Jerry Crasnick was the first to report that Jimmy Rollins will back in Philadelphia on a 3-year deal with a easily vesting 4th year. The yearly dollars have not been reported yet, but I’m sure they are high (update: looks like $11 mill a year, actually not that bad), and frankly don’t really care. I’m thrilled to have Rollins on board for the long term.
Rollins’ deal means that, barring a trade, he will be a Phillie for at least 15 (if you count his 14 game stint in 2000), likely 16 years, something that you very rarely see anymore.
Because of this, Rollins will have a chance to break nearly every offensive team record short of HR and RBI. Let’s take a look at how far off he is, and when we might expect him to start topping the leaderboards.
Virtual locks
Hits
Currently: 1,866 (4th)
Leader: 2,234 (Schmidt)
Timeline: Rollins is 368 hits behind Schmidt. Could reach it near the end of the 2013 season. He’s nearly a lock to break this record.
Doubles
Currently: 388 (3rd)
Leader: 442 (Ed Delahanty)
Timeline: 54 behind – it’s not out of the question that he will be chasing the doubles and hits record right around the same time.
If he stays healthy
Plate Appearances
Currently: 7,537 (3rd)
Leader: 10,062 (Schmidt)
Timeline: When healthy, you can pencil Rollins in for about 700 PA per year. That puts him passing Schmidt in the later months of his vested 4th year. It’s probably unlikely he’ll stay healthy through the whole contract as well, so this one might come down to the wire.
Runs
Currently: 1,080 (4th)
Leader: 1,506 (Schmidt)
Timeline: This is one that will likely need an additional year or two to get to. Even if Rollins’ averages 100 runs over the 4 years of the deal, he comes up 26 short of the record. It’s certainly possible if he stays healthy.
Stolen Bases
Currently: 373 (4th)
Leader: 510 (Billy Hamilton)
Timeline: Hamilton has the most, but he played pre-1900 when stolen bases could be given for stuff like going 1st to 3rd on a single. Either way, he’s the leader and Rollins is 137 behind. That would mean an average of just over 34 steals a year. Will be tough to do under this deal.
Not Happening
Triples
Currently: 100 (4th)
Leader: 158 (Ed Delahanty)
Timeline: Rollins isn’t quite as fast as he once was, and he won’t be catching Delahanty. Chances are he’ll leap Sam Thompson (107) for 3rd and not quite get to Sherry Magee for 2nd (127).
Home Runs
Currently: 170 (13th)
Leader: 548 (Mike Schmidt)
Timeline: Obviously Rollins isn’t catching Michael Jack or Ry-Ho. 15 HR a season would give him 230 for his career, jumping him all the way up to 6th all-time.
RBI
Currently: 725 (14th)
Leader: 1,595 (Mike Schmidt)
Timeline: Again, not catching Schmidt. If Rollins knocks in 60 a year, he’ll sit at 965, good for 6th (assumes Ryan Howard will be higher than that by then).
This is a good deal. I was thinking I’d be comfortable in the $9-10m AAV range, but I’d he stays healthly $11m isn’t absurd. Now let’s get Hamels done.
Oh crap. Was havin’ a great weekend till I read this. Watchin’ that jasper for another 4 is askin’ a lot, Rube. You let me down.
To be honest, I didn’t really give a warm bucket of spit how much RAJ paid Rollins as long he got him locked up long term, I wanted to care but I just couldn’t bring myself to make an argument against signing him. Sure, you could make one but win or lose, Rollins belongs in a Phillies uniform.
I’m only interested in one record for Jimmy. Most rings won while memeber of the playing roster during Phillies career. He’s part of way to wide a field of people that’s currently tied. I know that should he become part of a much more limited entrant defining that class, he’ll contribute heavily toward that one way or another. To get out of this era, which maybe extends through the life of this deal with just 1 championship sure beats none, but at a minimum, would be a shame. At the same time, it wouldn’t be surprising considering the last 2 years have been little short of disappointing from a bottom line perspective. Considering the plusses and minusses of alternatives, it’s net good. But there’s no point going nuts today. Even if the club as a whole has struggles, if Jimmy shows offense above what he has the last 3 years, it would be time to go nuts on a certain level. And I’m glad he levels his earnings after being modestly underpaid over the course of the past contract. But I don’t see much merit to getting all fired up over the deal in current time. Jimmy has some work to do. Obviously, not defensively.
