The Phils have two tonight at home versus Toronto, then two in Toronto, Wednesday and Thursday. Former Phillies’ LHP J.A. Happ on the hill tonight for Toronto for his first start of the year. After being sent to Houston in the Roy Oswalt deal, Happ wound up in Toronto as part of the Brandon Lyon trade. I guess you call that the Brandon Lyon trade, not the J.A. Happ trade.
It’s been pointed out to me a couple times on Twitter today that Jonathan Villar, who also went to Houston in the Oswalt trade, has five home runs this year for Houston. So that’s fun. Anthony Gose, who was traded with Villar and Happ, then flipped to Toronto for Brett Wallace, is also on Toronto’s big league roster right now, but he’s appeared in only a handful of games all year as he’s split his time between TOR and AAA Buffalo.
Anyway, it’s still not been long enough to evaluate that Oswalt trade properly, but I’d say it was worth it to contend for the WS in 2010, unless Villar keeps up a 30 HR pace in 2014 and plays like an all-star for years to come.
Discuss.
Phuture Phillies 
Are the Phillies going to see Dickey during this series? I believe Kratz has been catching him for the most part.
We should introduce Jays fans to the Godshall’s commercials.
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Wednesday or Thursday Dickey is scheduled.
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Dickey and Burnett on Thursday.
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Thought I read that Kratz was assigned.
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Recalled on the second. Sounds like they’re bouncing him up & down as needed.
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I’m OK with the Oswalt trade, the Pence trade is the one that looks bad.
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Oh yes, that is one of my least favorite things to discuss ever because everyone’s opinion is so completely negative and also correct.
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I honestly believe the Freddy Garcia trade was worse…HOW is trading a young lefty with GREAT stuff who is NOT in over his head at AA while only 18 EVER a good idea!?!?!?! Ugggh, that trade haunts me and so many people forget about it. I feel like Homer Simpson when he starts drooling for beer……Gio Gonzalez in red pinstripes….mmmmmmmmmm
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i’m with you.
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The problem with the Oswalt trade was that we gave up more than we got for Cliff Lee, and had we kept lee, we would not have needed Oswalt. Then, we would have been able to keep Singleton in the Pence trade because we would have still had Gose, Villar and Happ.
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While this is a true statement, it is also a meangingless one, since the Phillies simply didn’t have enough $ to keep Lee. That trade was a salary dump to stay on budget with the addition of Halladay. The prospects we got back for Lee didn’t pan out, but theyr eally weren’t bad prospects. It is not at all clear that the Phillies development process didn’t hinder their development. In any case, the deal wasn’t made to acquire prospects. If it were, then we wouldn’t have taken back $6 mill in the Halladay trade and would have saved ourselves a prospect.
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You also make two mistakes with Oswalt vs Lee. We didn’t have to pay Oswalt for a full season and we also took back money in the Oswalt trade.
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You are right there. My problem is that a team with their resources should have never traded a Cliff lee when all he was due was 9Million. I think, despite the succesful regular season in 2011, that thought process was inexcusable.
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I read about franco having an edwin encarncion comp. I have to ask why did encarnacion and bautista blow up when theygot to Toronto
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They changed Bautista swing and something obviously clicked, not sure about Encarnacian.
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Fast forwarding to July 2nd, BA just released an article about the international signing deadline. Appears the Yankees plan on saying screw it and could spend up to $20 mil, $18 mil over their allotted slot. I was trying to find any information on who the Phillies may be linked to but could only come up this article from scout.com a couple of months ago. http://sbb.scout.com/2/1375072.html Looks like the top talent already have their deals in place.
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Ty mark. I now am really sick, I was hoping that it would be a level field, because this Phillies ownership isn’t going to go out and overspend, but if its true about the Yankees. and others.they get the cream, and we sink lower,
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That is why MLB and the Commish need to do one of two things, or both, penalize teams that go over the international bonus allotment by taking draft picks from the rule 4 draft in June, starting with a transgressor’s numberr one pick and down thru 10 depending on the number of violations ateam commits, OR just establish a draft for the international talent, as has been proposed for the last three years..
