Phillies GM Ruben Amaro Jr. said he’s inclined to acquire an infielder from outside of the organization, Matt Gelb of the Philadelphia Inquirer tweets. The GM hinted he wouldn’t part with starting pitching depth to make a move.
Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports wonders if the Phillies might look to acquire Chris Getz or Yuniesky Betancourt of the Royals to shore up their infield (Twitter link). It's hard not to wonder if Alberto Callaspo could appeal to the Phillies despite the fact that he last played second base regularly in 2009. Elliot Johnson, Chris Nelson, Eric Young Jr., Emmanuel Burriss, Luis Valbuena and Donnie Murphy are out of options and could be available in trades later by the end of the month.
Chase Utley, Ryan Howard, Michael Martinez and Placido Polanco are each dealing with injuries, which prompted Amaro's search for depth. Freddy Galvis and Ty Wigginton project to start at second and third until Utley and Howard return.
Come on Phillies, you know you want Betancourt.
That’s mean. A Yankee fan wouldn’t wish him on the Red Sox.
We’re already dealing with the stress of possibly having watched the last game of Chase Utley’s carrier…
… we do not need the stress of watching Yuniesky Betancourt on a semi-regular basis.
I would hope they get Getz, Callaspo, Izturis, Nelson, or Young Jr.
Hoping the Phillies can swing a deal for Callaspo. 2nd choice might be a guy like Blake Dewitt… not sure what his value would be though.
I could definitely see DeWitt going to the Phillies, although I don’t know who we could use besides Jeff Baker to back up 2B and 3B. And Jeff Baker at the hot corner is a mistake.
Yuni will get 300+ ab’s this year, at least. He always finds a way….
This Phillies team is COOKED. How long before Rollins’ leg issue shows up again? It has been an issue since 2008, of course in 2011 it disappeared because it was a walk year for him, but I will be surprised if I do not see it again by May.
…and yet they’re still the odds-on favorite (by a huge margin, too) to win the NL East. Amazing what pitching can do for you.
You’re overreacting. There’s no way this team doesn’t win 90-95 games this year at least baring an injury to a starting pitcher.
The Marlins are being overhyped. They may be younger but their ACE is guaranteed to miss a major chunk of the season at some point, their shortstop is just as injury prone as anybody in our line up, their manager’s a headcase and their thirdbaseman’s a malcontent.
I constantly see people go on about their rotation. It’s a good rotation, but who knows how many innings Johnson will throw. Zambrano and Sanchez have dealt with numerous injuries as well. They have a solid starting 5, but if one or two of those guys go down they don’t have a viable option to stick there.
As for their defense, it’s not bad……but I’ve seen it described as the best in the NL. Morrison is an absolute butcher in LF. Bonifacio is fast, but takes horrible routes and rarely gets a good jump. Reyes is probably average at SS, I’d say the same for Ramirez, Infante, Buck, and Sanchez. Right now Morrison and Stanton are dealing with knee issues, which is never good to hear especially after already having knee surgery(Morrison).
So much has to go right for the Marlins to win the east. Same goes for the Braves and Nationals, but at least they’ve got some starting pitching depth.
Thanks for Wilson Valdez, appreciate it
Yeah that one kinda bit them in the butt. He’s not much, but when you have nothing he looks pretty good!
Thanks for taking his million dollar salary, so we can pay half as much to a better player.
You won’t be saying that by the time he bounces into his 20th double play of the year…
Great way to judge a player. Albert Pujols led the league in GIDP last year, guess he is horrible.
Big difference, At one point last year Valdez had 20 GIDP and 19 hits.
In 273 At Bats, Wilson Valdez grounded into 13 double plays.
In 579 AT Bats, Albert Pujols grounded into 29.
Albert also managed to drive in 99 runs compared to Wilson’s 30.
I’m kind of ashamed of myself for even comparing Wilson Valdez to Albert Pujols.
“In 273 At Bats, Wilson Valdez grounded into 13 double plays.In 579 AT Bats, Albert Pujols grounded into 29.”
ummm are you trying to prove me wrong or something? That proves that they ground into double plays at about the same rate………
I know they’re not the same player and I’m not saying Valdez is any good. GIDP is a very poor way to evaluate a player though. As you showed Valdez and Pujols GIDP at about the same rate and they are no where near they same typle of player. So thanks for helping prove my point.
