Don't Expect Phillies to Pick Up a Bat

Mayberry? Really?

A 25 year old corner outfielder who repeated AA and is now repeating AAA and posts an .808 OPS while striking out 31% of the time is not an impressive player.

I wouldn't be surprised if Michael Taylor was a better player soon if not already.

"So which should be the priority right now for Philadelphia: starter or reliever?"

The Phillies desperately need a starter.

Moyer looks practically done.

Bastardo has been mediocre and Happ has been similar, he's not pitching up to his ERA.

Blanton and Hamels haven't pitched as well either this year, posting 4.86 and 4.02 FIP's, respectively, so far this season.

With Myers out, the Phillies could really use a dependable starter to push either Moyer or Bastardo out of the rotation.

And honestly, why isn't Carlos Carrasco up? Are the Phillies totally ignoring his peripherals?

Their rotation should be Hamels, Blanton, Happ, Carrasco and an outside addition.

"OK, Phillies, lets give up two of those prospects for Brad Penny, and you will have your starter. Dont be cheap. Get it done."

Wouldn't that be totally nuts if what you just typed actually affected Ruben Amaro's opinion?

They should look for a starting pitcher. Hypothetical fantasy world trade: who hangs up the phone in a Javier Vazquez for Jayson Werth swap? Or do they not hang up, but who has to sweeten the deal?

I don't see Javy getting dealt, I know it saves 11.5 mil next year and roughly 6 this but I think Wren and staff are going to look and say hey, with Hudson back they would have the best rotation in the whole league, To get the bat I think the team can be much improved in-house. Play Martin Prado everyday at 2B, you get Infante back at the break who can give someone a break at every poition and produce. Call up barbarro carnizares and let him play when vazquez and kawakami pitch, neither of two are groundball pitchers. Send blanco down and call brooks conrad who's hitting .270 at AAA but he's got 10hr and let him give you pop off the bench. Finally recall schaffer IF he has his confidence back. DFA Anderson and demote diory hernandez

CF Schaffer
2B Prado
3B Jones
C McCann
SS Escobar
LF McClouth
RF Francouer
1B Kotchman

Bench
SUP Infante
INF Conrad
C Ross
OF Diaz
1B Carnizares

With a rotation of Lowe, Hudson, Vazquez, Jurrjens, Hanson(who threw a shotout in 6 innings today) that line-up with it's inhanced speed and LH/RH balanced they could make a run.

Kawaskami is still under contract next year. declining Hudsons option and using that 12 million on a replacement for Francoeur would be a good way to add some offense.

I'm well aware that Javy would net a good bit but the potential of that rotation intrigued me. I'd see them trading him before decling hudson option though. And that line-up is better than what they currently have, they have some speed and i put escobar in the 5 because he's the best persn to divide McClouth and McCann so your lefties don't go back to back hence the balance i mentioned.

C'mon folks, stop hijacking a Phils thread. ;-)

A platoon with Mayberry vs. LHP and Stairs/Dobbs vs. RHP will be fine while Ibanez heals. If they can't get a #1-2 starter type - which they probably can't without gutting their farm system - and they can't get Brad Penny cheaply (say, for Jason Donald or Lou Marson), they should add a bullpen arm. A RH setup man would be a huge help, bumping Romero, Condrey, and Durbin back into their accustomed roles. Once Lidge is back, the additional depth never hurts.

Barroid Bonds,
"The fact that you have Yunel Escobar as your 5th hitter pretty much says your line up sucks."

Yunel hits 2nd in the Braves line-up, but thanks for playing. Plus Yunel is hitting .290/.353/.446 with 7 HR and 14 2B. Not bad. Not what you'd want from your 5th hitter, but he's not a 5th hitter, he hits 2nd in the Braves line-up.

"Be realistic here"

The whole point of my question was to be unrealistic. Being realistic on this site is BORING. I'm sick of hearing about the same bullcrap. Mark DeRosa to the Yankees, Erik Bedard to the Phillies, blah blah blah. Readers here have good ideas to add, but the whole opposition towards thinking outside the box and throwing away conventional wisdom, just for the sake of discussion, makes some of these discussions really weak. Being unrealistic is fun. And if it's prefaced with a note explaining the fact that it is unrealistic, like, say, I don't know, how about something along the lines of: "Hypothetical fantasy world trade", don't act like you're so smart for pointing out it's unrealistic. You're not impressing anyone by pointing out something we all know. Get over yourself. Grow up.

"But lets not make this into a Braves comment section."

I agree.

"CF Schaffer
2B Prado
3B Jones
C McCann
SS Escobar
LF McClouth
RF Francouer
1B Kotchman"

If you couldn't count this guy had Escobar hitting 5th, hence the reference. So sorry, thanks for playing.

Being unrealistic is what got America in all this type of problems with the Economy. If you want to go be unrealistic go on your XBOX 360 or PS3 and put it MLB The Show or MLB 2K9 and turn on force trades and ignore budgets. Go be unrealistic there.

The Phils absolutely do not need to search for another bat, unless it's a right handed bat that falls into their lap. A couple weeks without Ibanez isn't going to kill them, but too much longer with Moyer/Happ/Bastardo all in the same rotation and the bullpen pitching 4 innings every game might. Find a starter or two and give Carrasco his shot!

I'd like everyone to know that Barroid Bonds demands 100% realism from the posters on this site because he's sooooooooo smart and soooooooo high above everyone. What a tool.

Posted by: PWHjort | June 18, 2009 at 09:17 PM

He makes alot of good points, and tends to add to the discussion on this site. You could do worse than using him as an example of how to add to a discussion intelligently.

If the Giants decide they can't win this year would the phils maybe look at bengie molina? Coste and ruiz are backups and molina is a respectable bat for a line-up that is LH dominiant.

Where exactly do the Phillies have room to add a bat? They have a stud at every position except 3rd and catcher with possibly the best lineup in the NL. They need pitching. Myers going down was a huge blow. Bedard could be had on the cheap right now especially since hes hurt again.

haha Molina runs like he's stuck in quicksand.

I would look for a small fix first that can be had some what cheaply. Your not gonna get a top of the rotation guy right now no one will do that. But if you get a Washburn, or Penny or what about Ian Snell or someone like that. Then Call up Carrasco and see how that goes.

"Phillies need a SP more than a RP or hitter. They may even want to go for 2 SP..... Say Washburn and Bedard."

As of right now, Bedard won't be back till the 2nd. I'd don't know what Z would expect in return, would be nice to have one of Taylor, Donald, Brown, or Carrasco. We'll See. :)

Why the Phillies need another bat is weird, they already have the most potent offense in the NL as it is and prob ably the weakest rotation of any of the teams leading a division (other than Texas) and probably need to fix that, as well as look for another reliever also. Awful lot riding on Moyer getting his location back and 2 rookies in the rotation.

A bat is the least of the Phillies problems. They need some serious pitching and should focus all their energy on Jarrod Washburn.

Is this a long term problem with Ibanez or will he be back in 15 days?

Don"t you guys think a SP is way better for us? Moyer, Bastardo, Happ and Myers when he was here could barely go 6 inn. We get a top end starter and teams arent seeing our pen as frequently as they have been. Blanton and Hamels era are high only because of thr start of the season. Adding one more horse to the roatation will give the pen more rest and wil be much better having our opponents not see the same rp 2 out of 3 games