handicap them. Rollins will be getting 11 million for three years (and possibly a fourth) to be completely replaceable. 63 million for a closer is really, really bad too.
He could still trade Rollins and get $5-6 million per year off the books. He could trade Papelbon and get $3-4-5 million off the books per year. (not now obviously but in the later stages of his deal).
$25 million for a team that can hold a payroll of around $189 million isn’t that handicapping.
so should every team just overpay for free agents then eat half their contract to trade them for prospects?
Actually now that i say it…it doesn’t sound that terrible if your a billionaire….
No. I’m saying at the back end of their contracts, they’re not going to hamstring them because you can at least clear some of the money.
They resigned Jimmy Rollins because he’s supposed to be the heart and soul… he hasn’t shown up this year.
Jimmy has a full no trade clause and in 2 years I don’t people will be banging down the doors to pay Papelbon 10 mil a year (assuming they eat ~3 a year). 11 for Jimmy, 13 for Papelbon, 25 for Howard, 25 for Lee plus whatever they extend Pence at. That is very significant.
but who would take rollins and pick up his contract? I mean sure they COULD do that, but is it probable? definitely not. you’d be asking a team to take on a contract of a player that would actually hurt them as a team.
Howard’s contract is painful but it isn’t as terrible as I initially thought. Remember that 3 first baseman signed longer deals worth 100 million more then Howard’s deal since the resigning. Overpaid and unnecessary? Sure, but atleast it isn’t a 200 million dollar mistake for 10 years.
i doubt this comes true, but it would behoove the phillies organization to get a commitment from Hamels if they are still losing in July. if he’s not committed, might as well get a boat load of prospects somewhere via trade.
Boatload for a couple of months? Doubtful.
Pence is pretty much the only good trade piece; Worley and Bastardo are behind him.
I’d flip Hamels. If they can’t get an extension with him, might as well get some prospects prior to him hitting FA.
He’s a huge trade chip, that’s for sure.
Better get more then Aumont, Gillies and Ramirez.
He would. He admitted to not maximizing his best return in order to get Lee shipped out ASAP.
I don’t understand the hurry. It was December and we had already acquired Doc so it wasn’t like he absolutely needed to move him that second or else we couldn’t make any improvements. Dude had a boner for the prospect package the M’s offered and made the deal. It’s just another item in a long list of questionable moves he has made since becoming GM.
Bad PR if you even let the fanbase think Halladay/Lee/Hamels was even being considered a possibility.
But it was possible, obviously, we have all three of them now. I know it was different at the time but something tells me it was more then upper management deciding a year later they could afford a Doc-Lee-Hamels rotation. And don’t forget the mid-season acquisition of Oswalt in 2010, who we ended up paying 12 million to. It makes me think money wasn’t the issue and that RAJ really just wanted to rebuild the farm system.
Oh I disagree with trading Cliff Lee 100%. Dumb move.
Their thinking was Lee for 1 year <<<<< Halladay for a discount.
They didn't think they were going to have any shot at resigning Cliff.
Amaro has decimated the farm system and now you have an aging team with few prospects. He was so obsessed to have a dream rotation that he ran the team aground fianacially and talent wise. Older players that are constantly hurt and a manager who pitches his starters into the ground. Anyone could see this coming.
a couple years ago Amaro was the best GM in baseball
I certainly never drank the Kool Aid.
good for you, it was the leftovers from jonestown
too soon?
I would think you could add Polanco and Blanton to that list. But let’s be honest for all of the possible players, what exactly can they get? Nothing really. Take Hamels for example, when is the last time a team got a good return mid-season for a SP? I find it hard to believe the Phillies could get anything worth while for any of their players.
Blanton might be valuable. He’s mediocre at best but every now and then he pitches gems.
He’d have to be willing to give up his no trade clause, but Doc Halladay would bring back a nice return. With one year and an option left on his contract, he’d impact more than one pennant race while not being on the books for many more years.
If the Phillies can’t come to a deal with Hamels, then he’s gone. You can’t lose him for just a draft pick.
Halladay for Drabek and D’arnaud. … we’re keeping Gose
If I was AA I would hang up on that…Drabek is doing fairly well this year, and I would hate to give up the potential d’Arnaud offers for an older Doc.
