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!

I Haven't Ranted About A Loss in a While...

Sweeping is typically a chore that no one wants to do. It's manual labor, it creates dust, and no matter how hard you try, you can never get those last crumbs of dirt that get stuck in the cracks of your kitchen tile. It's really no fun. Which clearly explains why the Phillies recent string of "win two, then lose one" should come as no surprise... They intentionally avoided breaking out the brooms against the Marlins last night.

At least that's the best explanation I have for the series of boneheaded moves and decisions in last night's 6-7 loss in front of about a dozen people in Florida. Where to begin...

• Kyle Kendrick is about as average a #5 pitcher as there is in the league... but even he is capable of going more than 5 innings and 81 pitches. Now, maybe I'd understand this decision if the top of the 6th was a high leverage situation with a couple men in scoring position and the team down a run and you wanted to bring in a pinch hitter that could bring home a run. But the bases had just been cleared by Dom Brown's base running gaffe (more on that later), and John Mayberry Jr's homerun. And they brought in Wilson Valdez who proceeded to fly out for the 1,000th time this week. I'm not even sure Valdez is a better hitter than Kendrick. I might have left Kendrick in to swing for himself, THEN pulled him. We're talking about a guy who was given a 7 inning, 6ER, and 93 pitch leash just last Friday in Toronto, and then he gets pulled after just 1 earned last night. It doesn't make sense. 

• Domonic Brown can't be making mistakes like that on the bases or in the field. Rookie or not, anyone who's been playing baseball long enough to become a professional at it needs to make both of those plays. For a guy who gets called an "athlete" so often, missing 2nd base is unacceptable. While Sarge and TMac tried to convince the viewers that the umpire was in the wrong position and that they think they saw the bag depress a bit, I'll trust the goofy mustached guy that was about 5 feet from the play with his eyes looking directly at the bag. The guy has a reputation for being less than stellar with his calls, but he was right there staring a hole through the bag. He saw it better than any of us did on replay and Dom Brown didn't help his case with his puppy dog face in the dugout or his post game admission of guilt. Arguing about the enforcement of bag touching is for a completely different day, especially since on this particular call they got it right. The botched play in the outfield is equally upsetting.

• How is David Herndon still employed? I think it was meech.one from The Fightins that posted on Twitter yesterday that the 2008 Phillies were the only team in the last decade to win a World Series with a Rule 5 guy on their roster. The Phillies currently have three. These guys flame out for a reason and when you find the incredibly rare diamond in the rough (Shane Victorino), you count your blessings, cash out, and go home. David Herndon is not a major league pitcher. He's had one clean inning since May and it was in 9th inning mop up duty of a 10-2 victory against the Pujols-less Cardinals. Shake any tree around a minor league baseball stadium and a right hander who throws in the mid 90s with his stuff will fall out. Danys Baez can ride off into the sunset too. Since his May 25th 5 inning performance, he's let up 12 ERs and countless inherited runs. If you're scoring at home, that's 2 more than Cole Hamels has given up in nearly 4 times the amount of innings. For christsake, he gave up a HR to Mike Stanton whose power has been MIA for a month due to vision problems that he said just last night still exist. How bad of a pitcher do you have to be to let a guy who can't see hit your ball 400 ft?

Victorino up, ______ down?

After a handful of rehab appearances and a Reading Phillies game in which he went 0-4, Shane Victorino was scratched from this morning's AA Game and appears to be en-route to Pittsburgh to meet up with the big club. As much as a give Victorino a hard time (dude takes the worst routes to fly balls of any CF I've ever seen win a Gold Glove), he offers a set of skills that no one else on this team is really capable of replicating. 20HR/40SB isn't really out of the question for him, and unlike a lot of guys in that category, he can mix in a .285+ AVG. He was arguably on that pace to start the season. And more importantly, the Phillies are 26-13 with him and only 8-9 without.

But less we forget that Victorino's stint on the DL is what resulted in the surprise call up of Domonic Brown. So who loses their job when Victorino comes back?

