I think this is a very good move by the Phillies. I got about 5 texts from excited friends that loved this move. I figured everyone had to love this move. Then I turn on Radio-950 to try to find out who the other 2 prospects were and I’m greeted with the host saying “I think we just acquired another Adam Eaton.” Then I check out my blog when I get home, and while the mood isn’t completely negative, it’s not quite as positive as I think it should be. So I’m going to analyze this move by making counter-points to the things I’ve heard people saying about this move.
We acquired another Adam Eaton
Whoever you are, you should be fired on the spot. This is exactly the type of ignorant, no research, no accountability statement that riles up the masses and ends up driving athletes out of town. “THIS GUY SUCKS!” “Why?” “Because someone on the radio told me and I don’t have the ability to think for myself.” If you want to be like Howard Eskin, buy a fur coat, 2 tons of hair gel and hit yourself in the head with a crow bar until your IQ is about 60.
OK, now that the idiotic reaction is out of the way, I can deal with the reasonable reactions.
Blanton is good, but we need another ace to win a championship
Do we? Let’s look at the last couple World Series champions and see if they needed 2 aces.
2007- Boston (Beckett and Schilling) – Yes – though Schilling’s ERA was 3.87, only 0.08 behind Moyer right now
2006- St. Louis (Carpenter and Suppan) – No
2005- Chicago (Buerhle and Contreras) – Aces in the playoffs, considered Aces before that? Debatable
2004- Boston (Pedro and Schilling)- Yes
2003- Florida (Beckett and Penny)- No – Penny had a 4.13 ERA in regular season
2002- Anaheim (Washburn and Lackey)- No – Lackey wasn’t quite what he is now
2001- Arizona (Schilling and Johnson)- Yes
So that’s 3 definite “yes”, 3 “no” and 1 debatable. We are probably most comparable to the 2003 Marlins and 2006 Cardinals in terms of a 1-2 punch. But when you look at these teams’ entire rotations (I won’t list them here), A Hamels-Blanton-Moyer-Kendrick-Myers rotation doesn’t exactly exclude us from championship consideration. Would I be more confident with CC Sabathia on board? Of course. But, add to this that we have the #1 bullpen in baseball (think 2002 Angels) and top-tier offense (when they play to their potential), and I think we have as good a chance as anyone in the NL.
We gave up too much to get him
I have to disagree here. Adrian Cardenas is going to be a good MLB player, but considering he is in single-A, so he won’t be in the majors for 2-3 years, and plays a position blocked by Chase Utley, there is no immediate loss. Besides, in 2-3 years, our window with Utley, Howard and Rollins in their primes will be rapidly closing. He is a good prospect, but you HAVE to give up something to get something! We didn’t give up either of our top 2 prospects in Carlos Carrasco and new Olympian Lou Marson, both of whom may contribute as early as next year. Josh Outman is a B-level prospect. Think Matt Maloney, Elizardo Ramirez, etc… He will probably make it to the majors, but was our 5-6th best pitching prospect. Matthew Spencer is a utility outfielder. And it’s not like Blanton is a rental, we have him until 2010.
Blanton is a #4 starter – Not a real upgrade
There were 9 pitchers last year that had 220+ IP and a sub-4.00 ERA. They were: Jake Peavy, John Lackey, Brandon Webb, Dan Haren, CC Sabathia, Roy Halladay, Tim Hudson, Aaron Harang and Joe Blanton. That’s 8 legitimate aces, and poor ‘ol #4 starter Joe Blanton.
Until his recent string of poor starts, he wasn’t too far off those same numbers with a 4.15 ERA through his first 14 starts. He’s pitched 7+ innings in 10 starts (vs. 20 total for our FOUR non-Hamels starters) and has allowed 2 ER or less in 9 starts (vs. an average of 6 for our 4 non-Hamels starters).
Furthermore, Blanton is only 27 and only has 760 IP under his belt. He’s now entering the prime of his career, not exactly in danger of losing velocity and dropping off. In the NL? He’s a legit #2-#3 starter.