I honestly hope he brings a new attitude at the plate together with the new contract. But great to have him back. Greater to end all the speculation and uncertainty.
any thoughts about the Braun issue? It was pretty shocking, not sure what to think. Waiting till the clear picture emerges.
Probably a wise approach just to wait as you said. But if you want a guess, I doubt it was a performance enhancer, just a banned substance (like I have an idea on the difference, but besides that, I wouldn’t know about how performance enhancers help anyway although past performances seem to indicate they do. Probably has something to do with his attempt to control herpes. Prolly doesn’t deserve the strip the MVP talk, or image tarnish, but he’s going to sit for the 50 games if there’s a clear connection between what he took and it being banned. It’s bureaucratic, but if a substance is on the no can do list, even if it shouldn’t be, or is explicable in a given circumstance, you still have to uphold the law. Hence, suspension. Killer break for the Milwaukee club, between this, the Prince of Free Agency, and the KRod arbitration.
The one I don’t get is Manny. He was supposed to do 100 games as a 2 time offender, but since he retired, and unretired, somehow its only 50 games now. I don’t get the feeling anyone’s signing him anytime soon though, so the 50 games will be put off a while.
If you’re intruiged by the Braun story, this might be of interest.
http://sportsradiointerviews.com/2011/12/19/mlb-milwaukee-brewers-ryan-braun-ped-testing-victor-conte/
This Bill Conlin story is now a couple hours old, but feels a lot older. Similar to the likes of Joe Paterno, and Al Campanis, and unfortunately no doubt a sum of others that performed well (depending on your view, its not like Bill Conlin was popular with everyone), a career comes to a screehing halt and leaves a heavy dose of controversy to a formerly positive legacy. It’s perhaps not fair to mention Paterno in the mix as he doesn’t appear to have been a primary wrongdoer, but he doesn’t seem worthy of being excused as a standby guy.
It appears that women, not to be confused with woman, from 40 years ago have come out and claimed Conlin engaged in molestation action with them. Who knows. All that seems safe at this point is respect for the old adage “where there’s smoke, there’s fire”. And it’s possible that one good thing to come out of the Penn State tragedy is that victims are more willing to speak out. If the allegations are true, one can only imagine how hard it must have been to closet the secret for 40 years and live with it. If it’s true, often a difficult answer in drawing conclusions between adults.
Unfortunately, 40 years ago takes us back to a time when I was particularly enthused about Conlin as a writer. He was 5 years or so into his Phillies beat days, a period that not only was close to and eventually inclusive of a golden age. That was particularly pronounced following years of losing. Conlin’s beat days left me with a long standing identification of him as the best baseball writer that would ever live. He was tight with the Phillies administration, who used him as a mouthpiece, seemingly more than any other scribe. You knew this group wasn’t a holier than thou bunch, carrying traditions of longtime baseball guys from way back in the day of being well acquainted with late night liqour. But if you overlooked the idea of perfect humans, and focussed on the passion of Phillies baseball, it still made for an esteemed bunch. Conlin’s transition of the decisions and byproducts that those men brought forth to newsprint provided a special experience.
Conlin was/is a man of seemingly multiple personalities. It was readily apparent just from public image alone that he could be either charming or if not gruff, close to it. Some of his post beat day Phillie stuff was still really captivating, some a little challenging to read. I left most of his other stuff to others. But no doubt, one of his seemingly other favorite topics to cover, Penn State, is already being read by many with a very watchful eye today to draw possible connections to his alleged way of life, and what was apparently going down in Happy Valley.
