Winter Meetings: Phillies Storylines
by dajafi on Dec 7, 2009 2:31 PM EST
41 comments
(Get it?)
Okay, that's not quite accurate: the Phillies probably will do something either this week in Indianapolis or in the next couple weeks, before baseball hibernates for the holidays. All reports are that they're looking to add a veteran reliever for high-leverage innings late in games, with Brandon Lyon the desired target if he reduces his demands (and Ruben Amaro obviously happy to telegraph this through media reports) and/or if Chan Ho Park can't be enticed back. Some trades likely are being kicked around, though the rumor that Joe Blanton might be on the block doesn't pass the smell test. As WholeCamels noted yesterday, Andy Martino daydreams in print (or pixels) about Roy Halladay.
But basically the team that takes the field next April is the team that left it in early November, incorporating the recent additions of Placido Polanco, Brian Schneider and Juan Castro. That the Phillies haven't made and aren't likely to make any earth-shaking moves is a bit boring--but that they really don't have to do so to contend for a title again next year is more than a little comforting.
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Seeeeeee them tumbling down....
Pleedddddging their love to the groouunndd…..
http://www.thegoodphight.com
attention folks... TWEEEEEEEET COMIN'!
The Winter Meetings have ground to a halt as Twitter goes down for “scheduled maintenance.”
http://www.thegoodphight.com
Yup, that about covers it.
Not sure how stoked I am about the Brandon Lyon thing — I like him better that Fernando Rodney, but a guy with a career 5.8 K/9 doesn’t exactly thrill me for a late inning role. I’m still of the mind that the remaining money would be best spent in Red Sox 2008-09 offseason style, i.e. taking some gambles on higher upside guys (the Justin Duchscherers and Joaquin Benoits of the world).
Oh, and I’m fully planning to use this thread to point out and discuss every rumor that even indirectly pertains to the Phillies throughout these winter meetings (hey, I have to have something to distract me from studying, right?). Beginning with…
Mets acquire Edwin Jackson?
Ed Price from AOL Fanhouse tweets a rumor that the Mets have acquired Edwin Jackson. We’ll have to see if anyone backs this up.
They’re definitely shopping him. I think it’s a combination of wanting to sell high (after Jackson had a good year), and not wanting to pay what he would earn in arbitration.
Anyway, that rumor got shot down, which makes sense — I don’t know who the Mets would have surrendered in a trade. But they’re apparently in on Juan Rivera and Josh Willingham right now.
Halladay-dreaming
I can just see a J. Jonah Jameson-style editor in the Inquirer sports bureau going: “Come on, Martino! We need to spice things up around here! People are sick of reading about Brian Schneider! Come up with something flashy!”
by taco pal on Dec 7, 2009 3:09 PM EST reply actions 1 recs
I admit I pressed refresh once thinking a funny image hadn’t come up…..THEN I got it…Nice work Dajafi
Whats the scale of happiness so far? Sure a little boring but I’m going with 8/10. I’m just glad we got Polanco back though he shouldn’t of been gone the last 5 years to begin with.
by Sept.28.Oct.27.Dec.28.2008 on Dec 7, 2009 3:50 PM EST reply actions
But with Polanco out of the way we were able to assemble important franchise cornerstones like Ugie Urbina and Wes Helms. (I know Polanco was “blocking” Utley, but we easily could have moved him to 3rd base 5 years ago.
How could you forget the TRUE building block?
Sure Polanco brought us a murderer and left a hole to be filled by a total incompetent, but surely all of that is made up for by the fact they got Ramon Martinez.
Based on Scott Lauber’s piece from today, it looks like Amaro & Co. are leaning toward offering Durbin arbitration. Don’t know about anyone else, but I think it’s a big-time mistake to risk paying $2 million to a guy who just walked 6.07 per 9 innings this past year.
I’ll probably be repeating this ad nauseum, but I’d be let Durbin go and forego the whole Lyon/Rodney gaggle of high-priced setup men in favor of targeting cheaper, possibly undervalued guys, like: Brendan Donnelly, Russ Springer, Joaquin Benoit, and our own Chan Ho Park and Tyler Walker.
Durbin has above average stuff for a 7th inning guy but watching him pitch without any control makes me want to rip my small intestine out through my asshole.
by Michael Levin on Dec 8, 2009 12:00 AM EST up reply actions
phils asking about aroldis chapman
may only wind up with a $15 mil contract instead of the 20 or so he was hoping for.
any opinions on this? not too familiar with the name…
To answer your question: Chapman is the 21-year old Cuban defector — or, I guess more accurately at this point, he’s the 21-year old citizen of Andorra (of all places, weird, huh?). He’s a lefty who has apparently touched triple digits with his fastball, so he’s obviously a guy oozing with potential. But there are questions over the quality of his secondary pitches, and he definitely needs some work in the minors before he’s ready to pitch in the big leagues.
