Mired in last place in the NL East with a 28-31 record, Phillies manager Charlie Manuel indicated to reporters (including Matt Gelb of The Philadelphia Inquirer) that the club is looking for help outside the organization. Jim Salisbury of CSNPhilly.com says the skipper hinted that bullpen help is the primary target (Twitter links).
"You never stop exploring things," said assistant GM Scott Proefrock to Gelb (via Sulia). "Our objective is to get better. That's what we're charged with. That's what we're trying to do. That's what we talk to our scouts about constantly. When things are going good, we're doing the same thing. There isn't more pressure."
The Phillies own the fourth worst bullpen ERA (4.33) in baseball despite stellar early returns from their investment in Jonathan Papelbon (2.31 ERA in 24 games). Jose Contreras (5.27 ERA) was ineffective before suffering a season-ending injury and Chad Qualls continues to struggle (5.32 ERA). David Herndon's 4.70 ERA is the club's best by a non-Papelbon right-handed reliever.
I could see Mijares or Broxton…or both…..going to Philly.
And here comes the trades with the Astros. Oh wait, Ed Wade isn’t with us anymore. Nevermind… Go about your day.
Boston for sure has an overload of decent BP arms to send them, or ones who have done decent this season at least.. Albers.. Lefties Morales or Miller are expendable.. They would move the guys at AAA and no room for Tazawa and Mortenson who have done well at both Boston and Pawtucket.
The Astros have lots of relievers that might interest the Phillies. That being said Luhnow is no Ed Wade so no home town discount anymore Philly fans
This.
The difference between Wade and Luhnow is like the difference between a slingshot and an atomic death ray. That being said, I wouldn’t call the Pence trade a win for the Phillies. Singleton will likely outproduce Pence alone.
I agree Singleton could be a beast, Cosart is fine as well
I am a Phillies fan, and I totally agree. Pence is a nice player, but you do not part with someone like Singleton for him.
To toss in Cosart, and Santana who is tearing it up right now should be enough to get a GM fired.
You mean that home town discount that included an all star, gold glove center fielder Michael Bourn, Anthony Gose for a declining (although fantastic at the time… we were his only realistic suitors btw) Roy Oswalt, and Jonathan Singleton, Jarred Cosart, and Domingo Santana for Hunter Pence?
Kind of forgetting the $11 million that came back in the Oswalt deal, no?
Yea, just a minor detail…….
Even so Anthony Gose was still a huge get for the Astros. Look at the Dan Haren trade, which set the market, the Angels didn’t do much better. The Phillies gave up two high upside middle of the diamond players and JA Happ.
Even if you consider the Oswalt trade to be a major loss for the Astros, they robbed Ruben for Pence.
They housed them with the Oswalt deal. But the Astros got a real good return for Pence.
Oh…. So that’s why the William Penn statue was wearing a “Help Wanted” sign.
Apply within… it’s all very clear to me now!
Too many Red Shirts are the Yard tonight though… way too many!
Brandon League.
Beat me to it!
I’d be cool with that. But do the phillies have anything left in the system? Ms would want a hitting prospect.
League wouldnt net anyone of any worth.
Herndon has pitched 7 innings so far. The BP is a mess, but I don’t want them trading more prospects for BP arms. Theybshouldnt be buying at this point. Two arms that could help would be Stutes and DeFratus who are both on the DL.
You can have Aubrey Huff 😀
Phils internal right handed relief options:
DeFratus – hurt
Stutes – hurt
Herndon – hurt
Contreras – hurt
People think Utley/Howard are the big injuries, the team is decimated everywhere.
The nice thing working in Phillies favor with regards to middle relievers.. Such as the ones Boston could send them in Albers, is that those kind don’t have much cost in the way of trade value.. Same with Mortenson.
They are dime a dozen types.. Only when a team would go out and look for a top reliever would they have to pay up and contrary to what fans of another team thinks.. Brandon League isn’t going to bring squat.. He is just another middle reliever and some teams are over loaded with people just like him right now.
Luke Gregerson for D-Brown: fair value? Brown’s value has all but fallen off. Still has talent. Change of scenery. Padres might not even make that deal now. Last year, heart beat.
His numbers are the result of a poor start…
.318/.361/.658 in his last 10 games including his 4 home runs this year
bringing his overall numbers up to a respectable
.276/.320/.436
you can look at his numbers all you want but the Phillies have been toying with this kid’s swing since Spring Training of last year. Really, his only problem is defense.
Good points, but if it doesn’t help he’s a lefty (in that case for Petco) and neither would his defense. I’m not ragging on D-Brown. I like him. Admittedly, I have not followed his production as of late. But fair value? Maybe.
I took exception to the organization changing his approach before he even struggled at the MLB level. In Spring as you;re implying. Ridiculous.
I thought so too. They overreacted, IMO, to struggles he had as a pinch hitter/5th outfielder.
Everyone does realize that the Proefrock quote doesn’t say anything like what any of the writers are implying, right? The quote says that the Phils are in business-as-usual mode. Maybe unlike most sportswriters they looked at the schedule and saw that the season is 162 games long.
Looks like they’re calling up BJ Rosenberg… a hard thrower who before an injury was the Phillies #1 relief prospect a few years back.
Really hoping DeFratus can come back in the next few weeks and take Scwhimer’s spot in the pen. I thought going into spring training, it was going to be a combo of him and Bastardo in the back end in front of Papelbon…. then he got hurt.
I just don’t see how, with a very expensive payroll already and a depleted farm system, and one of the oldest teams in MLB.
Now you add a very tough division, is it really acceptable to be asking for more trades or adding more payroll. It’s not reasonable. They’d be better off trading pieces like Pence, and Hamels and getting a mayor basket of top prospects that will form part of the next core of good players in the organization.
Phillies can have Lidge back if they want him.
Should the Phillies really be buyers this year? It would probably just set things back further? They should just see how they perform with Utley and Howard back and move along from there. I could see RAJ getting overexcited and trading away quality prospects for more vets and I’m not sure that’s the best way to go.
They should probably do something with Domonic Brown pretty soon though, only so long you can keep the hype of being a top prospect when you don’t do anything. Either play him every day or trade him, keeping him in the minors is just hiding the problem.