Public personna is a tricky thing. Conlin never came across as the most role model normal guy from the program I had most visibility of him on, The Sports Reporters. Sometimes his sarcasm, a trademark of that show back then was too sarcastic. His opinions maybe a bit gruff. He wasn’t exactly well placed on the medium of television, particulalry on a cast of then youthful and handsome types like Mitch Albom. But he was still the guy that had firmly entrenched my memory of mandatory reading from youthful times. That made up for a lot. But it still didn’t erase the good idea to remember that you were connecting with someone you didn’t know. Maybe the most, or close to it guy with a golden image of current Phillies is just past current Raul Ibanez. I’ve often doubletaked when I’ve read or heard fans speak glowingly in terms of how he’s a great guy even if he’s washed up. Raul might well be, and hopefully is. It’s not like they know him personally. I was always concious of that with Conlin. I never had any reason to think negatively about him, but I never enjoyed him more than as a writer. For some inexplicable reason, if today’s news was about Stan Hochman, that would have been shocking. For Conlin, it’s a disappointment for sure, and it doesn’t change his baseball beat legacy, but I’m not too quick to erase “as ye sew, so shall ye reap” from my mind. If he sewed. If he didn’t, well, let’s get there first.
Great, we stick with the offense that has sputtered and come up short in the playoffs for the past three years. Of course the big advantage this year is that our core group of players is yet another year older and slower.
The narrative that the offense failed is only partially true. All of our aces didn’t exactly live up to their reputations, and just like in the last two post season exits, there were some pretty awful defensive moments that extended innings and allowed extra runs to come in….
I think you’re correct – the first game they came back from a 3 run deficit, they had a 4 run lead until Lee blew it in game 2; there’s never offense when Cole pitches (game 3) so that was expected; and I think Oswalt blew a lead in the 4th game. It was really game 5 that they really did nothing.
Indeed. In fact, we scored two more runs during the series than STL.
I know Conlin seemed a little off putting, especially if he was in the presence of Hockman, Diddinger or Ashburn/Kalas
I didnt know he was such a great writer years ago….was that the 60′s?
I started reading him regularly somewhere around 71-72, and read him religiously for something like the next 11-12 years. That whole time he was the Daily News Phils guy. So that’s the time frame I was referring to. I believe he started covering the Phils in 1966.
Somewhere around this time a year ago, plus or minus a couple months, I engaged in what was the first and last in an annual series of lookbacks at Phillies players past. Reviewing the career of Alex Johnson proved to be productive in that I learned some things about him I wasn’t aware of, or had forgotten.
Now, by overwhelming lack of demand, we continue that series, with our second and perhaps final annual tradition of looks back at Phillie players more or less forgotten.
This guy makes you think twice when the trivia question of what Phillie outfielder was born in Oklahoma and had a terrific season for the club in the 1960′s. The obvious answer is Johnny Callison. But truth is, you need more definition to limit the field between Johnny Callison (1964, which considering the way the team’s season ended, kinda killed the terrific year) and Don Demeter. Demeter, in a way, would become one of the most important players in Phillies history.
Demeter was born in Oklahoma City in 1935. His youth included 2 things. Baseball, and trouble, and fortunately, baseball won out. He once played on a team that won 59 of 60 games. It wasn’t like he was as mischevous as a guy like Ron Leflore, who paid a steeper price by serving time before writing an even greater MLB stay, but Demeter wasn’t exactly role model material. The Dodgers signed him, and life was good as he wasn’t even 24 years old before he collected a World Series ring from his 1959 season. The Dodgers were still a talent drenched organization back then, and a crowded outfiled with the likes of Ron Fairly, Wally Moon, Duke Snider and the Davis boys, Tommy and Willie made for a competitive environment. He never reached his potential with the Dodgers, who traded him to the Phillies. Demeter’s 1961 Phillies season was a highlight in a season of club lowlights. He banged 21 homers, and at least was finally showing flashes of realizing his potential. 3 of those homers were in 1 game against (naturally) the Dodgers.
