Odds And Ends: Acta, Cubs, Halladay

Maybe the Braves should fire Pendleton and hire Acta as the new hitting coach. No one can be worse than Pendleton.

If the Phillies could pry Cliff Lee from Cleveland their chances would be the same for few prospects that wouldn't include JA Happ and they would save several million in payroll IMO.

The trade wouldn't even cost then Donald or Marson IMO the trade would be Drabek and Taylor or Brown a AA top pitcher who is about 1 to 1.5 years away from the majors and a prospect infielder SS or 3rd baseman at High A who would be ready for AA next year.

To me same results for a lot less Cash and prospects.

And with the former good relationship Manual had with Lee in Cleveland years would probably help get Lee extended for a couple years past the 2010 season IMO.

what MorneauVP and earthytones said! ;)

"wow, who would have thought that adding one of the best pitchers in the league would increase the Phillies' world series chances"

Yeah that reminds me of the quote that I hear every now and then... some idiot announcer always says: "Well if the (insert team name here) want to win the game they have to score more runs."

Good stuff. Theo does things out of the ordinary at trading deadline. I'm looking at catcher for the future. Maybe asking price not so high on Salty now.

"Not because of Wang, but because Joba has never pitched more than 120 innings in a season. Ever. There's too much risk asking a young starter to pitch 40+ innings more than he did in the previous season... and his last few starts have to worry some people. I think it's best for them to acquire another arm who can give them 6+ innings every 5 days and stick Joba in the pen to solidify the 8th and 9th innings (assuming he goes back to throwing 98 again)."

While I do agree that Joba's recent issues have been worth noting, I disagree about using him in the pen again. A month ago, I would've agreed, but the way Hughes is performing in the bullpen, I think he might be the answer there. I think the solution with Joba is to send him back down to AAA for a while to work on his efficiency. Jon Lester had the same problems coming up, but a few AAA stints later and he's proving to be one of the better left handers in the game. Joba's problem is that he needs to learn you don't have to strike everyone out, it's okay to pitch to contact once in a while when your stuff is that filthy. Guys like Halladay go deep because they're getting weak contact and keeping their pitch counts low, not by trying to miss bats and walking half the lineup.

Guys don't be misled by the lead in to John Smallwood's article about Halladay helping the Phils to repeat. The obvious nature of the lead in was Ben's summation of the article. Nowhere in the article does he state such an obvious point that way.

I was ready to flame him too, but I read the article first.

"Joba is basically a fastball/slider pitcher at this point. Because his fastball has been 92 and not 97 like in '07, he can't use his slider as effectively (wipe out pitch). So unless he either improves his curve or change, he needs to go back to the pen and be the dominate two pitch reliever he was a couple years ago."

Actually, if you look at Joba's Pitch F/X data, it's his fastball that's been far less effective this season, while his slider has been by far his best pitch. He's still getting movement on the pitch, but because he can't always command it into the strike zone, hitters can just wait for a fastball because Joba doesn't have anything else that can really get a ML hitter out.

If Chamberlain is sitting at 90-95 with his fastball as a starter from here on out, then I'm not sure that he's capable of being much more than a third starter unless he can add another legitimate offspeed pitch, because right now it's clear that hitters have a good idea of what Joba is throwing. When he's sitting in the mid-90's and effectively commanding his slider, he can be a stud, but he hasn't shown that at all this season, neither the command nor the velocity.

I'm still not sure that you put Joba in the bullpen, because a third starter is still awfully valuable, but this guy doesn't look like the absolutely untouchable future ace that he was annointed to be a couple years ago.

If the Phillies could pry Cliff Lee from Cleveland their chances would be the same for few prospects that wouldn't include JA Happ and they would save several million in payroll IMO.

The trade wouldn't even cost then Donald or Marson IMO the trade would be Drabek and Taylor or Brown a AA top pitcher who is about 1 to 1.5 years away from the majors and a prospect infielder SS or 3rd baseman at High A who would be ready for AA next year.

To me same results for a lot less Cash and prospects.

And with the former good relationship Manual had with Lee in Cleveland years would probably help get Lee extended for a couple years past the 2010 season IMO.

Posted by: baseballnuts | July 13, 2009 at 10:36 AM

Sorry I'd rather trade Donald and or Marson than trade Brown or especially taylor.

If I traded Taylor and Drabek for Lee I'm 100% certain that trade would come back to haunt us.

"I agree with the earlier sentiments: don't trade Happ. That would be subtracting a 6-0 starter with a sub-3 ERA to add Halladay."

Yeah, but considering all of his metric statistics, Happ is due for a big time regression.

His .242 BABIP is bound to go up significantly, as is his 85.9% strand rate.

Happ is a good 4/5 starter, and because he's only 26 and under control long term, he's a good asset.

But you don't let J.A. Happ stand in the way of landing Roy Halladay, if you're already willing to give up all that other talent and money.

John Smallwood must've been smoking a big a## bong at the time...wake up and get in the game