Trade deadline today/Signing deadline in 2 weeks

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Today is the non-waiver trade deadline. All players who are not traded by 4PM today are subject to waivers before they are traded. This means that a player must clear waivers between August 1st and August 31th or they cannot be traded. On the prospects side, players on the 40 man roster are not subject to waivers, but players in the minors and on the 40 man roster are.  If you feel the need to discuss potential trades here, do it in this post. After today, we resume normal service. Also, the August 15th deadline is rapidly approaching. No news yet on Pettibone, Weber or any of our unsigned guys. Any info will be passed along, obviously.

79 thoughts on “Trade deadline today/Signing deadline in 2 weeks”

  1. I think you meant to say that players NOT on the 40 man roster are not subject to waivers, right?

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  3. From yesterday’s Dail Discussion:
    “Any trade rumors involving Quintin Berry? He has sat out the last two nights after having a 14-game hitting streak going, and he is within one steal of tying the Clearwater franchise record for steals in a season. I think he had only sat out of one game all year long, so for him to sit out two games in a row right before the trade deadline sort of makes you go hmmmmm…..”

    John R. Finger (CSN): “Wednesday afternoon before the game against the Nationals, Braves lefty Will Ohman was the name that made the rounds. Apparently the Phillies were going to give up Double-A outfielder Greg Golson and recent call-up J.A. Happ to get the left-handed reliever from the Braves.”

    Maybe the Phils are trying to deal Berry instead of Golson???

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  5. “golson and happ for ohman.”

    AGREED!!! If Happ & any other legitimate prospect are traded for a situational left hander, without an opportunity to see whether he could fill that roll for the remainder of the year, it will be a tragedy!

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  7. if gillick or arbuckle or amaro jr gave up happ and golson for Ohman they should be flogged. Agreed. 4:00 can’t be here soon enough.

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  8. Only a GM who would give Adam Eaton $24M would give up Happ and Golson for Ohman – and I would like to have Ohman.

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  9. Rhoads to marlins. Phillies trouble with lefthanders. Makes it a must to add a good righthand bat to help even out lineup. The holiday trade would be great.

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  10. Ehh, Arthur Rhoads doesn’t exactly inspire fear… but I deffinately wouldn’t mind seeing Holliday in red.

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  11. I don’t even like Golson, but no way he is traded for a LOOGY. Someone crossed rumors.

    On Happ, his minor league splits don’t project him as a loogy, and the Phils already have one player (Romero) who is dominant against lefties. This need for another LH reliever is a joke. The Phillies need an upgrade in the rotation, catcher and outfield…in that order. Happ should either be put in the rotation, or dealt for a legit SP or OF.

    Happ BA against at AAA in 2008:
    vs LH: 262
    vs RH: 231

    ML splits is being weird so I can’t get his career data, but from earlier investigations, I remember him always being better against RH batters.

    Romero vs LH:
    2008: 083 (!)
    Career: 214

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  13. Padraic… its not that we dont think Romero can dominate Lefties. The reason we need a LHP is that Charlie loves situational matchups, and if he keeps pitching Romero at this pace, the dudes arm is going to completely fall off.

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  14. My brother in law is a huge cubs fan, and if you recall, Will Ohman was in Chicago last year. I’ve watched him pitch many times, and its laughable how many games he coughed up by walking the first batter and serving up a meatball down broadway in his collapses. Last year’s stats:

    36.1 IP 2-4, 4.95 ERA, 1.60 WHIP, BAA .282 (.236 Lefties, .325 Righties) 33 K-16 BB. All this in addition to a career 5.40 ERA at Citizens Bank Park, and a 6.43 ERA at Shea.

    You can’t trade prospects for THAT, no matter how you feel about Greg Golson. I don’t want Ohman on this team, despite his fantastic Harry Carey impersonation.

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  16. I would think they would be willing to give up Golson for a lefthanded reliever who is controled past this year but that is it

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  17. @bergeraj: Why is it that everyone in baseball feels like the Phillie’s have one of the best GM’s in the game except for Phillies fans? You must be a really fun dude to watch a baseball game with. I love that being a true fan of Philadelphia sports has somehow become equated with being a complete pessimist.

    I’m not saying the trade was a great one but Cardenas can’t play the field and doesn’t have enough pop to ever be a star. Why commenter’s here had such reverence for him I’ll never understand.

