Phillies Rumors: Myers out…Halladay, Oswalt, Peavy in?

UPDATE: Brett Myers possibly lost for several months and/or the season with hip surgery likely. This might increase the urgency for the team to get something done. 

I’m looking to do a post (edit, it’s done, here is it) sometime soon about the solutions to the Phillies pitching situation, but one that are certainly exploring now is getting one through trade. This is from Jayson Stark’s Rumblings and Grumblings…

Phil ‘er up: Is there a prominent starting pitcher in the July shoppers’ catalogue that the Phillies haven’t looked into? Clubs all over baseball report that the Phillies are, as one exec put it, “looking everywhere for starters.” And for once, he said, “they’ve got pieces to give” to get one.

The list of pitchers they’ve called on, from what we’ve heard, includes every conceivable usual suspect: Oswalt, Peavy, Brandon Webb, Roy Halladay, Doug Davis, Erik Bedard, Cliff Lee, Aaron Harang, Brad Penny, Chris Young and Jason Marquis.

But which Phillies prospects are clubs targeting? The group we’re hearing starts with three Triple-A names the Phillies have balked at dealing in the past — catcher Lou Marson, infielder Jason Donald and pitcher Carlos Carrasco — plus catcher Travis D’Arnaud, shortstop Freddy Galvis, pitcher Kyle Drabek and outfielder Dominic Brown (all in A-ball).

Then there’s a left-hander who is climbing everybody’s charts, Antonio Bastardo, who has a 50-9 strikeout-walk ratio between Double-A and Triple-A. The Phillies dangled Bastardo in July for Rockies reliever Brian Fuentes. But a year later, he is actually drawing some Johan Santana comparisons, and might have passed Carrasco as their No. 1 pitching prospect.

A couple interesting things to note:

• All 3 of the Triple-A prospects had far higher value last year, and aren’t doing so hot this year, as I detailed in my prospect report. Hopefully they can step it up and raise their trade value. 
• At this very moment, the only player I wouldn’t trade on that list is Dominic Brown. 
• The Bastardo / Santana comparisons are ludicrous. Bastardo is good, but a step below Santana with both his fastball and change-up. 
• I would probably trade everyone in the system besides Brown for Roy Halladay. 
• If I had to rank those pitchers mentioned above based on who I’d want the Phillies to trade for the most (factoring in heavily who we would have to give up), it would look like this…

1. Halladay (signed through 2010)
2. Harang (solid, wouldn’t have to give away the farm, signed through 2011)
3. Webb (not #2 because of injury)
4. Marquis (wouldn’t have to give up a lot, and is solid)
5. Peavy (has a long-term deal, risky, especially for what you’d give up)
6. Bedard (rental player, but kind of a head case)
7. Oswalt (you keep waiting for him to get hurt/slow down, and he just doesn’t. Signed through 2012.)
8. Lee (don’t really need another lefty, and I think last year was a fluke)
9. Penny (don’t see him having a sub-5 ERA)
10. Davis (no thanks)
11. Young (no thanks)