Ruben Amaro Does His Thing, Phils Land Hunter Pence

I would really like to go fishing with Ruben Amaro Jr. It seems like every time he casts his line he lands the biggest fish in the sea. Whether he throws a bucket of chum to the Indians and lands Cliff Lee, or whether he baits Ed Wade closer and closer to the shore only to watch him beach himself and give us Roy Oswalt and a bag of money for nothing. The guy just knows how to get deals done.

So in a four player deal, the Phillies have the right handed bat they've been targeting, they have the opportunity to give Dom Brown some more seasoning down in AAA, and they still remain well under the luxury tax cap. It's really a no lose situation.

Jonathan Singleton is a highly touted prospect, but his value with the Phillies is virtually nothing. We already have $125M standing at first base in Ryan Howard. While one would think that Singleton could have been moved to a corner outfield position, his audition out there to start the season did not go very well. I've read the he didn't have good instincts tracking the ball off the bat and that's a skill that's not easily taught. So his value with the Phillies, and in a trade for that matter, was virtually nothing. Any team looking to acquire Singleton had all the leverage in the deal. Jarred Cosart on the other hand is a fireballing right hander who ranked as high as 17 on ESPN Keith Law's prospect list coming into the season. He has a plus curveball to go along with his 94+ fastball, but he's had some injury hiccups in the past two years and his path to the majors wasn't very clear. These are the two top players in the Phillies system, but both have their questions. Pitcher Josh Zeid and a player to be named later were also included.

Most importantly, that PTBNL is not going to be Domonic Brown or Vance Worley.

Sure, I was probably a bigger fan of BJ Upton or Carlos Quentin coming to town, but I'm going to have to defer to RAJ on this one. In Pence, the Phillies get a solid hitter from the right side of the plate, something that's been missing since Jayson Werth's departure. Pence hits for a bit of power, plays plus defense, but most importantly he has a reputation as one of the hardest working guys in the business. He's Utley-esque in his baseball preparation. True to his word, Amaro avoided a player that would just be a 1/2 season rental by locking up Pence for the next two years under arbitration. He'll likely earn about the same amount of money that comes off the books when Raul's contract is up, but the free agent market for outfielders at the end of the season is incredibly slim as well. If Pence can work the Phillies staff to get on base at a slightly higher clip and cut back on the strikeouts, the sky is really the limit for him. You can probably expect 2010 Jayson Werth like production for the next two years in RF. The move also allows Dom Brown to slide over to left field at the end of the season into a more comfortable defensive position. He starts there tonight in Lehigh Valley.

So there's a lot to be excited about in this deal. Check out your boy @hunterpence9 on Twitter!