I know you were most likely kidding, but just my two cents if you weren’t.
You would hang up on that? you cant possibly be serious?
Sure Drabek and Darnaud have come along way, but we traded Doc on his walk year and only had 2possible trading partners.
Realistically we sold him way under value. You aren’t going to get him for what we gave him for.
He essentially forced them to trade him to Philadelphia. They weren’t trading him to New York or Boston.
He should’ve gotten them so much more.
With some prospect trades, the deal has worked out not bad for us, but mostly because of the development of d’arnaud. but still you’re 100% right, AA was handcuffed and salvaged as best he could.
I don’t expect Doc to be traded, but if he was, I fully expect him to bring back more value to the phils than they gave up
He is getting older, why would you trade away two people with age on their favor and the possibility to be future franchise players for a pitcher who isn’t getting any older and is potentially regressing as we speak? Yeah I would love to have Doc back just as much as you, but it’s time to move on and stick to the youth. Plus having the wealth of someone like d’Arnaud is not something many teams have and it would be foolish to trade him away.
Drabek has a high walk rate and has left a lot of runners on base. I would worry about him. D’Arnaud is a top prospect though and has a lot of value. I could see a deal like that working if Toronto was willing to eat most of the contract.
I think that adding Halladay would help Toronto but I’m not sure he’s enough to get them into the playoffs. You probably need another bat and a few relievers in addition to Halladay.
Drabek is performing much better this year and has lowered his walk rate…his walk rate is still not the best, but if you are worried about him, you must not be watching the same game. But you hit the nail on the head, starting pitching is not the issue that needs to be addressed, getting a strong bat is number one and perhaps another reliever to make up for the under-performance for some of the ones we already have.
Both of them have come a long way since the trade. Drabek is actually doing fairly well in majors.
I’d hate to send both of them for Halladay.
Did you not see what the A’s got for Cahill and Gonzalez, or the bounty the Padres recieved for Latos?
Pitching costs prospects. You aren’t going to get much if you are only willing to part with low end, organizational filler.
These two guys are too crucial to the future of this organization to trade away for a blast from the past pitcher. Guys like Latos, Cahill and Gonzalez are all young guys who will impact their new teams for years…who knows how long Doc’s dominance will stay, and when it goes, then what? There is a luxury of having 2 young, decent performing catchers, why would you ever want to get rid of that?
because you have to give up to get it.
and doc’s not 39, he’s 35.
Jays have Jimenez and Gomes who can fill the catcher depth, so thats not really an issue
Yeah and we are giving up two crucial parts to our future for a guy who only has a few years left. His velocity is already going down as it is. It’s time to move on.
lol yah, Im sure u were saying that last year about drabek.
3 good starts and suddenly he’s the apple of everyones eye
Actually I was, I’ve been in support of Drabek the entire time, and never wanted him traded. The reason why I didn’t want him traded was because him and Doc had similar instances. Struggles in the beginning of their careers, then sent back down to the minors (Of course Doc went all the way down to A ball). Now upon his return he is starting to find that success. I’m not saying he is the second coming of Doc, but he is setting himself up for a great future, and we need to give him that chance. He can make a longer impact for the Jays than Doc can in his remaining years. But clearly we just have to agree to disagree.
His velocity isn’t down that much.
His last start he was 91-92 with his cutter and 92-93 with his sinker.
It’s gotten better as the season’s gone on.
I’m not saying it was significant, but it still something to note. All I’m saying is why he still may be good for the next few years, you will still see a decline in various numbers.
Halladay may not be in his 20s, but hes not a blast from the past pitcher.
he’s still a top 10 pitcher in baseball.
Yeah, for how much longer? There is a lot more to gain from Drabek and d’Arnaud than a few more good years of Doc. And he is a blast from the past pitcher…he was on the Jays wasn’t he?
I’d say that’s a terrible trade. Drabek and D’Arnaud can be much more valuable over the course of their careers than Halladay will be from now on. Also you never know if the Blue Jays success is simply a mirage and they’re simply not ready to compete at the moment.
makes no sense.