Billy Beane always wins on these trades
Usually, yes. But not always. He got NOTHING out of the Tim Hudson trade, and while Mulder has been awful since his trade, Haren (who was closest to Blanton’s career IP at the time of trade) and Hudson have not.
This in another case of the ownership being cheap/conservative
Whenever we don’t get the best player on the market (CC Sabathia), all of a sudden, the ownership is cheap and conservative. While they often are, this is not one of those cases. First of all, we went hard after Sabathia but did not have the piece the Indians wanted, a MLB-ready power bat. Second of all, getting Blanton is guaranteeing we will have to spend some more money. Blanton will be in the 2nd and 3rd years of arbitration with us, and will stand to make $8-10 million each of those seasons. Acquiring him means a multi-year financial commitment.
Alright, have at it
I’m sure this will bring up a lot of discussion, but I am excited about this move. I said in my mid-season review that we needed a pitcher, and we got him before the end of the all-star break. This is the best player we have acquired at the deadline in awhile, and maybe his acquisition will wake the bats up a little. Not only that, but he will be a solid contributor in our rotation for next 2 years. That puts Hamels, Blanton, Kendrick and Carrasco under our control until at least 2010. With our offense, that’s a solid, potentially way above average, rotation. If nothing else, give this guy a good welcome, and leave the negativity for when he deserves it.
dude i’m with you all the way. you make more sense than those idiots on the radio. meen that guy at WIP, i’m guessing thats where the adam eaton comment came from (i dont even have to guess, he’s so ill tempered, bad attitude, too bitter) its not like you can tap your shoes like dorothy and sabathia appears. meen these guys are just too bitter!! radio sports guys do more criticism than analysis these days; suddenly every joe-ass-on-the-couch-man has an expert opinion.
As an A’s fan for a LONG time, I think all of you in Philly will quickly become fond of Kentucky Joe. He is prone to giving up the big inning, but that was ususally due to the pressure of keeping the A’s ineffective offense in the game. Not your prototypical power pitcher, but he’s a competitor, and as a true baseball fan, that attitude will be sorely missed out here (and hopefully welcomed out there!)
Mike-
thanks for stopping by. I agree that Philly will like Blanton. he’s a workhorse.
as an A’s fan, how do you feel about these types of moves? when do you think the timeline is for the A’s to be championship contenders?
Zito wasn’t traded.
Pete –
At this rate, the A’s wil always be in contention, but never a champion. They were close a couple years ago, but the Tigers swept them in the ALCS.
To get a little deeper into it, I was a little worried when Billy Beane became a part-owner a few years back (recall that he almost took the GM position with Boston, but A’s ownership brought him back with ownership as incentive). He now has an eye on the bottom line more than ever.
I will always be a fan, but the reality of the situation is that the A’s will never keep their successful talent. Blanton was not the cream of the A’s crop, but he would step up when needed.
Hopefully the A’s one day will have the rigth combination of youth, talent, and luck to take them to another title. Until then, we have to root as the underdogs.
Go A’s!!!
Can’t argue that it makes us better now, but we gave up too much. Everybody’s defense is that we had nowhere for Cardenas to play with Utley here. With that rationale, we’d of moved Howard a long time ago (which many were pushing for) while we had Thome. I think if we were willing to give Cardenas up, we could have done better.
Nonetheless, Blanton’s an upgrade and will contribute.
Glad to see some perspective about this trade from an A’s fan and Pete.
I was down on this trade a little yesterday but have warmed up to it. My main reasons for being down on it are
1. Blanton’s high total bases count and high WHIP average moving from a pitchers park to a hitters park. Afraid that more doubles will turn into HRs
2. The inclusion of Outman in the deal. I won’t claim to know a lot about him but he was ranked as one of their top pitching prospects.
3. I was still mad about the phils letting Harden and Sabathia get away.
@Pete
Great research about the 2 aces. It takes a lot of luck to win the series without 2 aces tho. The playoffs are kinda a crapshoot anyway depending on who’s hot. Good move by the phils tho to improve their chances but i would still like to see them add an “ace” to make them the favorites. Right now i still rank them behind the Red Sox, Angels and maybe a few other top tier teams.
