Entries Tagged 'Phillies Rumors' ↓

In what would be an uncharacteristically bold move, SI.com is reporting that the Phillies and Red Sox are talking about a possible Manny Ramirez for Pat Burrell swap.

The Red Sox appear serious about trading slugger Manny Ramirez and are talking to the Phillies and two other teams about a deal, according to people familiar with the talks.

The Phillies may be the front-runner for Ramirez, who has told people he probably will OK a deal to Philadelphia if the teams can agree on a trade.

It isn’t yet known what players would be going back to Boston, but left fielder Pat Burrell is having a similar year statistically (.277/.400/.585 with 26 HRs and 61 RBIs in 103 games for Burrell; .304/.400/.538 with 20 HRs and 68 RBIs in 98 games for Ramirez) and could be a logical fit. He has a no-trade clause but has told the Phillies in the past that he’d be willing to waive it for the Red Sox and Yankees.

If this trade goes through were to happen, I see 2 possibilities:

1. Manny comes over as a man on a mission (that mission being making the Red Sox look like idiots) and tears up the NL, leading the Phillies to the division win. Say what you want about his attitude, he takes his hitting VERY seriously.
2. Manny comes over, doesn’t fit in on his first new team since 2001, makes a couple lazy plays and the fans turn on him.

A Manny for Burrell swap is intriguing on many levels. Manny is not a Philly personality, but is a World Series MVP, one of the best right-handed hitters in baseball and offensively, is an improvement over Burrell. He is a very consistent and clutch hitter and has proven it many times on many big stages. Burrell and Manny are both likely gone in the offseason anyway, so it’s a rental for both teams. And, if the Phillies management does decide to increase payroll, they can pick up Manny’s $20 million option next year (yeah…that’ll happen…). Can’t remember a time when two contenders traded their top right handed hitters for each other right before the deadline.

I can’t see this trade actually happening. Manny has been rumored to be traded a thousand times, and was even signed, sealed and delivered to the Mets at one point, so I’ll believe it when I see it. Personally, I make this move. Sure, Manny might stir something up, be he’s Manny freakin’ Ramirez , he’s a career .313 hitter with 510 HR and has been a stud on 2 World Series champions. Furthermore, he has a good relationship with Charlie which would help the transition. He gets more respect than Burrell from pitchers, and a 3-4-5 of Utley, Howard and Ramirez would be arguably the best in baseball. I say go for it.

You guys making this move?

Clearly Pat Gillick has been a frequent visitor to ReclinerGM and saw that the public didn’t think that A.J. Burnett was a very good idea. In response, he has turned his attention to a different target, A’s pitcher Joe Blanton.

According to ESPN.com, talks on Blanton have “accelerated,” possibly by the realization that Adam Eaton, as mentioned in the Phillies mid-season review, is literally the WORST starting pitcher in baseball.

Blanton has struggled as of late, and currently sports a 4.96 ERA. However, he is only 27, is a real innings eater, has a 4.25 career ERA and cannot be a free agent for a couple years. Personally, I would love him on our team. He showed what he could do in his start against us in June, when he went for 7 IP, 4 H, 1 ER.

The problem? When you deal with A’s GM Billy Beane, you almost always have to give up too much. You’ve got to imagine Beane is looking for a deal starting with our best pitching prospect, Carlos Carrasco, and our best catching prospect, Lou Marson, whose .450 on-base percentage likely has Mr. Moneyball drooling.

So, as always, we leave it to you. Is Joe Blanton the answer? If so, what do you think is an appropriate deal to offer the A’s?

CNNSI.com is reporting that the Phillies and Blue Jays are discussing an A.J. Burnett deal…

NEW YORK — Desperately looking to upgrade their rotation, the Phillies are talking to the Blue Jays about right-handed pitcher A.J. Burnett.

It isn’t known how far talks have progressed, but top Blue Jays executive Tony LaCava was spotted this week watching the Phillies’ Double-A Reading team, an indication things are heating up.

The Toronto Globe and Mailreported that the Dodgers also were pursuing Burnett. However, it appears that talks with the Phillies may be more serious. Philadelphia is also reportedly eyeing Mariners left-hander Erik Bedard.

Burnett, 9-8 with a 5.23 ERA, has a complicated contract whereby he can opt out at year’s end, which is the most likely scenario. However, should he falter badly or become injured, he can continue with a contract that is to pay him $24 million over the next two years, an option that could deter some teams from taking him. He also has a limited no-trade provision in his $55 million contract.

Burnett has said he would welcome a trade with “open arms” to the Cubs, but their acquisition of Rich Harden from the A’s seems to eliminate them as a potential suitor.