Phillies have a couple of problems
One is Amaro.
Second is Monty who hired Amaro to do the job of GM.
Amaro doesn’t know how to buy nor sell. What I would do to fix the problem is hire Andy MacPhail to do the selling. MacPhail didn’t know how to do much, but he did know how to maximize the sale price! Besides with all those former Orioles working for the Phillies, it will help Ol’ Andy get acclimated.
I have been preaching this since the Pence trade
The Phillies as sellers is hilarious. Those fans try to boast they’re the best in baseball, but already there are a ton of empty seats at Citizens Bank Park on a regular basis. And it’s only early May. Nothing more than a bunch of fair weather front runners.
They’re empty seats because we’re getting blown out in the 6th-7th inning… it’s frustration.
Watch the games… not even close to being “front runners.” There’s not one player outside of the starting rotation and Papelbon who’s going out there and giving it their best effort.
🙂
phillies fans need to realize pence is good, not great/a superstar
and Nationals fans need to realize Zimmerman is good, not great/a superstar. See? I can make untrue statements as well.
Are you kidding me? Zimm has a gold glove (should have at least more than 1..no way rolen should’ve won it in 2010) and 2 silver sluggers. While pence has neither and looks like he is mentally retarded out there (though i will give him credit, it works for him a lot of times), like when he dropped that pop up last night? Ok then…
re-read my statement bro…I said that saying Hunter Pence isn’t a superstar is like saying Ryan Zimmerman isn’t a superstar. Both are superstars.
Well idk i even have a kinda hard time calling Zimm a superstar tbh. I give him the benefit of the doubt but he’s gotta start staying healthy so he can put up numbers like he did 2+ years ago. With that being the case, Pence hasn’t been nearly that accomplished, so I wouldn’t put him in the superstar category. But i guess its a matter of perspective to a degree.
Phillies’ newest beat writer Michael Schwimer has reported that Valdes, Luna, and Diekman called up. Looking forward to seeing Diekman pitch, kid’s filthy.
with Cole being a rental, the new CBA is making teams give up much less for rentals because they wont get the same compensation back. Plus if you are going to get him in a trade and extend why wouldnt you just wait to sign him in FA and not give up the prospects.
shane has a declining skill set, we have seen in recent past what happens to guys whos game is based on their legs, he wont get that much back in return, if at all most teams seem to be ok with their CF.
Utley and howard are obviously not going anywhere without the phillies eating upwards of 50+% of their remaining deals and even then the prospects wouldnt be anything highers than a few B maybe B+ due to their injury issues
Rollins isnt going anywhere, which is obvious by his lack of a free agent market.
Polanco might be had as a back up some where unless someone is really upset with their 3rd base situation(KENNY WILLIAMS) but again money wise its going to be hard to move him and and he wouldnt get much back in return
Pence might be the best trade chip but he wont get anywhere close to what they gave up to get him
Lee and Halladay could get serious hauls but the teams getting them would probably want some money back and It would proabbly hurt the team more to trade them than to keep them, unless were talking about a complete blow up
its a bad situation in philly
what does waiting to sign cole in the offseason do for a teams chances to with the 2012 world series?
if you are the yankees in first place, and rumours are swirling that the team right behind you in the standings is making a play for cole, you aren’t going to get involved?
#1 While the new CBA will affect rentals at the deadline, Hamels is a pretty good pitcher and can be a difference maker in october. There is definitely some value to be had by trading Hamels.
#2 Even with Victorino’s slow start to the year he is still on pace to hit 25 HRs. And I say slow start because he just had a career year last year and now just over a month into the season he is off to a slow start. Not enough to say he has no value.
#3 Hondo and Utley aren’t going anywhere not just because of contacts it is because they are hurt.
#4 Rollins isn’t going anywhere because Philly wants him here. Why else did they resign him LAST YEAR?
#5 Even though Polly can’t hit anything but singles he still has value because of his defense. There isn’t a whole lot available on the hot corner and there is a bunch of teams looking. I know because I have often ask myself why haven’t we upgraded Polly? As far as money goes, he was only owed 7 mil before the year so that is definitely movable.