I heard about this trade yesterday, and while my first reaction was eh…My friends and I quickly realized that Blanton is much, much better than Eaton and that is all that really matters. Eaton needs to be removed from the rotation and we now have his replacement. Pete, good job with explaining the potential improvement of our team. Side note: does anyone remember Moyer’s numbers when we traded for him? I feel like this move kind of mirrors that trade. Thoughts?
I agree with bball – that was great research by Pete regarding two aces in the playoffs (thanks, Pete!). Pete is correct that two aces aren’t absolutely necessary to win a championship. It does add more hope that anything can happen if we get in.
My main reason for wanting another ace, however, wasn’t directly related to pitching. I’m more concerned that in the playoffs we’ll face a crafty manager with an above-average pitching staff who knows how to shut down our feast-or-famine offense. For that reason we’ll probably need our pitchers to put up a lot of zeroes to keep pace until the offense comes through.
It seems the rotation is set (give or take a call-up or two if Myers doesn’t get back on track). So perhaps the focus in the second half should be on our offense to work on manufacturing runs instead of waiting for the big inning.
Another thing about Blanton: I feel better with Mike’s assessment that Blanton can “step up when needed.” It was for this reason I hated to see Kyle Lohse go.
I would have said you were crazy if at the beginning of the year you predicted Lohse would have the numbers he has now. Nonetheless I was very disappointed when we couldn’t re-sign him. I had a gut feeling we’d regret losing him because of the way he out-dueled Tim Hudson near the end of the season. Lohse was thrown into the heat of a pennant race and he responded to the call (I know, I know, he gave up that slam in the playoffs. But still…). If Blanton has the same makeup, I’m happy with the trade.
Hope you’re right.
@ pete-
I would never suggest that our “top” two guys in Hamels and Blanton (as you suggested) are in the same league as any of the pitching duos you mentioned in thier respective years:
(1) Carpenter/Suppan-
Chris Carpenter was 15-8 during the regular season with an ERS of 3.09 and and 3-1 in the playoffs with an ERA of 2.78. Consider their “ace”, Hamels is not as good as Carpenter.
Though, Jeff Suppan threw off an ERA of 4.12 during the regular season with a record of 12-7, both numbers are better then what Blanton has done this year. Not to mention, in the playoffs, Suppan was lights-out with an ERA of 2.49.
Come on, Hamels/Blanton duo ain’t the same page as Carpenter and Suppan in regards to the 2006 World series year. Yes, Carpenter may not have been considered an “ace”, but both were better than Hamels/Blaton during that specific year. I don’t like the comparison one bit.
(2) Beckett/Penny-
Josh Beckett was only 9-8 during an injury-plaqued year in 200, but had an ERA of 3.04 in the regular season and 1.29 in the playoffs.
As for Penny, not as strong as you would want, but still better than anything Blanton has proven.
(3) Lackey
You make the statement that Lackey “wasn’t quite what he is now”????
Numbers suggest he was pretty good: He had and ERA of 3.60, but good better in the playoffs…2.42!
The point though with this team is that their pitching was better throughout their rotation then the Phillies. Though, they did not fare paritcularly well in the playoffs, their regular seasons were better that their respecitve counterparts in the Phillies rotation: Ramon Ortiz 15-9 with a 3.77 ERA and Kevin Appier has a 15-win season and an ERA a shade under 4. Both had better years than Kendrick, Moyer, or even Blanton thus far.
(4) Beckett/Schilling-
Take a look at what Schilling has done in the playoffs–maybe you forgot. He 3.87 during the regular season wasn’t great, but his 3-0 record and 2.99 ERA was!!! Not sure, we could expect that from Moyer. I hope you weren’t inferring that.
Ultimately, these are my concerns with Joe Blanton–they are pretty elementary:
(1) NOT a ground ball pitcher- can’t afford not to keep the ball down at the Bank. (I know you disagree with this pete)
(2) Home/Road splits (3-year sample)- NOT encouraging! He has an ERA of 4.70 away from pitcher-friendly.
(3) Not a K pitcher- Outside of last year, as a career, his strikeout numbers are low at best for a full-time starter. Not a big issue if you’re pitching anywhere other than the Bank.