It was Demeter’s 1962 year that was the creme de la creme. At that time, baseball mainstream thinking as it was, Demeter’s 29 dingers, and 107 ribs made for impressive reviews, but it was career high 41 walks (which sucks for a career high) and .307 average that led to a sizably best OBP of .359 that was particularly impressive.
Demeter’s contributions were major as the Phils diminished memories of a 47-107 1961 season to win like 30 more games than the prior year. Demeter was headed into 1963 with 2 ways to go. Parlaying his 1962 monster year into potential tapping greathness, or his career year in place with decline the trend. The Phils as a team improved again in 1963, but Demeter’s contributions toward that were less. Relieved of third base challenges by the acquisition of Don Hoak, who Gene “Hoak was the one I always wanted” Mauch loved, Demeter was less in offense across the board. Maybe most notable was his .140 OPS drop, to .739. But he did smack 22 homers, completing a 3 year run of 20 plus dingers that Mauch had predicted upon acquisition. And maybe it was the himers that still made him marketable. Pittsburgh, then a good outfit, and if they inquired about you, it was a compliment asked about him, and Gene Mauch, who reported to GM John Quinn, attempted to raise the ante by saying only if Roberto Clemente, or Bill Mazeroski were involved. It’s a selective highlight, considering particularly in Maz’s case that he was in decline by then, but both Clemente and Maz wound up in the HOF. But the Phils were at least semi quick to deal Demeter at close to peak by the time the winter ended. Along with pitcher Jack Hamilton, they were sent to Detroit, and the Phils took a large step toward the joys of 1964 with the acquisition of Jim Bunning. And Gus Triandos. Even if Demeter’s biggest contribution was providing value with which to acquire Bunning, it can’t be overlooked in Phillies history as important. By 1967, the Phils were downtrodden again, but the taste of near victory in 1964, thanks largely, but certainly not entirely to Bunning, and the return to high draft pick levels by later in the decade made for a great run in the 70s.
Demeter never did match up to his Phillie greatness. He started his decline at age 28. His first year in Detroit, he scord an OBP of .290, and began a trend of fewer games played each year. Jimmy Rollins already has a few more homers in his career before this new contract kicks in that Demter had in his 11 MLB years.
Following his 1967 retirement, Demeter did what playing the game is really all about. He never made more than 31k per year in the bigs (which wasn’t bad back then, since the minimum was 7500 most of his career if not all of it), but he parlayed his career and experience into productive stuff. He became a Baptist minister, was President of the Oklahoma City 89ers for a year, and also walked the political lane, losing an election in his Oklahoma in quest for a House of Representatives seat. And he does have that Dodger championship ring to look back on in his retirement years. He’s in the Oklahoma Sports Hall of Fame, a venue that also includes Warren Spahn, The Mick, and Bobby Murcer. Not bad company to claim common denominator stuff with at all.
Demeter, with that 1 really good year, and 2 decent ones just doesn’t carry the weight of other Philolies past when you meaure the effect they had on the memories. But he was good, and provided the inventory to acquire Bunning. I’d like to think he can look back on his career as a very good one, even if the high potential scouting reports from way back weren’t fulfilled on an ongoing basis.
Voting is a tricky concept. Used to be that you had to be 21 to vote. You were old enough to go to war, but not old enough to help decide which candidate would send you off to battle.
Now, 18 is the voting age. That levles the playing field, and they don’t make 18 year olds like they used to, but in the overall scheme, contrary to the its only 1 vote, and the whole thing is a sham, that’s heavy responsibility for someone so inexperienced with life to express an opinion that counts.
I guess there’s no perfect solution.
Unfortunately, the seemingly imperfect voting system carries through to other facets of life. Even lesser political weighted positions than the presidency are far more important than the fun and games department of sports, but geez, Louise, the lack of restriction on sports opinion polls leads to amazing results.