#6 Pence has shown more power since coming to Philly with virtually no protection batting behind him and not much getting on base in front of him. To say he could not get anywhere close to what we gave up for him isn’t really being fair. RAJ shouldn’t have given up as much to get him. But that is the RAJ problem which is a whole ‘nother story.
They haven’t said it, but I would think that the Red Sox are in pretty much the same situation as the Phils, but I wonder if instead of either team actually being a “seller” maybe they could simply swap assets around and make both teams better? The Red Sox (even without Youkilis, Ellsbury, and Crawford, and with a slumping Gonzalez) are one of the top offenses in the game, but their pitching has been horrible to this point; the Phillies have one of the top rotations in the game, but their offense has been pretty bad so far, so why not trade some offense for some pitching?
what the red sox need to do is trade a bigger peice.. like an ellsbury… for starting pitcher and a top 10 CF prospect.
that way you plug the prospect in to the lineup and hide him at the back of the order, the offense will be just fine.
I could see a possibility with the giants, they have pitching to move and Gary Brown in the minors who could probably play in the majors now.
Of course now that I think about it Crawford could always play Cf when he comes back. Which now makes my post pretty pointless, but I already typed it out so I might as well press post.
I don’t think they would really need a CF prospect in the trade, even assuming Crawford doesn’t play CF. They have Jackie Bradley who, in all likelihood, will be in AA pretty soon (he’s absolutely destroying A+) and is said to be a superb defender in CF. They also have a few guys who can play CF reasonably, and Lin in AAA who is another superb defender in CF.
The starting pitcher they would definitely need though, so that part I could see happening. I could see Milwaukee, Philly, and San Fran all being potential fits for trades since all of them have multiple top starting pitchers, and all are lacking in offense to this point (same with the Nats and Miami too, but I don’t see either of them trading any of their pitching).
So they would consider trading Hamels, who is the youngest of their aces, which just makes the team get even older. Why not pull that famous spin out and find a way to help Roy “Win Now” before his window closes and pack him up for a bunch of young talent and pony up on Cole!
Obviously this is still the plan. Noone is punting on this season.
Because Roy and Lee have NTC. I’m not sure either would like to leave considering they were the ones that signed the contracts to be there in the first place.
Well if it means joining a contender IF the Phillies are below way below .500 by July I’m sure waiving that clause will be a lot better than going down with the ship.
What about dealing Halladay and Victorino for a good starter, good reliever, and a decent-hitting 3B bat? Slide Juan Pierre in CF and platoon Nix/Mayberry in RF until Gillies can get ramped up in CF
Meant LF for Nix/Mayberry. Sorry
Trade Victorino he’s a good player but he’s consistent and he doesn’t seem to be worth the money. Trade him for a future 3rd basemen. I’d keep Hamels as long as possible if he doesn’t sign by july 31 then i’d trade him. And use that money to sign Josh Hamilton in the offseason to play CF at CBP!
You would trade Hamels if he doesnt sign by July 31? Thats….not very smart. Then you would sign Hamilton a 32 year old come next season to a deal for at least 6 years…Are you trying to assemble a roster of all mid 30 year old guys??
what would a guy like Antonio Bastardo cost the Cards? He’s doing well, but based on his peripherals, he shouldn’t be doing that good. Granted, sample size yadayada. Cards have the ammunition to do some midseason trades and phillies could be a trading partner
Anyone who thinks the Phillies won’t be contenders come the trade deadline needs to rethink their views on baseball. The team is going to go on a hot streak and end up right there in the mix. Not that I wouldn’t love to be proven wrong, I want the absolute worst for that team but I’m a realist. They’re going to contend, might as well come to peace with it.
they are the defending 2008 world champs after all
The Phillies are old, injury prone, and expensive. The window is closing.
The fact is that the Phillies have a very short-window to succeed. They couldn’t have had a worst time in assembling their Rotation as the Nationals rise and the Phillies become older. If they trade this year they could pick up some quality prospects and set themselves up for the future.
That Hunter Pence trade is looking worse and worse.
If the Phils are willing to deal ,the Reds should be first in line Polanco and Victorino plus Dominic Brown would be great to add for them.