Do I think it is an UPGRADE? Yes! But at the end of the rotation, not the beginning. I am not a “glass half full” kind a guy like Pete here. I think the Phillies are 2-3 wins better with this move.
Yes, this Blanton move is guaranteeing that the Phillies will have to spend more money, but not as much as they should be for a guy of a higher caliber then Blanton. I agree that a rent-a -player was not the option, I agree! But, Bedard and Harden were clearly better options. But why aren’t either Bedard or Harden on this Phillies team? In addition to other things, they are MORE EXPENSIVE options–today and in the long-run, much more expensive options than Joe Blanton. So, let’s go after the mediocre pitcher, because he costs less–that is the prevailing idea. And I don’t think it is that far off base because clearly Harden and Bedard would make more money than Blanton. While I don’t think they gave up too much for Blanton, this package of Cardenas, Outman, and Spencer is not that far off of what the Cubs offered to get Harden–although injury-prone (nothing major) not to mention young, is dominating at times. Clearly, a #1 or #2 on any staff. You tell me the Phillies couldn’t put together a better package then the Cubs for Harden. Of course, they could of, but they chose not to. Why? Don’t know.
That’s an easy question to answer Sonido… there are 2 big reasons why I prefer Blanton over Harden.
Obviously, anyone can get hurt, but Harden is very injury-prone. I completely disagree about nothing too major. Harden has never thrown 200 innings in his 5+ MLB seasons. Blanton is a guy who takes his turn every 5 days.
Blanton is under contract through 2010. Harden is scheduled to be a free agent after this season.
There really is no way Bedard’s a better option than Blanton. There are character and heart red flags all over the place with Bedard. The only good thing about him is his first name, and that ain’t gonna win you games.
duke-
I’m pretty I think Cardenas is just as good a prospect as you think he is, but here is how I am thinking about it.
Cardenas is 20, and in single-A. If he takes a normal path the majors, he will probably be called up in 2-3 years. Since he wouldnt have a position for us, you could say he might be stalled the same way Howard was, so lets say 3 years. If he stayed with the Phillies, 3 years from now, Howard is probably gone, Utley and Rollins are 32 and on the down slope of their career. Is Cardenas that good that’s he’s going to put us over the top?
We have a short window with Utley, Howard and Rollins in their prime. These are 3 MVP candidates and the Phillies may never have talent like them, in their primes, again. So you trade a good prospect for a pitcher that can help for that window.
Sonido-
I’m getting kicked off the computer right now. But ill respond later.
@ Erik-
(1) Harden is signed through 2009, not 2008..
(2) Bedard is not better option than Blanton? Wow! I am aware of red flags with Bedard, Mariners obviously didn’t think they were a problem to give him the money he got. At the end of the day, he is a better pitcher then Blanton, he’s gonna WIN more games…make the move…
Sonido -
- Suppan had a 4.15 ERA going into the playoffs. If he was on the Phillies, would you be saying that we had “2 aces” going in to the playoffs? No. Considering Blanton had a 3.95 ERA last year and 4.15 this year until his last 5 starts, (his W/L record is a direct result of run support, not performance) – I think you can definitely say Blanton and Suppan are similar. And you kind of made my point by showing that pitchers (Suppan, Penny, Lackey, Contreras) don’t have to be considered “aces” to perform like them in the playoffs.
- “There were 9 pitchers last year that had 220+ IP and a sub-4.00 ERA. They were: Jake Peavy, John Lackey, Brandon Webb, Dan Haren, CC Sabathia, Roy Halladay, Tim Hudson, Aaron Harang and Joe Blanton.” That to me, is enough to say Blanton have proven as much, if not more, than Penny in 2003.
- I counted Schill as an “ace”
- your concerns with Blanton are well thought-out and justified. Perhaps he will only be a slightly better version of Kyle Kendrick.
- Harden would have been less money that Blanton, because you are only tied to him for one more year, not 2. Bedard would have only been slightly more expensive. To say Harden doesn’t have serious injury issues is almost like saying Mike Hampton and Mark Prior don’t. He pitched 25 innings last year, and 45 the year before, and he’s already been in the DL this year. Bedard meanwhile, is currently on the DL with arm trouble, so I wouldn’t be comfortable selling the farm to get him AND it worries me that after trading EVERY good prospect in their farm system for him, the Mariners are eager to get rid of him for 50 cents on the dollar.