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  18. If your going to take a flier on a projectable highschool player in the first round, give him the time to develop. Don’t trade him for a loogy. What a waste.

    I’m not the biggest fan of Golsen, but come on the org has to atleast be consistent with thier tool-happy drafting approach.

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  19. we revered him because he improved at every level and his doubles and home run numbers were increasing as well. he has plus baserunning ability (16 SBs without being caught once this year) and is hitting .313 this year between the two teams. he has good plate vision and for a second baseman, all of these things add up to being a star at your position. He’ll be starting for Billy Beane next year and an all-star by 2011. that’s why we “revered him.”

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  20. “Why is it that everyone in baseball feels like the Phillie’s have one of the best GM’s in the game except for Phillies fans?”

    Probably because everyone remembers Gililck from his time with the Blue Jays, and early career with the Mariners. Or because they are familiar with the names Eaton/Garcia/Jenkins/Gonzalez/Henry/Montestieros/Smith/Sanchez.

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  21. I think he gets too much of a bad wrap too sometimes.
    Dobbs/Werth/Durbin/Rowand/Lidge/Romero/Moyer

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  22. I recall reading that Golson was hurt a few days ago. Has he played the last few days? As for trading Happ or Donald for a lefty reliever, I think its very shortsighted. I’m hoping that they haven’t pulled the trigger on a trade yet because the Phils aren’t offering enough because they’re offering less, like a Berry. As for our GM, where would the Phillies be without Dobbs, Durbin, Romero, and Werth. None of these moves were received very well but have worked out great. Eaton has been a bust but many people thought he was a worthwhile gamble at the time. The Blanton deal will take deal to evaluate. However, Cardenas was never going to play for the Phils and was always thought of as a trading chip. If he turns out to be another Utley, we traded too low. If he turns out to be a .300 hitter with little power and an average glove at best, what then? Outman will be in the majors at some point probably but he could be anywhere from an average starter to a closer to a set up guy.

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  23. “all of these things add up to being a star at your position. He’ll be starting for Billy Beane next year and an all-star by 2011. that’s why we “revered him.””

    I like Cardenas as a prospect but can we be a little more realistic with the guy already. He will not be starting in the majors in 2009 unless he makes one of the biggest jumps in the history of the game by going from A+ ball to the majors over the winter.

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  26. I didn’t say he’d be an all-star right away, but you know Billy Beane would bring guys up at the ripe old age of 13, so I think at some point next season, he’ll be starting at second in Oakland.

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  27. Cardenas’ tears have been known to cure cancer. Too bad the dude doesn’t ever cry.

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  28. I agree that cardenas was a trading chip, but he was good trading chip who should have been used to get a good player instead of a guy like blanton

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  29. exactly. wait on him til after next offseason and he would have been a top 40 prospect and could’ve got a much bigger return on him than blanton.

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  30. @The Artist Formerly Known As Michael Bourn, @padraic: Okay, I obviously think you are a little bit overboard with your projections for Cardenas but at this point that’s irrelevant. This Phillies team is built to win now. Who else could we have traded him for that would have helped us THIS YEAR? Sabathia? He’d be gone in a few months. You tell me what you want Gillick to do. Honestly, I’m asking, who should we have traded and what should we have gotten to help us win the world series THIS YEAR. If he stands pat and didn’t make a move at all he would have gotten killed by the fans and you know it.

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  31. JAK32, by your argument (“This Phillies team is built to win now”), Sabathia would’ve been the ideal target. Your argument that “He’d be gone in a few months” is directly in conflict with “This Phillies team is built to win now” – I’m not saying I was against the Blanton deal (hindsight is 20:20, and I really didn’t think Blanton would’ve performed this poorly), but your win now/no rental players argument is flawed.

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  32. “Who else could we have traded him for that would have helped us THIS YEAR? Sabathia? He’d be gone in a few months. ”

    Kinda contradictory there.

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  34. @tjc, @Bedrosian’s Beard: That was contradictory, but I didn’t mean it to come off that way. I would have been fine with Sabathia. Thrilled with Sabathia actually, but they would have had to give up more than Cardenas to get him, and the prospect truthers on this board would have killed him for picking up a rental. My point is, we’ve gotten to a point where Gillick gets killed no matter what he does. It’s almost laughable.

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  35. I wouldn’t have been too upset if we gave up marson, carrasco, donald, cardenas, happ, outman and spencer for Sabathia. Dominant pitchers like that are hard to come by.

