Comments on: Phillies Rumors: Phils Turning Attention to Blanton

By: The Duke

The Duke — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 03:46:51 +0000

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.

By: sfw

sfw — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 03:06:59 +0000

Drolz, you mean cory litle! Actually, I really like this move. Didn’t rape our farm system. Around for a while. under 4.00 era in AL 2 of last 3 years. Ground ball pitcher. We have our number one and maybe carasco can become our no. 2. We’ll see…….

By: Zack

Zack — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 02:47:52 +0000

Pete, it’s your turn to play devil’s advocate – can you write a quick post defending this trade? Boards everywhere seem to hate this trade, but you make a pretty good case for it in your comments.

My initial reaction was that it’s a decent potential for production trade, and that people seem to both want to win both NOW and 5 years now, and that Gillick made the choice to try to win NOW, you can’t be sure if 5 years from now those traded 3 are leading us to a title. Plus, you can only have so many players in your farm system and on your team, we have a couple years to recover from this and restock our system, right? And even if we didn’t make this trade and saved these guys and used them and our other top prospects for a King Felix, would that be worse? Or is this, as jjg put it, too “conservative”? What’s the storyline here?

bski, are you still out there? What’s your take?

By: Drolz

Drolz — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 02:26:55 +0000

Just woke up from my nap… heard we got a husky .500 pitcher… ERA over 4.00… probably a #3 guy in the rotation… nothing spectacular but a real innings eater…

Holy cow! We got Jon Leiber back?

Just messing around. Overall, this does add stability to the rotation so I agree it’s an upgrade. Would be nice to see another ace though as we’ll need one to contend for a championship.

Any indication that Gillick has something else up his sleeve? If not, I guess the only options left are to hope Myers returns to form or we catch lightning in a bottle with a call-up of Happ or Carrasco.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 00:56:17 +0000

I agree seems to me that we got hosed a bit. Looks like Gillick gave up a bit much for a #3 guy. That said, it seems that he is replacing Eaton, which is definetly a upgrade. And he is only 27 with a couple years still under contract. We definetly need Myers to come back and pitch well now. Still dont have a #2.

I still think Howard is going to be around he a bit longer. We still have rights to him for a few more years, there is no urgency to trade him. Im not dead set on trading him this offseason like everyone else is. Say what you want about the strikeouts but we are talking about the premier power hitter in the game.

By: jjg

jjg — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 00:18:26 +0000

I’m sorry they gave up Adrian Cardenas for a very husky 27-yr-old .500 pitcher. I hope Beane didn’t just husk our farm system. Who knows? At least Phils are goin’ for it, in their conservative way.

By: JMKinLA

JMKinLA — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 00:13:26 +0000

Seems like a reasonable deal, though in typical B. Beane form, he got excellent value. Looks like Cardenas will be good, but Chase is there for the duration. Outman bugs me a bit…in a league where good young lefties are in short supply and bloom late, he seemed like a possible keeper.

By: bball

bball — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 00:13:17 +0000

@ Adam

..And Gio will probably become a good pitcher just like Gavin Floyd…

By: bball

bball — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 00:11:58 +0000

On the one hand I like that the phillies made a move for a starter but on the other i think Gillick got taken by Beane. They gave up too much for him even tho Cardenas prob would never have played for the phils in the majors. I feel like they could have gotten Bedard or Young for not much more.

The funny thing about this deal is they traded away some of their already thin minor leagues and STILL need another ace to legitimately contend for a championship.

By: Adam

Adam — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 00:11:26 +0000

best part of this trade is apparently gio gonzalez is taking blanton’s spot in the oakland rotation