One of these days I’ll figure out what makes Wilson Valdez so good……
Please take Elliot Johnson off our hands. We’ll take some minor leaguer. Most likely he’ll have better upside
If Lendy Castillo does not make cubs team, then we should trade him back to the Cubs for Blake DeWitt, he can play second and third but not short.
I also think Burriss or Maybe Nelson would be a fit because they can play short and right now other Glavis we don’t have a backup for Rollins
Why has no one brought up eduardo nunez? seems like a good match to me.
Why would the Yankees trade Nunez?? They need him for their team
they do, but he was available early in the off season, and the phillies are desperate, the yanks could see how much they would give.
am I the only one who read, that Galvis and Ty project at 2nd and 3rd until Utley and Howard return? I forgot that Ryan Howard is the magician at 3rd.
Tejada?
Pena for Blanton and they sign Oswalt back and also sign Derek Lee.
Carlos Pena for Joe Blanton? If it is Carlos you’re talking about, why would they need to sign Lee?
How about Nix for Izturis ?
No.
That suggestion came up in a Mike Newman prospects chat at fangraphs a few days ago, he didn’t think the two even belonged in the same sentence.
I have hope for Mayberry as well, he really came into him own late last season.
Betting houses still consider them the odds-on favorite to with the NL East (paying a ridiculous 1:2 in Vegas right now).
There is NOTHING waiting in the wings to reinforce the big club either. The closest prospect (Dom Brown) can not stick on the big club. Singleton, Cosart, Gose, d’Arnaud are all in the BA Top 100, and all have been traded away over the past three seasons. And the Phils have nothing to show for it.
Phillies have had a ton of injuries over the last 2 seasons and yet they still had the best defense and were one of the highest scoring offenses in the NL. Your post is pure hyperbole.
Not in World Series’ but for a town that needed hope they got it from this team. And how many NL East banners are they raising now, considering before 2007, it was less than 10. They have been more aggressive now since the 1980’s with Pete Rose
Nothing to show for it? Pence and Halladay say hi.
Why do you keep this charade of being a Phils’ fan going?
Go look at BA Top 100 of years past. Only a third, if that, of those ever become legit superstars
Not one of those guys (okay, maybe D’Arnaud but that’s a stretch) would contribute to this team this year.
The Phillies have to show for it:
Roy Halladay and Hunter Pence. Proven All Stars.
Miami does not have enough pitching, yes there is good but the chemistry will be a problem especially with Ozzie there
I think the Nats will be second followed by the Marlins, just a hunch. Just not drinking the Ozzie Ade.. Rather Drink the Davey Ade
Ozzie is a great manager? He’s a great soundbite-producer, I’ll give ya that.
They’re got a much-improved team for sure though.
My Phils won it all in 2008 with offense and a rotation of Hamels, Myers, Moyer, Blanton, and Kendrick.
Miami has the offense, and I like the sounds of Johnson, Buehrle, Nolasco, Sanchez and Zambrano, a lot more as a rotation than what we had.
It has been a good run, do not take what I am saying as complaining about the past few years.
But, the immediate future is murky at best. The GM seems to plan no further than two months down the road. He has demonstrated a knack for overpaying in every way, wether through trade (Pence), extension (Howard), or free agency (Papelbon), and seems perfectly fine with it. He seems to think that this is still 2002 and that 35 year old players are still capable of career years. You just can not plan a team like that anymore.
I didn’t realize the World Series was best of 5
The division wasn’t nearly as competitive then as it is now.
That is pretty ridiculous. How often do they update those things?
Dom Brown for Craig Sager(‘s suits)?
They had the best defense? When was this? Definitely wasn’t the past two years….
That’s actually pretty encouraging, if true. If 33% of their top 100 ranked players reach superstardom, then I can only assume that the vast majority of them go on to become at least average MLB players.
Gonna take the under on the ‘a third.’
I don’t think the mods are going to allow me mentioning the website on here, but they came out yesterday (3/23). No other team is better than 6:1 (ATL, MIA)