Case in point, numero uno. The fine folks at Philly.com have a poll running on the degree of pleasantry that the Phillies 2011 season devloped. The Phillies won 102 games, flipped the turnstiles at maximum pace, and drew large media audiences everytime they took the field. They had 3 guys convincingly in the CY race, a player rightfully in the discussion as an MVP candidate, and another who might have slipped below prior standards, but still whacked 30/100, which by and large makes for attentive viewing. They failed to make the World Series or bust mandate, but played a competitive post season as far as they got. And don’t even think about the long and inept history of this franchise dating back to a mere 6 years ago or so that for a century before included about as much winning as a guy getting last rites inhaling his final doses of oxygen. Yet, nearly a whopping 1/3 of the 3000 plus votes were recorded as average, or less. A respectful majority of 56% voted above average, which sounds about right, considering the bottom line shortcoming, but how 1/3 of the constituents voted average or less, let alone the included D or F grades is truly amazing. If those graders had controlled my academic evaluations as a kid, I’d have been in even more trouble than fair grading placed me.
Case number 2 is in a way more amazing. Only 60 peeps have voted on whether Bill Conlin should be stripped of Hall of Fame membership, but 80%, or 48 votes have been recorded as “outtahere.” Conlin’s in a real precarious position. His expressed interest in clearing his name is gonna be like climbing Mt. Everest back to back sans break because his rep will be strictly subject to the court of public opinion. Apparently, his alleged crimes of 40 years ago are too long ago for an actual criminal case, and I got no problem with preliminary thinking along the lines of where there’s smoke there’s fire, but it seems to me like if you want to have the opinion that he’s guilty, maybe a look or listen to the alleged victims for credibility purposes might be smart before you opine that this high journalism honor be stripped of the man, just like that. I’d guess a good number of the 80% strip him gang include a high percentage of the can’t stand Conlin brigade. No loss of sympathy for the would be victims in mind, maybe their expressions would have opinionists with the same lack of appreciation for Conlin. Maybe that’s why we have presidential elections every 4 years instead of everytime Mister Obama makes an executive decision. A time and place for everything. Not less than a week before the Conlin story even breaks.
The turn of the calendar inspires a look at the schedule to get a feel for the first month of the season, and a curiousity about what kind of start the Phils can get off to.
Opening in Pittsburgh provides for paranoia based on history, but with 3 of the games best pitchers going, you’d like to think the Phils can get off to a 2-1 start. The Fish and Mets are the first homestand. Why do I have this gnawing feeling that will be a 3-3 split.
At the Giants, Pads, and Dbacks for 9 is next. 5-4′d be okay, I guess.
Then it’s a 4 pack with Theo’s Cubs.
23 games. 14-9 would seem like a pretty good goal to shoot for, record wise. Pads, Mets and Cubs seem easy, but I just don’t get the feeling this is gonna be like last year, where you walk into every series seeing a good chance of 2 of 3 wins. One of those 3 clubs will suck, but play better against 1 good club through the year. Maybe it’s the Mets against the Phils. Yet, part of me could see this team winning more than the year before for the 6th year in a row. Hard to imagine, but not unthinkable.
We’ll see what the sentiment is out of spring training. But for now, April looks like a hover slightly above .500 proposition. Which isn’t too bad a start.
Elsewhere around The Game, a deserving title considering the Eagles lackbluster season ended, although I concede to being psyched as always for the Winter Classic…..
A few years from now, when the human race is terminated, I’m hopeful that the succesor to mankind does not discover artifacts of the posting process that permeates MLB. This will leave behind a legacy to the greatness of humankind that crushes the image.
The latest tale in this interesting, but goofy process is now just under halfway through the 30 day period in which the Texas Rangers can sign one Yu Darvish, or be refunded the 51 million smackeroos they forked over just for the privelege of signing this reputed number 2 for their as always maybe good, but not great rotation.
Winning a World Series, particularly when you have come soooo close 2 years in a row leads to desperate thinking patterns. If you think getting close but first degree burned 2 years in a row is brutal, consider that seemingly seriously, SI.Coms Joe Sheehan has already put out a pre pre season prediction of a 3rd straight Fall Classic demise, this time to the Reds of Cincinatti. A close but no cigar frustration that Philadelphia sports fans can readily relate to, even beyond the scope of Phillies baseball.
