A Few Phillies Links For You, December 5, 2011: Winter Meetings, Christmas with Rollins, Amaro Picks Nix

by WholeCamels on Dec 5, 2011 8:09 AM EST

Crashburn Alley - Phillies Sign Laynce Nix

"All in all, it’s hard to react to this signing with anything more than a shoulder shrug."

Yeah, I'm with Crash here.

Rollins to dominate conversation for Phils

"I think that our team is going to be fairly quiet," Amaro said in a phone interview on Wednesday.

Smug-to-English: "We're trading Cole Hamels for Justin Upton and Domonic Brown for Hanley Ramirez."

Pedro Martinez To Announce Retirement
Good luck, Petey. 2009 was awesome.

The Phillies are having a woeful winter | HardballTalk
"I am coming to you only out of concern..."

Report: Marlins plan to make "aggressive push" to sign Albert Pujols | HardballTalk
The Marlins are behaving like Navin Johnson.

Report: Phillies GM high on Freddy Galvis
Did Amaro break down laughing after this?

Phils Invite Scott Podsednik Among Others To Spring Training
With Podsednik, Laynce Nix, and Ty Wigginton, the Phillies are really giving a lot of so-so guys a chance to shine. If they're cheap it's not the worst idea, better than relying on one.

Tweet Comment 39 comments | 0 recs |

Do you like this story?

Comments

From David Murphy's article about Nix...

If Nix is the last offensive piece the Phillies plan on adding outside of short stop, it will have been a puzzling offseason. In Ruben Amaro Jr.’s end-of-the-season press conference, he expressed a desire to put together better at-bats, particularly with two strikes. But the three hitters the Phillies have added are all the opposite kind of hitter: Wigginton is a career .185 two-strike hitter; Thome is a career .172 two-strike hitter. And Nix is a career .141 two-strike hitter. Rather than pursuing the type of veteran contact hitters that gave them fits against the Cardinals, the Phillies have added two swing-and-miss power hitters to go with a power-hitting utility man in decline. None will provide much in the way of options if Mayberry ends up struggling in an everyday role.

So the Phillies may have improved their bench but Pinch Hitting may be a problem.

Ed Snider is a crotchety old fuck.

That is all.

by EREX21 on Dec 5, 2011 8:42 AM EST reply actions

Some context would have been good here:

Pinch-hitting:
NL average OPS for pinch-hitters in 2011 was .603. Nix’s career OPS as a PH is .545, but even this is in only 152 PA’s, and as you can imagine it fluctuates quite a bit from year to year. Nix since ’09:
2009 .791
2010 .682
2011 .373

Two-strike hitting:
NL overall batting average is .176. The 2011 Phillies were at .182, the Cardinals at .195. So while the Phillies are not improving in this area, it’s not as bad as Murphy makes it sound.

-------
Celebrating over 50 years of slightly more Phils wins than losses: 1961-2011

by schmenkman on Dec 5, 2011 9:12 AM EST up reply actions

Yeah Murphy definitely painted with a broad brush in that article but taking it just for what he was saying, that Amaro wanted to improve upon something and then ultimately did not isn’t really arguable. But like you showed, there isn’t a whole lot of room for improvement when you factor in where they were, the league average and what I presume is the NL high in the Cardinals.

Ed Snider is a crotchety old fuck.

That is all.

by EREX21 on Dec 5, 2011 9:46 AM EST up reply actions

Even that’s incomplete. He may have improved. I’m too lazy to look up the averages for Gload, Martinez and Mayberry, because that’s who these 3 replace.

by Cormican on Dec 5, 2011 10:33 AM EST up reply actions

With 2 strikes…

Gload: .204
Martinez: .109
Mayberry: .239

Ed Snider is a crotchety old fuck.

That is all.

by EREX21 on Dec 5, 2011 10:55 AM EST up reply actions

#FreeRossGload

by perfectdepth on Dec 5, 2011 11:53 AM EST up reply actions

agree. Think of it like this. 2 outs bottom of the seventh, runners on 2nd and 3rd, down by one, pitchers spot coming up.

You want Nix or Thome against a Righty over martinez or Gload?

Wiggington over Francisco or Valdez?

I’ll take that bench actually (and I’m still not sure they non tender Francisco…)

"Sometimes, the balls that fall in are jam shots"...Hunter Pence, on BABIP

by Joecatz on Dec 5, 2011 12:13 PM EST up reply actions

I think Wigginton vs. Francisco at the plate are a wash.

Nix is clearly way better than crippled 2011 Gload, but is he much better than healthy 2010 Gload? I’m not sure.

And one of Valdez or Martinez should be back again.

Overall though, I agree that the bench seems to be improved.

by taco pal on Dec 5, 2011 12:31 PM EST up reply actions

Let’s take a step back here — why does two-strike hitting matter? If the guy is getting his hits on strike one or strike zero, I’m fine with that!

by Rujasu on Dec 5, 2011 4:12 PM EST up reply actions

Frankly, my cardiovascular system would prefer this option.

by Cormican on Dec 5, 2011 4:51 PM EST up reply actions

Completely agree. Murphy was discussing the idea of improving the team’s ability to work counts, which includes being able to hit with two strikes. He offered up the new acquisisitions’ 2-strike stats, but without any context. I was just providing the context.

-------
Celebrating over 50 years of slightly more Phils wins than losses: 1961-2011

by schmenkman on Dec 5, 2011 5:45 PM EST up reply actions

It probably should have mattered for Casey.

by Phrozen on Dec 5, 2011 6:39 PM EST up reply actions

Amaro backed off that stance in an interview I heard right before Thanksgiving. He actually mentioned how the Phils had the best offense in the league after June 1st, which was heartening to me, fleeting as that feeling was.

by 88Lindros88 on Dec 6, 2011 1:05 AM EST up reply actions

Also…Amaro…high on Galvis…oh Lord.