    I’m just more pissed because they not only added a mediocre arm to an already mediocre starting rotation after all of the “A-list starter” talk.. but because Blanton doesn’t even fit with our club anyway. It was like filling a round hole with a square pegg.

    Gillick shouldn’t care what the fan base thinks, he shouldn’t have to make a move for the sake of making a move. It should be the right move.

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  36. I would’ve liked Sabathia a ton, but apparently the Brewers gave up a decent package for him. The Rich Harden deal was the one that upset me – forgive me if I’m wrong (and I very well may be), but Cardenas seemed like a better prospect than anyone included in that trade.

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  38. Outmans has two terrible starts for the A’s AA team. Spencer is doing the best out of all three so far.

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  39. @skunky: I agree that Gillick shouldn’t care what the fans think, and I’m fairly certain that he doesn’t. I’m just frustrated with the lack of reasonable discussion within the Phillies nation right now. It’s just “the sky is falling” no matter what.

    @tjc: I would have liked Harden, but if we would have done that, people would have bitched about how injury prone he is.

    As for Sabathia. The Brewers gave up a ton for him. To me this system doesn’t have anyone in Matt LaPorta’s league. I would have been happy to get him, but I don’t know that we really had any sure things other than possibly Marson we could have sent back in return and that’s what it was going to take.

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  40. Sabbathia would have obviously been the best get but the Phillies didn’t have anyone in their system who was compatible with what Cleveland’s biggest want/need was, a power hitter who is anywhere close to ML ready. The Phillies don’t have a Laporta in their system right now.

    Skunky, if Gillick had actually thrown the entire farm system at Cleveland for a 3-month rental as you suggest he would have been and still would be getting justifably crucified…

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  41. Skunky, you are an idiot. marson, carrasco, donald, cardenas, happ, outman and spencer for HALF A SEAON of Sabathia? the guy is a free agent at the end of the year and you’re willing to throw 6 or our top 10 prospects plus another guy for him. please go shoot yourself.

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  42. cardenas is hitting .333 for Stockton, which isn’t too shabby. Personally, I thought that no move was the best move for the phils. I agree with skunky, in that Gillick shouldn’t care what the fans think. The way he is operating is exactly how someone on his way out manages. I think the only thing that could have been done during our team-wide slump was to wait it out, and the bats would wake up. I’m not saying Cardenas is major league ready. I’m saying that Billy Beane has played guys that are too young to give them experience early in their careers. Huston Street debuted when he was 21, Carlos Gonzalez (their current left fielder) is 22, and Sean Gallagher, the “major league ready” player that he got from the cubs is also 22. So next year, if Cardenas were to start by midseason, he would be 21, almost 22. Not unheard of for Billy Beane standards.
    I know Utley was blocking him and that realistically, Cardenas would never wear a phillies uniform. But the point is, if the FO waited on him another year and a half, we could have dealt him for a young starting pitcher like an Edwin Jackson, who was brought up in previous posts, from tampa bay. We traded AC earlier than we should have for a guy that doesn’t make this team better. Now in Oakland, Cardenas will get a shot early to play at the major league level. Gillick doing something just for the sake of doing something doesn’t make this team better, it just appeases that phillies fan base who don’t know squat about the minor league system.

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  43. @The Artist Formerly Known As Michael Bourn: I’m sorry, but I’m not willing to sit around and wait for the minor league system. Again. People don’t really talk about it all that much, but the window for this Phillie’s team is not that large. They needed pitching, and I still firmly believe that Fat Joe is an upgrade over Adam Eaton.

    I don’t understand why people continue to slobber over Billy Beane. He hasn’t exactly been infallible lately.

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  45. None of those guys are sure things. If they were going to make a “win now” move then they would have to go big or not go at all.

    Sabathia is a Cy young caliber pitcher. Just try and tell me Carrasco or Happ could ever pitch in his league. And sure, it would be for two months… but it would be the best two months of Phillies baseball in decades. So go ahead and badmouth me, but I’m not an idiot for wanting to get off from work for a parade down Broad Street.

    They could end up unloading some of those guys in the next hour anyway, and Sabathia would be much more valuable than Blanton + whoever they could pick up before 4.

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  46. There is no guarantee that Sabbathia is enough to win the WS in 2008 either. You can’t just sell out the entire system. Plus you’re still assuming that Cleveland would have preferred quantity over the quality that they got.