-”You tell me the Phillies couldn’t put together a better package then the Cubs for Harden. Of course, they could of, but they chose not to. Why? Don’t know.” I appreciate your opinions, so don’t take this personally, but I HATE when people say stuff like this. How on earth could you know that we didn’t try for Harden? Do you have a tap on Pat Gillick’s phone? How do you know we didn’t have an offer on the table and they chose the cubs because they like their prospects better. ESPN doesn’t get half of their rumors right, and 3/4 of discussions that happen never get reported. GMs only leak what they want leaked.
Personally, I think Harden was too much of an injury risk.
duke-
here is Keith Law of ESPN’s take on Cardenas as a prospect. I personally think he is better than this, but it might make you think we didn’t give up that much.
“Adrian Cardenas is the best of the three prospects going back to Oakland; in a perfect world, he becomes a solid-to-average offensive second baseman with an average glove. He has a short enough swing to make plenty of contact, but he’s not physical and won’t hit for much power. He’s not fast out of the box, but shows above-average speed going first-to-third.”
@Sonido – I’m with you on every point you made. Anybody arguing that Blanton is better than Harden or Bedard is smoking something I wouldn’t mind getting my hands on.
@Pete – I didn’t say I wouldn’t have moved Cardenas…I just wouldn’t have moved him for Blanton. Also, I don’t know how many good years Rollins has left. I’d of rather moved his $13 million a year for a pitcher in a year or two and brought up Cardenas to play SS. Not to mention freeing up that cash would help us to resign Hamels and Howard.
@Pete
I think that was the same scouting report they had for Utley.
@pete-
Injury concerns aside, it is obvious (or at least a well-based assumption) that the Phillies didn’t put a good enough package together for Harden, because if they would of Rich Harden would be making his second start this weekend for the Phillies, not the Cubs. It has nothing to do with ESPN or rumors. It is not a situation like with Sabbathia where any deal required a LaPorta-type prospect. I know the Phillies can’t compete with that. But considering what the Cubs gave up, it should be absolutely agreeable that two things happened with regard to Harden: (1) the Phillies didn’t go after him or (2) their package just flat out sucked. If the latter is true, why not up the ante! It didn’t take a Carlos Carrasco-type prospect to get Harden.
Also, I think that Contreras, Lackey, Suppan (to a lesser degree) and Penny are all better pitchers than Blanton and inherently have a higher propensity to pitch better in the playoffs than Blanton. Maybe just my opinion.
And Harden has not had same problems as Prior or Hampton.
agree with you all the way sonido—
pete we keep hearing about how small the window of opportunity is here with our three studs, howard, rollins, utley–so why do you oppose “selling the farm” to bring in a pitch who would immediately propel you to the team to beat in the National league, if not the majors such as harden or bedard—it comes down to money with this ownership…
my philosophy at this point for all philly teams is….win at all costs–bring home a dam title to this faithful, starved city…even if it means 5 years of mediocrity will follow…hell, it cant be any worse than the last 25….
mole -
you make a good point. i dont necessarily oppose “selling the farm.” and we tried to for Sabathia, but didn’t have a batter like LaPorta for the Indians. BUT – I do think that Carrasco and Marson will help during that window, so I’m glad we kept them.
Harden and Bedard are clearly better than Blanton, if they are healthy. And don’t get me wrong, I would have been happy with either acquition, but I dont think you can justify trading for a pitcher currently on the DL with an arm injury, can you? Especially after the Garcia fiasco last year.
You would have had to give up Carrasco in a deal for either of them. So who would you rather have in your rotation next year? Bedard or Blanton AND Carrasco.
I agree with Jayson Stark…
“STRIKE THREE — FUTURISTIC ROTATION DEPT.: As vital as it was for the Phillies to upgrade their rotation this year, it was just as vital for them to do that in a way that didn’t obliterate their rotation beyond this year. And this trade A) brings them a starter who can’t be a free agent for 2½ more years and B) didn’t require them to deal away their two most advanced starting-pitcher prospects, Carlos Carrasco or Antonio Bastardo.