Ed Snider is a crotchety old fuck.

That is all.

by EREX21 on Dec 5, 2011 8:43 AM EST reply actions

Obviously I would want the GM to say the most positive things he can in this situation. Especially heading into the winter meetings, if he does intend to sign Rollins, there is no reason to undercut Galvis’ trade value in case he’s offered something useful for him.
/braces for the bag of beans jokes

-------
Celebrating over 50 years of slightly more Phils wins than losses: 1961-2011

by schmenkman on Dec 5, 2011 9:22 AM EST up reply actions

I agree, and he could be saying it in hopes of gaining leverage in the J-Roll negotiations but I can’t see how it would even matter.

Ed Snider is a crotchety old fuck.

That is all.

by EREX21 on Dec 5, 2011 9:46 AM EST up reply actions

I think it was just idle bullshit. As if prefaced by, “I know GMs are supposed to say things like this during contract negotiations so here you go.” It’s like going through the motions. Like calling a timeout before free throws. It probably won’t work, but hey it can’t hurt, so why not. I’m sure Jimmy Rollins had a chuckle over this when he heard it. He and Ruben will probably do a wink-wink thing when they meet for negotiations.

by taco pal on Dec 5, 2011 10:56 AM EST up reply actions

Or if you are Jason Garrett….calling a time out before your kicker kicks a FG…

Ed Snider is a crotchety old fuck.

That is all.

by EREX21 on Dec 5, 2011 11:30 AM EST up reply actions

Nothing like icing your own kicker, not to mention failing to attempt to gain any extra yardage before settling for a FG.

by Cormican on Dec 5, 2011 12:54 PM EST up reply actions

Wow, brilliant link. “Pleonastic.” Thank you.

I was wondering what size animal it needed to be to not be a pitch. - Roy Oswalt

by SandPhlea on Dec 5, 2011 8:22 PM EST up reply actions

Maybe he was literally high

by taco pal on Dec 5, 2011 9:22 AM EST up reply actions

“The kids use some weird slang these days. I saw one guy dealing…what was it…Galvis the other day on the corner.”

by Trev223 on Dec 5, 2011 10:34 AM EST up reply actions

No, that’s Gillies.

I <3 our rookies.

by LeepinLizardz on Dec 5, 2011 11:20 AM EST up reply actions

Too soon!

by Trev223 on Dec 5, 2011 9:33 PM EST up reply actions

Perhaps?

Amaro: High; on Galvis.

Why look'st thou so?' -"With my crossbow
I shot the Albatross."

by RememberthePhitans on Dec 5, 2011 5:44 PM EST up reply actions

Oh, by the way, per the Phillies’ facebook:

Please welcome into the world Benjamin Cooper Utley. He is Chase and Jen’s first child, and I bet he is strikingly beautiful.

I <3 our rookies.

by LeepinLizardz on Dec 5, 2011 11:22 AM EST reply actions

btw

(the strikingly beautiful part is my opinion, not facebook’s)

I <3 our rookies.

by LeepinLizardz on Dec 5, 2011 11:23 AM EST up reply actions

Congrats to the Utleys.

Can he play SS yet? Maybe Ruben should give Chase a call.

by Phrozen on Dec 5, 2011 12:51 PM EST up reply actions

Do we know if he’s righthanded?

by taco pal on Dec 5, 2011 12:51 PM EST up reply actions

He’s Utleyhanded.

by Phrozen on Dec 5, 2011 12:57 PM EST up reply actions

I don’t know how big a grain of salt should be taken with this one:

Phillies interested in Aramis Ramirez (tweet from Joe Capozzi)

Zolecki’s take.

-------
Celebrating over 50 years of slightly more Phils wins than losses: 1961-2011

by schmenkman on Dec 5, 2011 11:30 AM EST reply actions

If they can’t sign Rollins, the backup plan is sign Aramis Ramirez, trade Polanco?

Am I missing something here…? Because I don’t see any shortstops in that equation.

by topherstarr on Dec 5, 2011 11:41 AM EST up reply actions

See above (“high on”).

-------
Celebrating over 50 years of slightly more Phils wins than losses: 1961-2011

by schmenkman on Dec 5, 2011 11:45 AM EST up reply actions

i’d agree…

by Freddyn on Dec 5, 2011 1:45 PM EST up reply actions

2.5mm for 2 years for Nix.
So assuming thats 1.25 this year…

4.75 mm for Thome, Wiggington and Nix. I’m very cool with that.

"Sometimes, the balls that fall in are jam shots"...Hunter Pence, on BABIP

by Joecatz on Dec 5, 2011 12:48 PM EST reply actions

Awesome deal for Nix

by Nikk.m on Dec 5, 2011 12:57 PM EST up reply actions

do you mean its awesome for HIM, or that we made an awesome deal? not sure of the context there…

"Sometimes, the balls that fall in are jam shots"...Hunter Pence, on BABIP

by Joecatz on Dec 5, 2011 1:56 PM EST up reply actions

2.5 mm for 2 years?

Machts Nix.

Because someone had to.

Why look'st thou so?' -"With my crossbow
I shot the Albatross."

by RememberthePhitans on Dec 5, 2011 5:45 PM EST up reply actions

Pedro Martinez

One of my trips to Philly was in September 2009 to see them play the Mets. I remember the entire crowd on their feet chanting “Let’s go Pedro!” as he pitched in the 8th inning of the Sunday night game. It was awesome.

Let's go Hawks! Detroit sucks!
Bear down, Chicago Bears!

by HappyHuman on Dec 6, 2011 12:40 AM EST reply actions