Phillies Acquire Reds’ Lively

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The long-awaited trade of Marlon Byrd has finally occured.  The Phillies sent Byrd and cash to the Cincinnati Reds for RHP Ben Lively.  The trade caps weeks of anticipation by Phillies’ fans who have been waiting for the team to turn their few marketable assets into young prospects.

Scouting grades: Fastball: 55 | Curveball: 50 | Slider: 55 | Changeup: 50 | Control: 55 | Overall: 50

Lively was the Reds 4th round pick (#135) in 2013.  He pitched for Pensacola, the Reds AA affiliate in the Southern League.  He was ranked as the Reds #8 prospect by MLB.

Lively began the year as the Reds’ preseason #13 and received the 2014 Minor League Player of the Year Award for the Reds as voted by the Cincinnati chapter of the BBWAA.

43 thoughts on “Phillies Acquire Reds’ Lively”

  2. I see it was edited, cool. Good trade, Lively seems to have a live arm.. Big spike in walks last year when promoted to AA, but i’m still ok with the move. Kind’ve wish is woulda been for a minor league OFer though, tbh.

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  3. Seems like he has had good success so far in the minors and knows how to strike people out. I like the deal.

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  5. Although our offense is going to be worse, it’s going to be fun starting to see the young pitchers starting to come up. Nola up in june or july with everyone else (biddle, windle, eflin and Lively) starting to come up in Aug Sept and beyond.

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  6. Good return for Byrd, Lively has command of all 4 pitches, and has shown a good ERA in minors. A prospect, not a suspect, so adds to the growing list of pitching prospects. Can’t imagine the Phils offense without Rollins and Byrd, but needed to be done.

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    1. I’m Still trying to forget the Phillies offense from last season, losing Byrd and Jimmy can’t make it much worse. Hopefully some of these arms pan out.

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    1. He seems like he is in the next 2 picks. dugan mecias imhof lively and windle are all right there. I am starting to like our top 10.

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    2. It seems like it will be tough to project how his stuff will play in the majors, since he relies on the deception in his delivery to fool batters. Not that he has bad stuff, but it sounds average or a bit better across the board.

      As far as ranking him, to me he’s below Mecias, but above Windle and Imhoff. Around #10.

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  13. I like the stocking up on pitching. Think about before the draft last year our pitching prospects were Biddle and Servino Gonzalez with Mecias, Morgan Watson hurt.

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  14. There’s another shoe to drop. They’ll either have to pick up some guys off the rubbish pile or hello Wil Myers.

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    2. don’t get the love fest with Wil Myers. Had poor year coming off wrist injury. Plus he was traded. If he was ‘can’t miss’ his original team wouldn’t have dealt him.

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  15. The 2015 Offense is looking offensive, but this is a step forward by reloading mid to high level prospects. All of these pitchers have a chance to help the ML club in the next year or two. Plus, we were a last place team w/ Byrd. We will be a last place team w/o Byrd. This trade is about 2016 and beyond.

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    2. its necessary. philly fans better hope for top 3 draft slot. I think they need min of two years at that slot.

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  16. I gotta say, as many of you are aware, I place a premium on position players, and to see the Phillies making trades for 3 different pitching prospects (which admittedly at the minor league level was a major problem in the system) and no position players is a little disappointing, that said, a great trade for good player who was old and wouldn’t be with the Phillies during any period which they would be contending in.

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  18. Phillies outfield Brown, Sizemore , Revere, Jeff Francoeur, maybe Asche, the rule 5 guy.If 1st everybody,2nd Ultey, ss ? 3rd Franco, cat her Ruiz.bench ? Bullpen very good. Just a early guess

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  19. I can’t believe rube got this much in a trade…I was expecting a 27 yr old power lefty arm coming off a 4.00 era 150 walk season…good job rube got a young kid with some upside

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    1. I don’t understand what the Reds are doing. If they were going all in this year then why trade Latos and Simon when pitching was their strength last year.

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  22. I like the deal. Ruben has done a good job of adding arms to the farm system. Hopefully some of the new arms can meet their ceilings and speed up this rebuild. I would imagine if Hamels is traded a position player would be the center piece. I would gladly take the best player available as the center piece regardless of position.

    Not only does adding this pitching depth give us some arms to build with, it also gives us flexibility to trade from to acquire young position players. A strong package for Hamels and another strong draft would really strengthen the farm and draw attention from around the league.

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  24. Pls…let us remind ourselves of the most successful MLB team in the last 5 years: the SF Giants. How? By placing pitching foremost in its aims and development. I recall watching their drafts in June each year and I saw their emphasis in early rounds on moundsmen.

    For now, after the steroids/power hitting of the 2000s have been chased from the field, pitching has once again been primary. As in– build a terrific staff and supplement that with “fill-ins” beyond a Posey and you get 3 WS Champions 3 out of the last 5 years.

    When Cole is traded I suspect that we’d get some kind of position prospect (OF!) PLUS a pitcher or two. The Byrd trade for a pitcher with promise in AA ball not only is good for the near future, but also eases the need for top flight pitching which would make it easier to make a trade or two for position player prospect(s).

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  25. Also increased is the need for contact hitters. That has been a Phil’s larking weakness. They have to get/develop high OBP players to go along with SP. we will see if RAJ can do that.

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