So think about how shaky their future rotation would have looked had they dealt one or both of those guys for a rent-a-starter like Sabathia.
Next year, they’d have had no Sabathia. They’d be contemplating the mystery that is Brett Myers. And they probably would have been stuck with the grim prospect of running Eaton out there again. They also can’t be sure that Jamie Moyer will be coming back at age 46.
So the only known quantities in their rotation would have been Cole Hamels and Kyle Kendrick. And they’d have had no Carrasco, or no Bastardo, or possibly neither of the above, as an option to plug those holes.
Now, while they have to get Blanton straightened out — and, especially, get him back to being the ground-ball machine he was last year (when he threw 1.58 ground balls to every fly ball) — they’ve given themselves a short-term boost and long-term flexibility. So even if Blanton isn’t a shut-down October difference-maker, this was still a deal the Phillies had to make.”
But, at the very least – we can all agree we are better team than we were yesterday! And that is a good thing.
i dont know how anyone even listens to sports talk radio. i gave up on it years ago because of people like eskin. he is the worst. how does he even have a job still? i wish charlie would have kicked his ass.
the whole blanton vs. harden thing is interesting. would you rather have a solid innings eater who you know is going to be there to take the ball every 5 days or an ace where you just dont know if he will even be able to pitch for you in the playoffs? its a tough call and based on the phillies current situation, i think they made the right one.
the phils kept the two prospects they cannot trade and definitely upgraded the rotation. i am happy.
agreed, pete…
Adam, in my humble opinion, without connective bias: Howard Eskin hustled his ass off to get where he is. He’s the Pete Rose of local sports. Knows how to deliver radio. I don’t always agree with him, but I respect him. Is always where the action is. Has been in the business at least 30 years. Now Cataldi is a sellout and a buffoon; journalist?; can’t tune in from 6-10 to him and his capitalizing hyenas. The Cuz is the real thing but Macnow, a poser from Buffalo, doesn’t know Philly sports before ’79, seems to read the Cliff Notes closely though. GCobb is great; a straight shooter with a lot of insight into both sports and life. Comedian Big Daddy Graham is a fine late night entertainer; knows his Philly sports and other realms as well. Sports talk has its dry spots but to dismiss out of hand is to miss a lot.
I am not down on the trade, just not excited. Yes Blanton is a upgrade over Eaton, but so was Happ. And I think Carrasco is too. Bring either of them up, and you save the minor leaguers for a better deal. And this rumored trade with the Rox, we are giving up waaaayy too much.
Speaking of that trade with the Rox – which the Inky reports fell through – apparently it was supposed to include both Carrasco and Happ. Obviously this would have been a “We’re going for it now” move. Would have been nice to see Matt Holliday in a Phillies uniform. But the only way it would have worked without totally wrecking our pitching rotation for next year and beyond would be to make an all-out attempt at signing Sabathia or Sheets during the off-season. Any thoughts or updates?
If that trade to the Rox happened, I’d start rooting for another team. The deal, as I understand it, included Victorino, Carrasco, Happ, Marson, and Ohman for Holliday and Fuentes. It would be Gillick selling this team’s future for a one time shot at glory in his last year. Obviously, Ohman was moved in the Blanton trade, which leaves the Rox looking for a replacement.
I don’t see how it would improve us too much. I don’t see the need for Fuentes and I honestly (and I know I’ll catch some crap for this) don’t see Holliday as a huge upgrade from Victorino on this team. They don’t get much better than Victorino defensively and he’s got a gun for an arm. Offensively, he’s a solid a player and a fantastic base stealer. He’s also a large part of our team identity and has really become one of the understated faces of this organization.