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The international draft is the dumbest thing in the world. What they should do is eliminate the spending caps and let teams spend what they want. The Phillies are tied for 4th in MLB in number of international signees in the Baseball America Handbook with 12. Only the Red Sox (15), Rangers (14), and Twins (13) had more. The Phillies have done great things with not just outspending everyone to try and get quality. 5 of their signings were more than $500,000 (MAG, Tocci, Grullon, Pujols, and Encarnacion) so they aren’t staying away either. The full list also includes Maikel Franco, Cesar Hernandez, Domingo Santana, Yoel Mecias, Severino Gonzalez, Malquin Canelo, and Lisalverto Bonilla.
http://www.baseballamerica.com/international/which-teams-have-signed-the-most-international-prospects-2/
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Matt they sign a lot of cheaper guys, where are there stars, the regular??? chooch and bastardo in all the years since 1998. compare that with other teams, I would like quality . all those young guys you mention aren’t anything yet. sorry I just want the better guys signed like the Yankees and Texas have done, and others, The second tier of guys who mention only Franco has a high upside, and maybe Santana , sorry but there tight pockets in the Latin market has hurt them big time. I know they have a great scout there too, and that makes it more frustrating to me. There attitude to me is we known more than you and can spend less to get great players, it fails way more times than succeeds.
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Matt….seriously…you are kidding me with that nonsense about ‘opening up monetary restraints’ and letting teams go hog wild in signing Latin free agent kids.;
And, I ask, will ‘small market teams’, compete with large market TV generated cash-cows teams like YES, Comcast, FOX-LA and the like?
And that fact about total number of Philly signees…..quntity vs quality is irrespective of how an organization builds a truly formidable farm system.
Concerning the Phillies signees…from 2002 up through 2011…the Phillies operated in the Latin market on a skimpy budget.
Only recently with Tocci and the following as you mentioned did they decide to jump into the fray with he other big boys.
I submitted a proposal in 2012 to league operations for a limited two round international draft…60 total slots. Each MLB team is entitled to two selections.The remaining non-selected 60 players are free to sign with anyone they desired.
Union and MLB Latin players all voted against all the draft proposals.
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Not sure how you come up with an International Draft being the dumbest thing in the world. It has to be the logical next step in fairness to our home grown national talent.
If JP Crawford is not free to shop his services to the highest bidder why should we afford that freedom to international talent. (Japan Different)
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Its time to start thinking about drafting college players. The upper levels are so thin. Theres not much future… Im just sitting here thinking Jackie Bradley Jr could be our CF and Trevor May still in the system.
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College players with advanced hit tools. Looking at you Bradley Zimmer. I dont care if you play a corner.
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I’m with you on Bradley, but Trevor May? I haven’t lost a wink of sleep over that deal.
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The idea that we couldn’t pay Lee is wrong. The org decided against it in favor of “replenishing” the system which was stupid then, looks even stupider now, and is the exact reason why they shouldn’t go into full rebuild mode – you rarely ever get the value in a trade of an established star entering his prime for prospects. Even our mentally and statistically challenged GM has “won” almost every trade of this type he’s made.
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I don’t see how anyone can pretend it wasn’t about the money. The whole Halladay/Lee exchange was setup to be revenue neutral. We got back $6 mill with Halladay and we shed Lee’s salary. We also got back $ with Oswalt. The Phillies stick with their budgets. RAJ was maxed out when the Halladay opportunity came up.
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Could be the combination of both…budget restraints and bolstering the farm.
Ruben saw it as an opportunity to hit two birds with one stone so to speak.
Question seems to continue to arise….what was his primary motivation
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Lee got traded because his agent pissed the Philies off, after Lee got a new agent he resigned with the Phillies.
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But I don’t understand. You are okay with this? I don’t care what the reason was. It was stupid, bad business, poor management, short sighted, and wrong. Another World Series appearance, and I maintain that they beat the Giants with Lee instead of Oswalt, makes up for the money. It was $9 Million! Not a 10 year, $250Million commitment. And, continued poor management will further deplete the talent on the team.
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I Just don’t understand how, with a world series title and chance for more, and the money they were making, that they would be that short sighted. It was a short commitment, The ownership. if true really let down this city and its fans over not a lot of money, and hurt its future with the bad trade, I think its a really great question for a writer to put to Gillick, and Amaro.
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Cody Asche since snapping an 0-for-17 streak on April 18: 38 PA, .333/.368/.583, 2 HR, 3 2B. The kid is heating up, and should be rewarded with an everyday gig at third.
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Asche is suddenly an above average hitter this season, with a 110 wRC+. Still at -0.2 fWAR though. Damn you, defense!
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Asche’s a work in progress in the field (he definitely shows some signs), but the fact that he can struggle at bat for so long and still be above average as a hitter gives you a glimpse of his offensive upside. When he’s on, he’s a hitting metronome – a nice, short, clean, stroke with just enough power to make him a bit dangerous.
