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A Foray into the Utley Injury Trade Speculation



I think the overreaction to everything is comical. In Philly, to many, baseball was an afterthought to the other professional sports, namely football, for several years. I was 13 during that magical 93 season which only added to my passion for the sport. I am a Phillies fan, first and foremost, but I am also a fan of baseball. The Phillies have taken the town by storm over the past few years and with that a generation of new Phillies fans...alot of whom are long time football fans following the ups and downs of a baseball season closely for the first time. The overreaction that takes place with all Phillies issues in this town are mainly, I think, the result of fans following baseball through a football lens. There is a place for that called sports talk radio. As a fairly new commenter on this blog, I am pleased to see that this is a place for objective, knowledgeable baseball fans to converse. The whole Michael Young trade speculation is a prime example of a reactionary fan base...it is irrational at best. However, it fair with what we know so far about Utley's injury to start looking at potential stop gap solutions that make sense for both the Phillies (better option than Valdez/Young) and the other team involved.

We can start by eliminating teams in the NL East and legitimate playoff contenders in the NL, because giving short term help for the Phils is not in line with their best interests. You can eliminate most of the AL playoff contenders as well, unless they are teams in desparate need of starting pitching...however, I don't think the Phils would even consider trading Blanton until the close to the deadline, if at all, and any trade would have to occur well before that point. Therefore, I want to focus on non-playoff teams in the AL to see if I can find a 2B/3B that would benefit the Phils. The player would have to be expendable to the team trading him to the Phils...in other words, they have a younger replacement under team control for more years. The trade partner would also have to be willing to accept low level prospects in return. The Phils have low level prospect trade chips and they are not going to trade MLB ready starting pitching before the season starts. Taking all this into account, I would target Kansas City and Mike Aviles. When healthy, Aviles is a solid, versatile IF that can hit. His fielding leaves something to be desired, but he would be a valuable addition to the Phillies even with a healthy Utley. Aviles, IMO, has a higher ceiling than what he has shown so far, because he has been moved around the KC prospect merry-go-round. When he has played, he has put up decent numbers, but is now becoming expendable in KC with the emergence of Mike Moustakas.

http://www.baseball-reference.com/players/a/avilemi01.shtml#batting_standard::none

What are your thoughts on a potential Aviles trade? Who are some other potential non-scrap heap targets?