    Ask the Braves how giving away 3 of their top prospects in the Teixiera deal worked out for them. Now they are left with no playoff appearances and Kotchman!!! yippee!!

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  47. @3up3kkk: Barely, but they finished 10 games under last year. And yes, for a while they won that division every year, but that’s good for what exactly?

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  48. Beane benefited from being promoted at the right time. When he took over as GM in 1998, Giambi and Tejada were already at the ML level and Chavez, Grieve, and Hudson were ML ready.

    Beane’s biggest role in those division winning years was drafting Mulder #2 overall in 1998 and Zito #9 overall in 1999. Not exactly like he was plucking talent from the scrapheap…

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  49. People need to get over Blanton. The verdict is far from out on this and majority view the trade as pretty solid. You gotta give up a lot to get a starter mid-season and ultimately he will help this team this year.

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  50. i think if we gave the A’s a package of Kendrick, Donald and another fringe player or two that would match what Chicago gave. Our 3 headed GM monster gave up because of injury concerns. They saw another Borowski lurking. Guess i can’t blame them too much because of the Garcia fiasco was still fresh.

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  51. I wouldn’t have traded all of those guys for CC. Halladay, maybe, since he’s under contract through 2010.

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  52. Does any one know how Matt Smith is coming along.? He had once been thought of as a situational lefty held back by command issues.

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  53. anyway…with 15 minutes to go, does anyone know if we are staying put? An A or B prospect for a lefty rental is something i am trying to avoid

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  56. WOW.. I went on the phillies homepage and saw an article titled “Shane Victorino must wave goodbye” and I crapped in my pants a little.

    Turns out he’s waving goodbye to July…

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  57. *crickets*

    Frankly, I almost prefer nothing from the standpoint of if the deal made sense they would have done it so the asking prices must have been too high (Donald for Mahay? No way!) and it shows that the team is starting to put some value in their prospects.

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  58. Deals won’t be made public until probably 5PM…it takes time for these things to get approval from the league office.

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  61. Was at the Reading game today and sat a couple of seats over from Edgar Garcia and Tyson Brummett. Edgar was charting the radar gun and kept checking his flip cell phone between innings. Don’t know why but he was passed over for Minix in his scheduled start last night but will return to the mound on Sat. The game was over before the 4 o’clock trading deadline so I guess he is still with us. Went especially to see Clay Harris and Sergio Escalona. Harris had not played since Monday when he went 0 for 4 even though he had hit a walk off homer on Sat. night . Thought he was sent out or injured but, without the DH, Reading’s manager Pee Wee Forbes played minor league journeyman Mike Elyward at First who went 0 for the series and hit into several DP’s. Then finally in the bottom of the 8th on a double switch Harris was put in the game, walked and scored in the top of the 9th. Escalona came on in the 8th and walked his first batter after getting ahead 1 and 2. But induced a ground ball DP and then another ground ball to get out of the inning. Sergio then struck out the side in the 9th. He relied on a late breaking ball at the knees as his out pitch. Garcia told me the Reading speed gun had his fast ball at 91. He has given up no runs or hits in 3.1 innings, walking one and striking out five in his first two AA appearances. Would not be surprised to see him as the second lefty in the pen soon at CBP.

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  63. JAK32 —
    You may be impatient, but it is hard to see how getting Blanton helps us win now. We may have needed pitching, but that doesn’t magically turn a bad pitcher like Blanton into a good pitcher. Cardenas will have a good major league career. Blanton will prove to be the clone of Eaton. He already has two rotten starts to his credit in Philly, and they are not at all out of line with his road performances with Oakland.

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  64. @allentown: Best case scenario for Cardenas is another Placido Polanco type hitter with more speed and crappy defense, a nice player, but not one you’ll regret giving up for years. Blanton is not a “bad” pitcher. He’s probably average, which might be enough.

    You can project on Cardenas all you want, but until he puts on a big league uniform and hits big boy pitching like you all seem so completely convinced he will (he was in A ball remember) I’m not going to criticize Gillick for this trade. Don’t you find it at all strange that the ONLY people who roundly criticized this deal are Phillies fans, especially Phillies Prospect fanboys. Too many people here fall in love with guys before they’ve proven anything.

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  65. Richey Branch,

    Got any idea why they are sitting Harris who was so hot both at Clearwater and at Reading?

    For a journeyman?? Is Harris that bad a fielder?