All that being said, signing him for less than $20 million would be an excellent investment. Lefties with that kind of potential don’t come along very often, and at the very least, he could be a lockdown reliever — and at best, he could be a lefty version of Ubaldo Jimenez (with a fastball instead of a sinker). Keith Law has a great scouting report here (I think it’s Insider protected).
Wow, I’ve been interested in what was going on with Chapman throughout the off-season, but I had a feeling he’d end up somewhere in the AL East. He’d be a really exciting guy to watch move up through the organization, both for story’s sake (lame, I know, but Cuban defectors are kind of neat) and ability’s sake.
thanks for the permanent link
was trying to figure out how to grab that, but it was late and I wanted to go to sleep.
I’m not sure the Phils can (or want to) really compete with the wallets of the Sox and Yanks, but it sounds to me like they are in the hunt to upgrade their bullpen, so this could be a pretty serious look at him if they want him to pitch out of the pen for now and work on making him a starter over the next 2 years or so.
Well, it was nice while it lasted.
From Andy Martino: “Amaro on Aroldis Chapman: ‘At this point, we are not interested.’ Says Phils wouldn’t send a scout if agents set up showcase.” Makes sense… I mean, why do your due diligence on a talented young pitcher?
What we should really be focusing on is a crappy utility player. Wait, what’s that you say — we’re in on Ross Gload? Perfect!
So we’re at level one on the arrogance meter?
by Boundforbeach on Dec 9, 2009 10:47 AM EST up reply actions
Colorado’s Betencourt is rock solid and could become the Phil’s closer by June. I hear he is available. I say a Mike Taylor plus Durbin would do it. Please sign Park and Eyre!
mark ferraro
Why would you trade a corner OF with such high upside and cheap price tag that projects to be on your roster soon for a BP arm? If they weren’t willing to deal him for Roy Halladay, they sure as heck aren’t going to trade him for Betancourt.
Paul Hagen loves him some Meathead.
He doesn’t seem to mention that re-signing Myers would come at a significant cut in pay. Given the behavior we got paying retail, you can only imagine how a discounted 10-cent head behaves. Slamming a door seems almost kind.
Ross Gload?
Either the Phils, Braves or Marlins will have the, ahem, honor of signing him to a 2-year deal, according to Ken Rosenthal.
Interest in Gload fits nicely with my theory that Ruben Amaro moonlights as President of the Batting Average Appreciation Society. Seriously, I’m going to give you the numbers of two left-handed “three corners” (LF, RF, 1B) guys, and you tell me which you’d rather have…
Guy A career slash averages: .283/.328/.408
Guy B career slash averages: .254/.336/.438
Guy A career UZR/150 in LF: -16.9
Guy B career UZR/150 in LF: 13.2
Guy A career UZR/150 in RF: -46.6
Guy B career UZR/150 in RF: 2.2
Guy A career UZR/150 at 1B: 2.9
Guy A career UZR/150 in LF: 3.3
Let’s see now, better patience, better power, and much better with the glove at every position… nah, I don’t want Eric Hinske (Guy B). I mean, the guy’s only a .254 career hitter! Let’s sign Ross Gload (Guy A) to a 2-year deal instead!
Ugh.
The honor is ours
The theme seems to be cost control (at least with the FA signings), because I’d imagine Hinske is in line for a bigger contract than Gload. Whether that’s towards an end beyond leaving room for arbitration and extensions is yet to be seen (I’m not holding my breath).
And Phillies.com must be desperate for hits, because the first article on their main page at the moment is “Phillies have resources to land Halladay.” The article then proceeds to be every Halladay/Phillies article you’ve ever read.
Was watching MLB Network Hot Stove from the Winter Meetings last evening when they had Amaro on. Almsot the first thing he said was “We have an awful lot of strike outs in our lineup, but there’s not much we can do about it” (or something to that extent). I immediately thought of WC.
Was he prompted by a Joe Morgan’d commentator to address the topic? I can’t imagine he’d say this unprompted, unless it was to talk about one of the compelling aspects of Polanco’s performance.
(WC, look out! it’s a trap!)
by Wet Luzinski on Dec 9, 2009 11:25 AM EST up reply actions
Yahoo Sports has Mets close to offering Molina...
Interesting signing for them, horrible for avg but he can hit when hes healthy. Also they are now talking to Lackey, Holiday and Bay in rumored hopes of getting one of them. Easily they should consider Lackey… they need pitching… we need them to get one that likes to get hurt lately…. which in turn keeps them down in 4th and us in 1st :)
Had
a horrible dream last night that i woke up to a Sportsecenter story about Jayson Werth signing with the Yankees. Still can’t shake the feeling off.
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