Not much on the Phillies’ front this week. Next week they’ll be prepping for Matt Klentak’s first Winter Baseball Meeting as the GM of the Phillies.
MLBTR’s Brad Johnson profiled several possible top Rule 5 picks by the Phillies in a recent article. Interestingly enough they are all outfielders or first basemen. Continue reading Open Discussion: Week of November 30th
How quickly things change. In less than 4 weeks, could the fans’ honeymoon with new GM Matt Klentak be over?
Not too long ago, the Phillies introduced Klentak to the media at a news conference on October 26th. Since then the GM has been involved in only a few publicly observed team decisions and a couple of press conferences that revealed some of his thoughts – Continue reading Open Discussion: Week of November 23rd
With the deadline to protect players from the rule 5 draft approaching, the Phillies have added 3 players to their 40-man roster – Roman Quinn, Jimmy Cordero, and Edubray Ramos. They have also claimed Twins RHP A.J. Achter off waivers.
The Phillies 40-man roster level stands at 37 going into the rule 5 draft barring any further moves before tonight’s 11:59PM deadline.
Phillies’ General Manager, Matt Klentak, continued adding to the organization in the second week of the off season. Following the waiver acquisition of RHP Dan Otero on November 2nd, the Phillies FA LHP James Russell on November 12th and traded for Arizona Diambacks’ RHP Jeremy Hellickson. True to his word (and remarkably similar to his predecessor), Klentak is proving that his emphasis will be adding to (improving?) the pitching depth in the organization. Continue reading Open Discussion: Week of November 16th
MLBTR reported that Jim Salisbury tweeted that the Phillies and D’Backs are working on a trade that would bring RHP Jeremy Hellickson to Philaelphia. He is in the last year of arbitration and becomes a first time free agent in 2017. His agent has negotiated deals to avoid arbitration the past two seasons. This is probably just a one year acquisition since his agent is Scott Boras.
Todd Zolecki tweeted that the trade is being finalized for a Phillies’ low level minor leaguer, since reported to be Sam McWilliams. (Damn! I like McWilliams.)
Maikel Franco has been activated by his Dominican Winter League team, the Gigantes del Cibao. He has reported to the team and been added to the roster according to an article by Jake Kaplan (see story).
Franco suffered a fractured left wrist in August that sidelined him until he was activated for the last weekend of the season. He collected 9 PA in three games that weekend after a few appearances in the Instructs.
This is the second in a series of articles reviewing our sleeper and breakout predictions before the 2015 season started. Earlier, I covered last season’s sleeper predictions. Today, I’ll go over the break out picks. Continue reading 2015 Sleepers and Breakouts Revisited; Part Two
Time to begin finishing and posting some of the many draft articles I have started. I decided to begin with a look at our preseason predictions for breakout and sleeper prospects during the 2015 season. Continue reading 2015 Sleepers and Breakouts Revisited; Part One
A mixture of names talked about often and more obscure names have become minor league free agents this week. The list goes as follows: 3B Cord Phelps, SS Tyler Pasternicky, SS Edgar Duran, SS KC Serna, 2B Brodie Greene, 1B WIllians Astudillo, C Rene Garcia, OF Kelly Dugan, P Jason Berken, P Ethan Martin, P Colin Kleven, P Stephen Shackleford, P Reinier Roibal, and P Steven Inch.
The Phillies’ first week of the hot stove season started just as we anticipated. Aaron Harang, Jerome Wiliams, Chad Billingsley, and Jeff Francoeur became free agents. The Phillies activated Cliff Lee from the 60-Day DL then declined their $27.5M team option, deciding to pay the $12.5M buyout and making Lee a free agent. The Phillies activated the remaining players on the 60-Day DL – Elvis Araujo, Mario Hollands, Matt Harrison, and Cesar Hernandez. And finally, the Phillies took advantage of their waiver position when they claimed RHP Dan Otero off waivers from the Oakland A’s. This first addition of the Klentak era brings the 40-Man Roster to 32 players. Continue reading Open Discussion: Week of November 9th
