Phillies daily links: 2/11/19

Well, that was an exciting week. The team made major news by acquiring the best catcher (and potential MVP candidate) in J.T. Realmuto. Yes, the price was high and those are don’t agree with it will have to eventually come to terms with it, but as has been mentioned, you can’t really argue that the team isn’t better now than they were at this time last week. Anyway, we’ve got you covered, so as the kids say - on to the links!

Here at The Good Phight:

• We had a lot of Realmuto news here. Let’s start with a different take on the trade: why the team most likely did the deal.
• Here is how Realmuto is going to impact this team right away.
• The team took the long game approach to getting Realmuto and eventually got their man.
• Several podcasts went up about the deal. In one, John talks to Scott Lauber about how the deal got done (in the previous link), and in another, Liz and Justin discuss the trade, prospects and other items.
• Speaking of podcasts, in non-Realmuto news, Justin and Trev help you remember past Phillies Bruce Ruffin with another edition of the Dirty Inning.

Other Phillies news:

• In this part, we’re not going with the beats too much. Instead, let’s look at what other, more national people are saying about the deal. First, at Fangraphs, the deal actually was received rather positively.
• At Baseball Prospectus ($), well, you can pretty much imagine what the prospect guys think of the deal.
• Ken Rosenthal ($) gets into what the Marlins were looking at from other teams. Personally, if they had gotten Gary Sanchez AND Miguel Andujar, I can only imagine what was going the other way.
• As you can guess, this trade only works for the Marlins if Sixto Sanchez hits and hits big.

MLB esoterica:

• The other big news of the weekend was the passing of Frank Robinson. Lots of stories were written about how good he was (I will use the word “underrated” as well), but my favorite came from the Athletic about when Robinson, as a manager, cried when he had to remove a player.
• Melky Cabrera is heading to the Pirates on a minor league deal. Whoop de doo.
• The Giants are getting annoying here, reportedly ready to offer Bryce Harper (you didn’t think I’d go the whole post without mentioning him?) a short term, big money deal. For all those who say they can’t afford him - yes they can.

Until next time....