Geoff Jenkins Signs With Phillies

I think this indicates that the Phils don't have much confidence in Jayson Werth as an everyday OFer. Also gives them a decent bat once Burrell leaves after this season.

Werth has the ability to start every day, but he is a high injury risk, and that's minimized if he's not starting every day.

From 2005-07 (courtesy ESPN.com), Jenkins' numbers vs. RHP: .292/.365/.504. Werth vs. LHP: .316/.413/.471. That's a hell of a RF platoon.

On top of that, Jenkins and Victorino give the Phils two excellent defensive outfielders with plus-plus arms. I love the signing.

considering that Werth & Victorino are essentially playing for free, I think the Phillies can afford to splurge on Jenkins.

he's a substantially better option than Cameron, McLouth, (shudder) Kielty, or any of the other names thrown around, and hitting at CBP and alongside Utley/Howard/Burrell/etc. should be helpful. I dunno, I can't really see a major downside here...

Sad to say, but I think the Phils offseason has ended. I like Jenkins and all, but not the offseason i was hoping for with the possiblities of this team. This could have been a WS contender too, but not with these moves.

The Phillies' pile o' crap du jour: Chad Durbin, Vic Darensbourg, Travis Blackley, Eric Bruntlett, and now Jenkins. Uninspired? Damn right. Uninspired, unimaginative, cheap, miserable sons of bitches. A skinflint, dead-end front office that'll never change as long as the chumps keep pouring in from the 'burbs to see the idiot in the green suit. As far as the real fans are concerned, screw 'em.

Ok for starters. Melvin Mora should be a no at all costs. He is 35, been declining for 3 years, and playing full time he basically put up the same numbers Greg Dobbs did last year in a platoon. Helms will bounce back this year and be serviceable so the 3rd base platoon should be fine.

I like the Jenkins signing because he and Werth compliment each other well. Look at their career splits. They were made to be in platoon together.
Jenkins:
vs RHP: .288 avg, .358 OBP, .525 SLG, .883 OPS
vs LHP: .242 avg, .313 OBP, .408 SLG, .721 OPS

Werth
vs RHP: .249 avg, .342 OBP, .408 SLG, .750 OPS
vs LHP: .284 avg, .378 OBP, .486 SLG, .864 OPS

I'd take Dobbs/Helms over Mora or Beltre, given their salaries. No one available is a big offensive upgrade on the current platoon. Crede or Inge would be a big defensive plus, and might be worth it if they could get them cheap.

Gillick's being very patient so far this offseason, and it paid off with getting Jenkins at a very reasonable price tag. He's determined not to get stuck with a millstone around the franchise's neck. That's particularly important with Burrell's contract coming up - I think they should re-sign him, but if they don't, they'll need a big-ticket righty bat for the middle of the lineup after next year. Those don't come cheaply.

Lohse appears to want 4 years, $40M, which is ridiculous given his track record. Carlos Silva just signed for 4/$44M, which is a horrible contract for a guy who pitches to contact. I'd much rather see the Phils take a chance on Kris Benson, who will probably come with a shorter commitment and much of the contract on incentives or vesting options.

As a backup plan, Chad Durbin actually isn't far off Lohse's level - check his numbers in the AL. (Note that he didn't do better in Comerica - his road numbers were fine.) And I suspect Durbin will get for the year what Lohse makes in a month.

Everyone who's complaining about the Phils' moves - what were your realistic alternatives? The Phils don't have a deep farm system and couldn't come close to matching, for example, the package the D'backs gave up for Dan Haren or what the Astros gave up for Valverde or Tejada. What did you want Gillick to do?

Would have preferred Cameron. Add Josh Towers and Otsuka and I'd call it a pretty good offseason, though

Wayne, he gave up 8 homeruns in the 9th inning (in 133 PA) from the 6th-8th, he gave up exactly 0 homeruns (118 PA). 1st/2nd half splits show also what he did in a set up role (1st half)and the main closer (2nd half).

Plus he's clearly not the same guy that he was from '03 to '05, so throwing career stats out there kind of blurs the arguement. Take at look at his K/9 rate over the course of his career. It has declined each year from '04 until '07. 4 years of steady decline.

In '04 and '05 when he was dominant, he was getting over 4 Ks for every BB. In '06 and '07, he was less than 3 K/BB. He was 2nd in the NL last season in blown saves with 8. And he didn't even close for half the season.

He hasn't been good in 2 years, and now he's going to a smaller park and more hostile environment....he's going to be a bust.

PhillyRocks:

Thanks for the reminder. They have a guy, Myers, who has never been more than fair-to-middlin' as a starter, but finally--finally!--he finds himself as a closer, and is set to become one of the dominant closers of the game. So what do they do? They go out and trade for Lidge, whose best days are little specks in the rear-view mirror, and put Myers back in the rotation where he will rise to his usual level of mediocrity. Brilliant move. A couple more like it and the Phillies will spend the next five years fighting it out with Washington for the divisional booby prize while Utley, Hamels, Rollins and Howard count the days until their contracts are up.

Come on, Mickden _ you need to shift your focus away from the idiot in the green suit and the suburbanites and start actually watching the game. In '05-'06, while pitching his home games in a hitters' park, Myers was 25-15 with an ERA comfortably under four. He pitched more than 400 innings and struck out more than 400 batters. He has four nasty pitches & he's only 27 years old. (Exactly one month older than Dan Haren and 17 months younger than Eric Bedard.) You won't find a serious baseball person anywhere who would call him a "fair to middlin'" starter.