• Domonic Brown: He's the obvious choice because he has the most options left and Charlie really wanted to see him get more ABs in the minors before coming up in the first place. But he's been hitting the ball well, even some hard hit balls against lefties. Were it not for what could possibly be the play of the year by Laynce Nix in yesterday's game, Brown would have been a hero.

• John Mayberry Jr: Another guy with options in the minors, but he's really your best bench option at the moment and plays a pretty solid defensive outfield. The long legs really get him moving to the ball. His OPS is a bit low for a guy his size, which have kept his speed numbers down, but with Gload nursing a hip, Mayberry is also one of your only options to spell Ryan Howard at 1B.Which brings me to...

• Ross Gload hits the DL: This is a solution that saves everyone's job. Gload has been limited as of late due to a tear in his right hip which is manageable, but will likely require surgery in the offseason. Chase Utley played through a similar injury... but he's Chase Utley. They do not need Gload to play through an injury like this and quite frankly, his doing so takes a spot away from a player who could probably do more to help the team. He's said in interviews that the pain won't land him on the DL, but it probably should. Give him a few weeks off, maybe the hip feels a little better, and he's useful around the AS Break.

• Mike Zagurski: The Phillies currently carry 3 LHP on the active roster which is a little strange. My best guess is that Zagurski was called up temporarily for the last series and will be sent down shortly anyway. But it's doubtful that the Phillies go with only 11 pitchers right now so the Zagurski spot will be filled by a guy like Scott Mathieson once again. 

• Michael Martinez: This is the solution that makes the most sense to me. He's a Rule5 guy and in order to get rid of him, the Phillies would have to offer him back to the Nationals. But the Nationals have a pretty crowded outfield of their own and there's still a chance they wouldn't be interested in him. Martinez's only saving grace is that he's capable of playing the infield as well as the outfield. But quite frankly, I think Charlie can manage resting players just fine with one utility infielder in Valdez, and by plugging guys like Gload and Mayberry on the corners. If you bounced a ping pong ball around a SEPTA bus, chances are you would hit a guy with the kind of skills of Michael Martinez. Zero power and zero speed aren't good attributes to mix with a down offense. 

Phils End 20 in 20 With a Fizzle

I said 2+ weeks ago that a 12-8 run over the 20 games in 20 days stretch would be considered a success. I'm here today to say that 10-10 still isn't a failure. It's .500, and more than half of those games were on the road. They have 10 days of Sub-.500 opponents and then a day off at home before the Marlins come to town. Let's look at a little good and bad right now status report right now...

The Bad:

• Cliff Lee does not look good. Lee earned massive recognition last season as a guy who didn't walk anyone. This year, he's regressed back to the norm. Not to say that his numbers are terrible, but 10.28 K/BB and 4.71 K/BB are completely different numbers. His K/9 rate is a career best which leads me to believe he's just doing a little too much of the work himself. When you try to strike batter out, you occasionally let one slip. And if you're walking guys more than usual, the one that slips can really do some damage. I expect a better second 3rd from Lee, but don't look for 2008 this year.

• The bench and bullpen are too much of a revolving door. Mostly due to injury, but partially due to the juggling match that Charlie likes to play, the bullpen and bench just don't seem to have very defined roles just yet. Is RF a true platoon? Who's the first lefty off the bench? Who's the first lefty out of the pen? It's all just a bit confusing right now. Ballplayers are creatures of habit. Ryan Madson finally looks comfortable as a closer, and here comes Jose Contreras back to the team with Brad Lidge pitching scoreless innings of extended spring training. We need to know by the All-Star Break just where people fall in line.  

The Good:

• Raul Ibanez can still hit a baseball. Since May 12th, Ibanez's BA has gone up 14 points and more importantly, his OPS has risen 79 points. He's a streaky hitter and these kinds of ups and downs can be expected, but for the start of May, Ibanez looked more helpless at the plate than he ever has in his career. It's a long summer and regardless of whether or not the Phillies trade for a little more outfield pop or platoon Ibanez with Francisco and Mayberry a little more when Victorino gets back, Raul will have some important ABs with this team down the stretch.

