The Phillies traded Hunter Pence and Shane Victorino this morning and the Marlins followed up those moves by trading Gaby Sanchez and Edward Mujica later in the day. The Braves welcomed new acquisitions Paul Maholm and Reed Johnson to Atlanta, but deadline day was relatively quiet for the Mets and Nationals. Here are the latest notes from the NL East…
- The Phillies are slightly under the luxury tax limit following today’s trades, GM Ruben Amaro told reporters, including Matt Gelb of the Philadelphia Inquirer (Twitter link). The Phillies opened the season with a $172MM payroll, and the MLB luxury tax affects teams that spend more than $178MM.
- At one point the Phillies considered trading Hunter Pence, obtaining a center fielder, and re-signing Shane Victorino for right field, Danny Knobler of CBSSports.com reports (on Twitter). Instead, the Dodgers acquired Victorino, and the Giants traded for Pence.
- Marlins right-hander Josh Johnson drew interest from the Rangers, Red Sox, Blue Jays, Reds and others, but Miami kept him, Jon Paul Morosi of FOX Sports writes (on Twitter).
- GM Mike Rizzo said the Nationals made all their splashy moves this past winter, Adam Kilgore of the Washington Post reports. "We like who we are, and we like where we’re at and we like the composition of the roster,” Rizzo said.
Well Nate the great got his wish; we loved him as a SF born ball player but it seems the best player to ever play the Willie Mays wall on D was just too much for him on offense. At his best he’s a line drive hitter with plenty enough power to knock it out of that bandbox in Philly. There were quite a few balls he hit so hard off the bricks out there in RF it had to be frustrating. It will be interesting if Nate gets a chance to play CF which is an idea floated by many of us Giants fans. It was a necessary deal and a good one for both sides- I’m very surprised Philly backed off what Salisbury initially reported they wanted: Gary Brown AND Joe Panik. Tommy Joseph is no slouch prospect though.
CBP has played neutral since they moved the fences back a few years ago.
In the hot, humid east coast summer, the ball does jump out more frequently. But that’s true for an team that plays in a humid climate.
Nate isn’t what you’d call a power hitter like the 2 jack game he showed in Philly- but he has line drive power to hit the ball on a line well over the 385 to RC field at ATT. In that way we’re kind of envious that he’ll probably get close to 20/year if he starts which he should.
20 a year? What, cheese steaks?