Phillies Rumors: Pitcher In? Burrell Out? Happ Gone?

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.

July 10, 2008