The Phillies have finally found a starter to add to the rotation, trading Adrian Cardenas, Josh Outman, and Matthew Spencer to Oakland for starter Joe Blanton. The good news is the Phillies didn't give up much. Cardenas is a second baseman who is clearly blocked by Chase Utley for quite some time. Lefty pitcher Outman had been converted to a reliever in the minors as potential insurance for the big club. Apparently he hasn't done well enough to make the big league roster, or rather the relief staff has done so well to date, he really hasn't been needed.
The bad news, contrary to popular belief, Blanton hasn't been all that great a starter with a career ERA of 4.25 / BAA .273 and for the Fantasy Baseball crowd, a 1.33 WHIP. None of those stats are very exciting, but he is an innings eater and should take some pressure off of the bullpen which is likely to be important down the stretch. Blanton is also under team control through 2010, so he should be with the team for awhile.
This brings up the next logical question. With Brett Myers apparently returning in a week, who is out of the rotation? Probably Adam Eaton, unless there is another deal in the works to move Myers. Personally, I would rather have Myers given his track record than Eaton. My guess, Eaton moves to the bullpen, the Phillies try to move him to anyone who has a bit of interest and may end up dropping him altogether and eating his salary for the rest of '08 and all of '09.
6 comments:
I was checking out your Phillies blogs and thought you and your readers might be interested to know that Phillies reliever Chad Durbin has his own blog.
Here are links to his profile and his latest blog post…it’s hysterical!:
http://www.prolebrity.com/profile/chaddurbin/
http://www.prolebrity.com/give-me-a-break/#more-311
Enjoy!
33 WHIP
Just another example of the Phils paying attention to the bottom line. The Blanton acquisition has more to do with two years remaining at below market salaries than it does with providing a real arm for a postseason run. Hopefully they'll make a real move before the July 31st trade deadline comes and goes.
Nice blog! I just started a Phillies/MLB blog of my own. Check it out! http://phanamanda.blogspot.com/
Nice blog, I have a Phils' blog on blogger too called Phillies Phan, I think it is decent, check it out at http://philliesguy.blogspot.com/ please comment :)
Hey there. Not sure of a better place to post this, but I’ve been letterpress printing some Phillies Beer Coasters using the older logo…
http://blackheartpress.bigcartel.com/
Soon, I’ll start making some with the current/modern logo. Just thought you might be interested in posting them up. Fans seem to like them.
thanks.
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