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You might have heard that the Phillies traded Howie Kendrick and Jeremy Hellickson last night, roughly within an hour of one another, to the Nationals and Orioles, respectively.
The returns themselves are fine, not much to get over the moon about there, and now, the Phillies soldier on. Will they make more deals? Will Tommy Joseph or Cameron Rupp or Freddy Galvis or Hector Neris or any of the other 20-somethings find themselves packaged in a surprise deal? Will Joaquin Benoit be put out to pasture? How warm can the recently promoted Pedro Beato keep the seat for a guy like Edubray Ramos or Ricardo Pinto to make his return?
All these questions - and more! - to be answered by Monday evening. Just thrilling theater here.
Anyway, there’s a game tonight:
Jerad Eickhoff has looked better of late, posting a 3.13 ERA in his last 4 starts despite giving up five runs to the Marlins on July 17. Aaron Altherr had his second multi-homer game of the season last night, and his season line now stands at .294/.365/.566, which continues to be wonderful. Rupp - the oldest member of the lineup at 28 years and 300-odd days old - has also swung the bat well lately; he has a 1.242 OPS in July!
The Braves counter with Sean Newcomb, a 24-year-old who arrived from Anaheim in the Andrelton Simmons trade of 2015. He’s been okay. He’s fine. Not a ton more to say in that department. Really, that goes for just about the whole Braves’ rotation, the recently departed Bartolo Colon aside.
The first pitch of the post-Hellickson/Kendrick era is at 7:05 ET. Be there, or be traded for international bonus pool money.