The Phillies have at least three good prospects at Reading — catcher Lou Marson (.323), center fielder Greg Golson (.299) and pitcher Carlos Carrasco (5-7, 4.18).

The Phillies made a push for C.C. Sabathia but couldn’t match the Brewers’ stacked farm system and four-prospect offer, highlighted by top hitting prospect Matt LaPorta. Philadelphia’s lead the NL East has been cut to 1½ games, thanks to a six-game winning streak by the New York Mets.

Phillies starters are only 31-31 with a 4.40 ERA, which is 10th best in the National League.

Burnett is an interesting case. He has been awful this year, with a 1.51 WHIP. But, he is still striking out a batter an inning, which infers that his stuff is there. Hopefully, if the deal went down Burnett would benefit from a change of scenery and return to his sub-4.00 ERA form of the previous 4 years. His quote about welcoming a deal with “open arms” infer that a change of scenery might get him serious again.

Considering his performance, request to leave and contract, the Blue Jays can’t have that much leverage. We could probably give them Bastardo and a couple lower-level guys to get the deal done.

It would be low risk in terms of giving up prospects, but high risk in terms of Burnett’s performance. You’d have to think he’d be better than he’s been in Toronto, but would he be the arm we need?

What do you think about an A.J. Burnett deal?

Lots of Phillies new to talk about today. First of all, if you listen to sports talk radio, you’ll hear the people on air talk about how the Phillies didn’t make enough of an effort to get Sabathia. They are being the same old Phillies, blah, blah, blah. Of course, these guys have exclusive access to the phone calls between the GMs, so there’s no way it could have gone any different! However, if they did their research, they would know that the Indians wanted to Major League ready impact bat as part of the deal, and we don’t have one in our system. On the good side, it looks like they went hard after him, and will continue to pursue a top starter.

Now what?: With CC Sabathia and Rich Harden off the board, the Phillies and Yankees might rank as the two teams with the most motivation to deal for what’s left of the starting-pitching market. But they both seemingly have almost nowhere to turn.

Both teams made runs at Sabathia. But even though the Phillies offered more bodies than Milwaukee, they lacked the position-player centerpiece Cleveland was looking for. And the Yankees U-turned once the Indians turned down their request for a negotiating window. Neither team, meanwhile, got aggressive on Harden. But now both find themselves unsure of where to find another, more affordable arm.

The buzz in Philadelphia is that GM Pat Gillick has convinced ownership to take on a big contract if the right starting pitcher falls into their zip code. We’re not sure how hard that was, but even the most skeptical members of a conservative ownership group can’t help but see that the Phillies aren’t going anywhere without a high-impact starter. Then again, Sabathia was the guy they’d targeted. Yet they wouldn’t talk about either their best minor league arm, Carlos Carrasco, or their most advanced position player, catcher Lou Marson, in those Sabathia discussions. So without altering that stance, they might not even have the ammunition to get a second-tier starter. Phillies executives have been telling people they’re wary of both Erik Bedard and A.J. Burnett. But at this point, they have no choice but to stalk both of them.

Later in the article, he says that while our negotiations with Brad Lidge went smoothly, they aren’t going so well with Burrell, who I personally would like to see back.

But don’t expect the Phillies’ other impending free agent, Pat Burrell, to be the next to sign. We’re hearing that the Phillies’ extension conversation with Burrell’s agent, Greg Genske, was short and not real sweet. It’s hard to envision the Phillies offering more than two years and around $20 million to Burrell. And that’s not even close to what Burrell and Genske have in mind.

Speaking of Burrell, I’m absolutely furious that Matt Holliday was named as Soriano’s replacement over him (or Wright, Hart or Carlos Lee, for that matter). Holliday has a high batting average, but is worse than Burrell in every other category and is notorious for being a “Coors Field” hitter, having horrendous home/road splits (as I mentioned in a earlier article, he’s something like 35th in NL, among only outfielders, in RBI on the road). (Note: for some reason I forgot Holliday was already on the team - he shouldn’t have replaced Soriano anyway)

Then there is the news of the Phillies sending J.A. Happ back down to the minors. Initially I was upset because I’ve been very impressed with the kid, but when you read into it, they are just doing it to get him some starts in Lehigh during the all-star break. I really hope they bring him back up instead of Myers.

Looks like Ryan is getting hot. Watch out. If you watched the Phillies last night, you saw that Howard broke Greg Luzinski’s record for RBI before the all-star break, and has extended that mark with 2 HRs this afternoon.

Finally, an ode to the incredible Jamie Moyer. He’s pitched 7 innings today, allowed 1 run, and his ERA has dropped below 4.00 for the season. Amazing. If I was a pitcher, I would just sit in the dugout and pick his brain the whole time. I hope he pitches 5 more years.