It’s not so much the process that’s mind boggling as it is the impatience it carries that is amazing.
Darvish is said to be expected to ink up for an additional 75 million beyond the 51 mil posting fee. And people screamed no ballplayer is worth that when Michael Jack Schmidt signed for 560,000 a year, let alone before that for fractional sums of dollars. I guess those critics never heard of Drew Brees, but that’d be another story for another sport.
If the Rangers wind up expending 75 mil for the tall hard throwing righty, they maye well reap even a good amount of return on the fork out. Darvish is good (1.44 ERA in 2011 Japanese time zones), and the Rangers are certainly good, and ringless to date. Maybe he’s the difference, and maybe it attracts an even wider money spending demographic to a pretty good, and pretty affluent fan base.
But if the 30 day signing period evaporates, the 51 mil is returned from the ever popular Nippon Poverty Drenched Ham Fighters Baseball Club and Darvish, all of 25 years old could return to Japan for a year before becoming a completely free agent a mere year from now. No posting fee would be attached, and he could sign with anyone from the Baja Peninsula to the Canadian Rockies. Not to mention Disneyworld, to Cape Cod.
They tell me prejudice works 2 ways. Negative thinking about a race or sector is blatant prejudice, of course. Even attaching a preceived positive of an ethnic demographic is same. Apologies in advance. For all the Japanese people I’ve never known, but followed unscientifically from afar, this is oine bunch of people that thrive on oft outdated behaviors like respect on loyalty. How dare they? Perhaps Darvish, half Japanes, and half Iranian by birth feels a sense of responsibility based on that mode of respect to enable Nippon to collect the 51 mil, and sign now. It’s not that the Rangers would be a bad place to pitch. Winning team, some outstanding personalities to rub elbows with, but do that boy know what it’s like to pitch in Texas in August? Warnings of it can’t possibly compete with reality of it. Wait a year, and other climates, other opportunities await. 26 and a bright future is no different than 25 and a bright future no matter how fast career baseball declines come.
Darvish is this close to his multi year fantasy of pitching against the best. The Rangers are this close to moving past World Series loser in Major League Baseball, Paper Edition. Nippon is 51 million steps away from being further removed from current poverty levels. Ah, the lure of it all, and the magnetic pull of get it done now. That’ll win out. And it may prove to have a happily ever after ending. But chances are they look back on this warning and think would have, could have, should have. While the Ham Fighters sit on their pile of money off this silly posting process. Falling back on Edwin Jackson or Roy Oswalt, and saving 51 mil seems a far more practical move.
This Prince Derby is now 1.5 days old with a new “favorite” to sign him, the pesky Gnats of Washington. Personally, focussed on the present, I’m most interested to see if any “underdog” is so moved to step up, and create the mystery team atmosphere that finalizes free agent derbys (pardon me if it’s derbies) with a final push up in money or length.
But assessing it a little longer term, it’s fractionally interesting to see the somewhere between concern and paranoia devloping about what a threat the Nats would be to the Phils as early as 2012. Prince, in a word, can mash, in lengthier terms, according to Scott Boras, he’s a cross between Henry Kissinger and Frank Howard. I guess that’s a compliment. I wouldn’t contest this concern, but its sensible to point out that neither Steven Strassburg or Jordan Zimmerman are candidates to pitch max innings this year. But the Phils are indeed a year older, and 2 years into notable offensive decline, so it might be, it could be, it should be interesting.
Does Washington scare? Kinda is as convictional as seems appropriate.