Holliday’s stats are inflated from playing home games at Coor’s field. He’s due 9.5 million this year and 13.5 million next year. Don’t get me wrong, he’s a great player and is actually a bargain at those rates. It’s just that if you throw him in right field and move Werth to center, our outfield defense takes a BIG hit.
bski – “…dead on the floor…” ha ha ha
No worries mate, just wondering why you hadn’t commented on the Blanton deal. fyi, I’m going to China for most of August (unfortunately not to watch the Olympics, I can’t believe it, I had to be in Western Australia for the Sydney Olympics), so I’ll be disappearing, too. I know you’re just a commenter, but I like reading your writing on baseball. I even went on Zo Zone and told people that you’ve taken your comments over here, I’m sure there are people over there who know good, insightful writing when they see it.
ZACK: I kind of figured that I was jumping in a bit late. The topic was a couple days old and kind of talked out.
Thanks for the compliment about my baseball posts. I appreciate it very much. So, what do I think about the Blanton deal? I agree with Pete. There are many positives to this deal.
1) At a minimum, Blanton is better than either Eaton or Myers. (BTW, why is Eaton still on the team? What could he possibly do for us out of the pen beyond mop up in a blowout? I know we are still paying him, but we will pay him whether he pitches for us or not and he only hurts us when he does, so I’d rather pay him to not pitch. We get a lot more for our money that way.)
2) Blanton did not really cost us that much. This allows us to pursue another deal to strengthen the team. (like the Holliday/Fuentes one that is floating around)
3) Even taking all of my frustrations into account, I do trust Gillick. Moyer has given us much more than I ever anticipated. Romero has turned out to be a major steal. Durbin is very solid. The Lidge deal. All of that tells me to give this deal some time. Blanton has a chance to turn into something for us.
4) Blanton is young and we have him for 2 more years, which I think will be significant.
5) I also agree with Jason Stark about our pitching situation for next year. We don’t want Eaton in the rotation, so that’s one hole. Even if Myers comes back and pitches acceptably for the rest of this season, we don’t know what we will get from him next year, so that’s a potential hole. Also, we don’t know if Moyer will come back or what we will get from him if he does, so that’s another hole. Blanton fills one hole, and since we didn’t give up Carrasco or Bastardo, they will both be there if and when the need arises to fill the second or third hole in the rotation.
We need to give this some time. Unless Blanton pitches out of his mind, goes 10-0, and gets us to the world series, we will not be able to assess the true value of this deal until next year. Also, if Gillick is able to pull off another deal now because he didn’t ship off 5 players for Sabathia, you will have to factor that in as well.
@PETE: Please keep up the good work with your baseball topics. I look forward to them. I know I’ve said before that I’m more of a baseball guy than a basketball guy. I’m glad that this topic got a bunch of posts. It bugs me that many of the baseball topics don’t get much action. I mean your mid-season topic got 8 comments. That disturbs me because we are smack dab in the middle of the season, the basketball season is long over, and football has yet to begin. Plus, the Phils are in first place(barely). I could see if they were out of it by the end of May like many seasons in the past, but come on. Anyway, I’ll be here.
Duke, I’m with you in not liking the Rockies trade at all. I’m going to extend what you said just a little further – if the Phils aren’t getting enough in this deal, then that means they should ask for more – I’d try to pry away one of their rotation guys, or another hitter.
Also, I wouldn’t mind a lateral move with another contender to shake things up, like trading J-Roll and one of our outfielders to Detroit for Renteria and Ordonez/Granderson/Guillen.
I just don’t think Holliday and Fuentes would be enough, the urgency that was there at beginning of the season just isn’t there anymore, that clubhouse needs to be shook up a bit.
i think we need a separate posting on this alleged holliday/fuentes trade, even if it is dead at this point. i really don’t know what to think of it. first, the minor league system would be completely drained. there would not be any prospects left at all. second, our lineup would be sloooow. we would be stuck with ruiz, unless jamarillo is a step up next year. and our rotation would be very suspect. we all learned last year how important pitching is over hitting in the playoffs.
but man, can you imagine utley, holliday, howard, and burrell all in a row. that is terrifying for opposing pitchers.
am i missing something in regards to fuentes? is he even closing for colorado anymore? why would colorado require carrasco in a deal straight up for fuentes (no holliday included).
if gillick goes all out in his last year, what kind of shape is he leaving for the team and farm system for his successor? i really don’t know what to think of this possibility and wonder if it is actually dead at this point.