The latest the the Phillies, who are looking for a sixth consecutive NL East title in the increasingly competitive NL East…
- The perception among most baseball people is that Joe Blanton is available for the right price, David Murphy of the Philadelphia Daily News writes.
- Phillies GM Ruben Amaro Jr. said outfielder Tyson Gillies has the skillset to play in the Major Leagues, according to Phil Sheridan of the Philadelphia Inquirer. "He has better tools than a lot of the guys we've got," Amaro said. "He just needs to play. The poor guy hasn't gotten a chance to play. He's still young." Gillies, 23, missed all but three games in 2011 and played in only 28 games in 2010.
- The Phillies’ projected 25-man roster consists of many older players, but Sheridan writes that "it's more important to get better than simply younger.” The Phillies added players such as Jim Thome (41), Ty Wigginton (34) and Chad Qualls (33) this past offseason.
- Matt Gelb of the Philadelphia Inquirer explains why Thome's defensive work will affect the Phillies' ability to work him into their lineup.
Phillies window is closing fast..
The ‘right price’ on Joe Blanton.
Hmmm….Would a peanut butter & jam sammich get it done?
Better than half of you team’s rotation. What does that make them? Used bubble-gum?
The sandwich is now off the table!
I am still not sold on the idea that carrying a player like Jim Thome on a 25 man roster, in the National League, makes much sense.
better hitter than howard the last two years. better baserunner too. is he going to be that much worse than howard’s -10 defense?
If he can not play the field, at all, which we do not know, at all, right now than it is a waste of a roster spot for an NL team.
Right, because no other NL team carries a left-handed big-thumper pinch hitter that sucks in the field.
This is a team that used a roster spot on Matt Stairs for a year and a half. There are way less useful players on the Phillies roster. Pinch hitting for your pitcher with Jim Thome is a lot better than using someone like Mayberry or Nix.
Right, because Ross Gload was an immense help with his hip problems.
Thome can play a few games at first, if need be, but for pinch hitting and clubhouse presence, I’ll take him over Gload any day of the week.
Thome is much more useful than our previous pinch hitter and also has great presence in the clubhouse. Manuel is set at ease as well.
Teams that sell out every game, are #2 in merchandise sales, have impending colossal tv deals, and can afford to run a 170-180 million dollar payroll don’t have closing windows.
I just got off the phone with the Chicago Cubs, they told me to say “hello….”
Except the cubs don’t want to spend like a drunken sailor. They want to build from within. Ricketts isn’t going to ever have a $170M payroll.
Now you are changing the arguement.
The Cubs are a team with strong ticket sales, a big time TV deal, and they sell a lot of swag. They also have not been to the post season since 2008, and will trade Alfonso Soriano for .15 on the $1 right now so that they can begin rebuilding.
I would say that somewhere along the line, the window of Reicketts blue-print either closed, or fell out of the wall completely. Amaro is not that good to prevent himself from having the same happen here in Philadelphia.
Phillies window started in 2007 and were a playoff team since. The cubs were basically either a under .500 team or made it into the playoffs in a off shoot. The former Cubs GM basically just gave out 7 year bloated contracts to guys who should have never gotten a 5+ contract to begin with. At least with the contracts of Amaro his are only 3-5 years. So even when the players start to waver and aren’t worth the contract the contract is either close to over or already over and don’t weigh down the Phillies.
Ryan Howard says hello to his new contract after weighing down the team with his performance the past two seasons…
-C
Did the Cubs also tell you they never had a window to close, so there’s no comparison?
the the Phillies have a short window – Lee & Holliday in their 30s and Howard was such an awful signing. You never know about the status of their 2nd baseman…
When did the Phillies get Holliday? I hope the Cardinals got something decent out of him…..
It’s HALLADAY… why do people not understand this…?
younger is the definition of better. Over 32 is old thereby diminishing skills. Qualls is awful, Thome is too old to be in an NL team, I like Ty but truth is he is pass his prime, but he is still a useful player
There is no more surefire way on this Earth (outside of Iran and Isreal) to start a flame war than by having the balls to state that Ryan Howard is a good baseball player. Poor-to-average baseball players don’t average 40/120 every year and help lead a team to 5 consectuive postseasons.
RBI, while not the be all end all, are certainly a pretty good indication that a guy is fairly good at helping his team win. A lot. Which the Phillies do. You know people are desperate to discredit him by pointing out his baserunning. But the very next time we lose a game because Howard gets caught stealing I’ll jump right on that bandwagon.
No one’s saying Howard isn’t a good hitter, although we’ll have to see how he rebounds from his injury at the age of 32.
Problem is that most first basemen are good hitters, and Howard isn’t anywhere near $25MM (AAV if they decline option…it’s $23MM if they don’t) good.
Baserunning is much more than stealing bases. It’s going from first to third on a single, it’s being able to tag up on a fly ball, etc. These considerations are much more important than stolen bases. They affect the number of runs the team is able to score every time he’s on the basepaths. Over the course of the season, it adds up quite a bit.
He can’t field, he can’t run the bases, and he plays the easiest defensive position short of the DH. That kills his value.
-C
Astros should snatch Blanton if they can and lock him up for a few years. He knows the Al west clubs and Astros will be adjusting to those stadiums in ’13.