First power poll of the year.
http://aol.sportingnews.com/mlb/story/2012-01-05/mlb-power-rankings-angels-rise-to-the-top
The Jerry Crasnick report of the Phils being interested in Kerry Wood this weekend is simplified today by Jim Salisbury who deciphered interested contenders down to the Phils, Angels, and Tigers, and of course, Cubs. I don’t know that this is a top bid winner…I could see this is a last step negotiating tool to help drive Wood to recoup some of the money he compromised last year when he came across as a lot more interested in winding up his career than now. It’s not ring contention, but at least it seems like it will be exciting playing on Chicago’s North side this year, and supposedly, Wood has a long post playing career future with the Cubs. But if he does opt for elsewhere, I don’t know that the Phils have an easy time signing him out of the field of options. High bid would help, no doubt. But the allure of heading to the Bank isn’t as obviously alluring as it was a year or 2 back. The field’s a lot more balanced, and the Phils have fallen prey to the frailty of getting a year older. Unlike a Jim Thome, no obvious connections attach him here. It’s possible that Amaro and company could do a good sales job with just a competitive bid, but it seems a long shot.
Should the Phils even pursue him? Geez, his K/9 and H/9 still show a quality pitcher, and you never have enough of them. The Schwimers and DeFratus’s of the world need opportunity. The club probably still likes David Herndon, but we’re not talking journeyman replacement in Wood. I’d think he’s worth pursuit to a point of defining if the cash is correct.
Since I don’t think Wood is coming here, I’m more intruiged by how his upticking his free agency play effects the ongoing Ryan Madson market. Crasnick publicized the Phils interest, common sense would suggest a lot of clubs had similar discussions. That the Angels, Tigers and Phils are listed at the top suggests open mindedness to improving their respective setup positions. That bullpen position continues an option for Madson, probably still not a number 1 choice, even for a 1 year deal. Wood’s money would seem more appealing to the Angels than Madson’s wants, even short term, and certainly not help Ryan’s dwindling options. Should Kerry head back to Chitown, or elsewhere other than the Halos, maybe it motivates the Angels to want Madson more. Dollars aside, Madson should be more appealing with his better groundball rate, but dollars aside is not a present theme permeating MLB at this point. Specially since it appears an extra playoff team will be added this year, and you can acquire reasonably similar talent at the trade deadline for what might well be an easier shot at making the post season field.
I got the whole thread to myself
I got the whole thread to myself
I got the whole thread to myself
I got the whole thread in my hands
– lyrics from the album “Paraphrasingly Yours – The Whole World in my Hands”.
I saw where some guy crawled by the basketball portion of the blog and complained about the lack of action on the blog. Holy hoops! That boy oughta check out the cowhide section. Imagine. John Bowker was released today and not a singular reaction to this historic development.
This really is one of the most hilarious transactions in Phillies, baseball, world, and hell yes, even interplanetary developments.
Bowker was 0-13 as a Phil. He didn’t hit 1 stinkin’ ball out of the infield. Not a 1. And yet, get this….the release was by HIS REQUEST! Attaboy, Rube. You coulda coerced Jim Thome to exercise his no trade last year, and had him instead of Bowker. Now, you got Thome a year later, a year older, for a whole year. Maybe he holds up, maybe not. What a nice bat JT would have been for the post season instead of Ross Gload, the 1 hip wonder. And Bowker was the insurance for Glaod, for cryin’ out loud. And now, Bowker is outtahere. AT HIS OWN REQUEST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! CLASSIC!
I wonder where the end of the financial road is for Kyle Kendrick. With today’s million plus raise over a pretty shocking 2.4 mil contract a year ago, the real story is what the pattern of raises continues to do as far as setting up future deals via arbitration, or who’d have ever thought it, a multi year agreement. I doubt we’ll hear the degree of disgust/shock as last year, because KK had a pretty decent season, and certainly proved valuble in diversified roles. But with another year of improvement, he’s really setting a nice floor to make an even greater amount of money in this game. More power to the guy.
As pitcher’s salaries continue to head north, Kendrick’s not as grossly overpaid as it seems when he does get racked.
Yanks acquire M’s Pineda and sign Hiroki Kuroda.
uh-oh.
Between that,m the Angels grabbing Pujols, and Wilson doesn’t exactly hurt, and now the Tigers replacing V Mart with Prince, and the Rangers just being plain good, let alone if Darvish proves a decent sized asset as early as this year, I’d offer the following.