By the way, at some point, we have to start paying attention to Tyler Henson. He’s still low on the sample size, but he’s really hit at AAA for two straight years and with plenty of power in a league where good hitting stats are hard to come by. And this is his age 26 year, so he’s not completely out of the prospect discussion. I’d love to see him get some at bats at third and in the outfield over John #!$^%^ Mayberry and Jayson $^$ Nix (why is Jayson Nix on this team? Do the Nix brothers own revealing photographs? What gives?).
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Tyler Henson, perhaps another Brandon Moss, where the Phillies, this time around, will harvest the fruits of their labor.
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I mentioned Henson a day or so ago in one of the box score threads. I wonder about his ability to play 3B in the majors. Mostly because, like you, I want Nix off the team. We don’t need a backup shortstop to back up our backup shortstop.
The problem with Henson right now (aside from defense maybe because I have no idea how good or bad he is in the field) is a high K rate. I think he’s an interesting candidate for a bench spot though.
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(Asche, that is – the other responses make it look like I am talking about Henson, which I am not.)
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To be fair, his defense, while bad, likely isn’t as bad as the metrics (for this year, anyway) indicate. That said, the defense is disappointing – even setting aside the metrics, he is clearly well below average. A shame as it looks like the offense may be coming around.
I still have hope that he can be a solid regular. For that to come to pass, he’ll need to either bump the offense up a little more, get the defense closer to average, or some of both.
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I just read that this kid for Pittsburgh turn down a fifty to sixty million dollar contract, Polanco is his name and the kid, if I read it right hasn’t played in the majors yet. anyone know if he was a high signing bonus kid from Latin market. I wonder if any minor league was offered this kind of money without playing in major yet??
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Gregory Polanco,. He turned down 7/$25MM with three club options. The contract would have been worth between $50 million and $60 million had Pittsburgh exercised all three option years, according to CBSSports.com.
He is out of the Dominican, and according to the interweb, signed for 150K.
So, if I read this right, he had a minimum offer of $25MM in his account. If he gets hurt, or just does not pan out, he could cost himself 20MM+. He is playing his upside potential, would could obviously pay much more..
I don’t know about you, but I think I would be too conservative to pass on $25MM guarantee. I would rather have $25MM in the bank (minus taxes of course) and potentially lose out on $25MM – 50MM more upside, as opposed to rolling the dice and potentially coming out without enough money to retire on.
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What really is his upside potential over these years? We’re talking mainly arb years here, including the first two certainly be at or close to league minimum. I question both the Pirates for offering and Polanco for turning it down. You have to really love a minor leaguer’s makeup not to see this sort of deal as potentially sapping his incentive to work hard and be the best he possibly can be. $25 mill is not an inconsequential risk.
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That is what got me, he turned down all that money, without ever getting a hit in the majors and he is only 21 years
old. I was really interested if anyone else ever got a big offer,based on minor league numbers.
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It was almost exactly the deal George Springer turned down. The deal would have been 4 years 23.5 million over his 3 arb years and a year of FA. Given Polanco’s talent and the rising salaries, it wouldn’t be ridiculous that his FA year alone could bring in 20+ million
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Unbelievable, but ave attendance has dropped from Sept ’12 to May ’14 from 45K/game to 29K per game. ….almost a 30% fall off.
However the wait line at the concession stands are now shorter.
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I am most likely the only person on here who feels this way, But its so hard for me to watch the Phillies on tv, not only is the team bad, but those two announcers are horrible. I cant believe that they did a video tape to get the job. and the people said there great lets hire them. I miss Chris and Gary and I cant believe I said that but its true,
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Sandberg alarm for me yesterday when he left Bastardo in to face Young who was hitting .500 off of him. I know the pen was pretty warn out at that point but c’mon you couldn’t see he was cooked.
Bastardo is not long for this club and I cannot see them continue down this path. Giles will be up just a matter of when.
Finally I too am tired of seeing these pitchers leaving 0-2 pitches in the middle of the plate.
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Touche on the 0-2 pitch selection.
Happens to Lee also.
Cannot understand when they are ahead in the count they want to get the K at any cost on the next pitch.
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A friend of mine said he was impressed with the Marlins . My reply “wait they will screw it up” Noe Fernandez is facing surgery . When will managers learn to protect pitchers under 24. CERTAINLY 171 inning last year was too much for such elite 20 year old.
If only we we had Stanton.
in honor of my newly broken arm I will changing my name to
hairy side up
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