before the trade deadline. We have 2 weeks to determine if we are buyers or sellers. I think the case is a lot more cleancut than it looks. The problem is that with all this talk about 10,000 losses and the near misses of the past few years, it will be harder to "give up" than before. Even if we do in fact give up, can we trust management not to make any more blunders?
I think the obvious move is to trade away any commodities you have that are likely to get more return than keeping them. The list isn't long due to the fact that our best players are the ones we want to keep.
Rowand is a definite must-go. We have stated it a few times that his value is at it's peak and he'd get a nice return. I am actually a fan of Rowand this year, just for the simple fact that his decent hitting has come along with some decent plate patience as well.
Moyer is also a definite must-go, if he'll actually let you. Yeah, he is signed for next year, but he has been very inconsistent and there is very little middle ground with him. Either he baffles hitters or he gets wacked. Rarely is he giving up 3 runs in 6 innings or 4 over 7. He'll also probably get an ok return.
Alfonseca should already have his bags packed. He may be good for this park throwing a bunch of ground balls, but he is likely to not be here next year anyway, is having a smoke and mirrors type season and is a good chip to cash in on.
Some smaller chips that should be traded are Helms and Barajas. Hopefully some team will need just a bit more depth and neither of these player are so bad that they couldn't get some project minor leaguer.
The sad part is that the Phils have a good nucleus, but it is entirely home-grown and 2/3rds of it is as lucky as you can get. We are beyond lucky that Howard and Utley, both projected to be decent players, have turned into superstars. We aren't drawing any real free agents, so, if it wasn't for those two guys out performing expectations, we'd be 12 or more games under .500.
Burrell and Eaton are two players that first look like they'd be good to move, but they actually have more value on our team than in a trade. You'd have to eat contract on both, and that NEVER works out for the trading team. Thome is still hamstringing us. Plus, when you trade a player at their lowest value, you end up getting low return. Do we really want to dump Burrell and his contract for nothing? The haters do because they tend to not think in realistic terms. We pretty much have to hope that the July Burrell will be the real Burrell the rest of the way.