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  66. CONGRATULATIONS…… TO THE PHIL’S MANAGEMENT!!!

    They did not give anymore of our prospects away! Maybe we will now get a good look at Happ and possibly Walrond, who has been on fire for the past month.

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  67. On Matt Smith: he started out at Rookie Lg Fla a little while age–several weeks, pitched several inns there and was moved up a notch just a few days ago.

    IMO, the Phils’ FO is hoping that he progresses further and will step up the line through Reading, etc. before Sept. In Sept the FO may bring HIM up as a lefty specialist in Sept along with Benson who has had a good recent outing at LV.

    Of course, that depends on their continued success. The Phils took little risk and little expense in resigning Smith in the hopes that he could make a comeback in time to help in ’08, preferably…or later.

    Smith’s progress may be ONE factor holding back a giving-up of any decent prospects for an aged/worn/suspect 2-month assistance. Good!

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  68. Why does everyone think Blanton is so bad? He’s not a bad pitcher at all. He’s a solid middle of the rotation guy who throws innings. This team needed to add a starting pitcher to throw innings or didn’t you notice that the bullpen is exhausted and its only just turning to August with a long way to go. No one not named Hamels can pitch even eight innings this year. There’s just too many innings for the bullpen to cover. Blanton can help the team just by throwing innings. His first start here was after about 14 days I recall and his second start he started out bad and rain prevented him from continuing. Star? Of course not. Adequate starter who will throw 200 innings? yes.

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  69. Look at their ’07 draft. The “least signable”, RHP Workman was drafted in the 3rd round…and was NOT signed. His not signing awarded the Phils a 3rd round compensation pick in the ’08 draft.

    So…like in ’07…they PROBABLY chose Pettibone in that position so that should he NOT sign, they’d get another choiice in 3rd round in ’09. PERHAPS they designate a 3rd round choice of one who might be a hard sign; using that spot as the last one available to never actually lose the pick, but get another the following season if he doesn’t sign..

    Izzat the case?

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  70. You don’t get rewarded another pick if you don’t sign your compensation pick, it’s a one shot deal.

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  71. i have to say that pittsburgh was richly rewarded for giving up bay and facilitating that three-way deal, i dont know about morris the pitcher, but the other guys all seem to have promise

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  72. Speaking of workman he is really coming on in the cape cod league. I think its thirty nine stikeout in twenty eight innings, He is 2-0 made allstart team. He is the second best in velocity at ninety five.

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  73. Jake32 Hope we are still on this blog in two years. If you think blanton is any better than eaton look at his hits per innings. This guy stinks. He is no better than eaton. You don’t give up a good hitting propect for that. The knock on utley was he was a bad fielder. Do you think he is? The phillies had to do something cheap and blanton was the only one they could come up with.I would have rather had seen what happ could do.

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  74. Jake 32 I was wrong Blanton can’t be as bad as eaton. Eaton is getting lit up in lakewood.

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  76. Rodeo Jones: Escalona is a Venezuelan who will turn 24 on Sunday and had excellent numbers against left handed hitters at Lakewood as a set up man for Simon ( 5-1, 11 holds and 2 saves). His GO/AO was 2.29 and he had a high strike out to walk ratio against lefthanders. Overall he struck out 60 in 44.2 innings. Today everything he threw was at the knees and around the plate. He also was take charge on the mound shaking off Nelson several times in his two innings of work.

    Joey: Do not know why Harris disappeared after Monday nights game. Even though he went 0-4 that night he hit a foul ball out of the park down the left field line and later just missed a linw drive double down the left field line foul. He had knee surgery to repair ligament damage in the off season. That might be a reason for not starting him for three straight games. But many times this year the Reading box scores and lineups defied logic.

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  77. The sad fact is that Blanton has been pitching as bad as Eaton this season. The ERA+ for both is 77.

    The positive side is that his career ERA+ is 99 (about the same as a Steve Trachsel) so maybe he can improve that number…

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  78. I didn’t get to respond very well to all the bashing I got for saying I’d unload practically the whole farm for sabathia…. but how bout this: 3 complete games in five starts and an ERA of 1.82 since he arrived in Milwaukee.

    Thats one hell of a rental… and I’m not going to shoot myself for wanting that arm in my rotation.

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  79. Bluethree “The sad fact is that Blanton has been pitching as bad as Eaton this season. The ERA+ for both is 77″that’s what I was basically saying when I was talking about Gillick and you were disagreeing

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