Considering that the games are played on paper, considering injuries are still a factor with a long way to go, considering that none of the Yankees, Angels, Tigers and Rangers are infallible, it still seems pretty likely, and certainly possible that the best 4 teams in the sport are in the AL. Add Boston, and Toronto, certainly decent clubs, and in the Jays case, improved, and the question is has there ever been such a disparity between the top clubs in 1 League, or Conference as exsists in MLB at this time. You almost could say the top 4 AL clubs are way better than any team in the NL. The NBA has offered up some drastically superior Western Conference rosters in recent times, and way back in the day, the East was pretty superior, and the NFC was way better than the NFC back in the 80′s and early 90′s. The one possible contender for most distanced superiority might date back to 1967 when the NHL doubled in size, and had the Original 6 play in an Eastern Division, and the 6 expansion clubs play in the West. That put Philly, LA and eventual division champ St. Louis in one division, which made so much sense geographically. But today’s Fielder signing completes a ridiculous amount of paper distance between the top clubs in the 2 Leagues, and if there’s more than a snowball’s chance of the NL winning the All-Star Game, it’s only because of the youneverknow factor.
If the Fielder and Pujols playouts taught us anything, it was reinfoircement of an old lesson that rumors are fun, but be careful what you place trust in. On paper, and practically, it makes sense to think there are still varied settling points for Roy Oswalt. The Cardinals, hardly desperate, but still would benefit from a reasonably close to home location, the Red Sox, an all-time great possibility a mere year back, who now find themselves a very possible non playoff entity, and definitely starter short (discounting the seemingly legitimate question of how thrilled will Beckett be to have his head in the right place with Bobby Valentine around) and the ever threatening Texas ballclub which has good, but not next level pitching, which Oswalt, healthy, is still sort of close to.
Yet, the Phillies have not slammed the door on a return by Roy O. As recently as 2 weeks ago, admittedly forever, by the Hot Stove calendar schedule, Senor Amaro, for whatever public revelations are worth said he’s still keeping in touch with the veteran righty. Salary cap limitations, particularly to a salary cap is a foireign language guy like me look bolted, but there are ways around that. Unsigned as he is, you’d have to think it still burns in Oswalt’s craw how nature denied him a chance to pitch with such a great pitching staff, and it seems apparent that he’s not getting a multi year deal of satisfactory proportions anywhere. Say what you want about Amaro and his credibility, but if there’s one thing that rings sincere when he speaks, it’s his understanding of the importance of pitching.
I’m not suggesting there’s an obvious clarity to Roy Oswalt coming back here. But as the free agent pitching nank dwindles, I’m merely suggesting that there’s more of a chance than rumors and reporters would have you think. Reports have indicated Oswalt wants 8 for 1 year. He may wind up having to settle for 5 or 6. That doesn’t seem a heavy amount to try to work around in lux tax challenges. Going over the cap 1 time doesn’t carry lifetime terms. Call it an unlikely, but not forgettable possibility.
I can understand no new post when Wilson Valdez is traded.
I can understand no new post when Brad Lidge takes his pitch formerly known as a fastball down DC way.
But HOLY COW! The Phils sign Juan Pierre, and NO NEW POST! What’s this blog coming to.
Jesting aside, or attempted jesting to the other ghosts reading this, I actually like this deal quite a bit, and feel it warrants some attention. Probably a minority viewpoint, as the masses I assume will think it’s just depth. But Pierre, not a young man anymore, at 34, and dependent on speed is risky in that regard, but the guy is a classic leadoff type, and winning player. Personally, I think he could give Laynce Nix some fight for a share of the left field platoon that seems a destiny. If he makes a dent in Charlie’s thinking, and makes the club, and warrants time, just forcing Jimmy to a new spot, if he’s productive there could be a real asset.
It’s a bit of a longshot, but I could see this being one of these under the radar moves with dividends. Well, at least offensively. But I’d like to think this has a better shot at materializing nicely than the Podsednik signing last year, which wasn’t a bad deal, though it hasn’t paid off at the Big Club level.