• Domonic Brown has 4 multi-hit games since being called up. How many did he have last year? Three. He already has more doubles than he did last season and he's hitting the ball hard when he does get out. He's not missing the ball at nearly the same rate as he did last year and during the spring, and in the NL, there aren't a whole lot of rookies lighting the world on fire. Freddie Freeman looks over-matched and Brandon Belt has been up and down. As a fan of the hardware, I would really like to see Domonic Brown make a run at the ROY award. I think it's only another week or two before Brown rises to the top of the class and gets full time starts against lefties and righties alike.

Dom Brown Returns... And Other Links

 

• Domonic Brown gets the call up for tonight's game versus the Texas Rangers with Shane Victorino hitting the DL. So much for the constant "Dom Brown isn't ready!" hyperbole we've heard coming out of the Phillies camp. Scott Mathieson was optioned to AAA Leigh Valley and David Herndon was recalled (likely just because Mathieson pitched last night and wouldn't be available tonight anyway). Still no decision on whether Blanton will be sent to the DL. Obviously the Brown move is the most surprising considering the double talk coming from Ruben Amaro Jr. but I suspect that Charlie convinced him that giving the offense a jolt right now is more important than getting Brown a handful of ABs in the minors. Brown was raking the ball at Lehigh Valley much the same way he had been last year before he was called up. His hand and thumb injuries are supposedly behind him and he brings a .341 BA with 2HRs and 10RBI up from Lehigh. Victorino's DL stint can only be retroactive to Thursday since Charlie used him as a pinch hitter on Wednesday night (Charlie's use of pinch hitters as of late is another topic for another day!) Welcome back Dom!

• Where's Weems? has resorted to posting a Craigslist advertisement soliciting a new Phillies offense. It's no stranger than Phillies Nation putting the offense on a Milk Container! I haven't given much attention to the total lack of Phillies offense the past week or so because I'm confident that things will turn around. Last year was an ugly year for injuries, but this year is proving to be even worse. With pitching locked down, you have to assume Ruben will use the ace up his sleeve this year for some offensive help. Chase Utley and Dom Brown are right around the corner too!

• Interleague play kicks off tonight. The Phillies get a nice matchup with Texas, the defending AL Champs. Cliff Lee will get a crack at his old team on Saturday, and Roy Halladay goes tonight. But Interleague play has always been something that divided baseball fans. And while most people gripe about pitchers hitting and the NL using the DH, Jayson Stark points out the scheduling disparity as the biggest flaw in Interleague Baseball. While it's nice to get the big time matchups every years with the Red Sox or the Yankees, it sure would be nice to beat up on the Orioles and the Royals every now and then and get a few easy W's during this stretch. The Mariners and the Padres have a 3 game snoozefest for the 15th season in a row. And the Cubs play the top teams in the AL East while the Cardinals play the bottom 3. Seems fair, right?

• I haven't decided yet if the above video is hilarious or disrespectful. But I'm leaning towards hilarious. I'm highly suspicious of the statement that Jason Voorhees and Optimus Prime could not take Lou Gehrig in a fight.

Hump Day Phillies Thoughts

• I was a believer at first and if I were to scroll back through the archives, I'm sure I  said more than once that Ben Francisco would be just fine in RF for the Phillies. Well, I was wrong. It doesn't happen often, but when it does I'm usually very wrong. This is one of those cases. The power swing that we saw in Spring Training has resulted in a ton of long fly balls so far this season. His line drive rate just isn't high enough to sustain any sort of success as an every day player. Fortunately, Domonic Brown seems just about ready to go. So long as Brown puts the ball in play and improves his OBP from last year, the upgrade is more than marginal. In fact, if Brown plays exactly as he did last year, he's essentially the same as Francisco and John Mayberry Jr anyway. The power may not manifest itself right away (as is usually the case with a broken hamate bone), but Brown's .300 AVG potential, stolen base threat, and defensive prowess in RF should compensate for any shortcomings he has. I'm thinking that Brown is a 5 day a week player by mid June. 

•  General Soreness himself, Chase Utley has been enjoying the Florida sun the past week or so with some extended Spring Training work and his first minor league assignment with Clearwater yesterday. A lot of people pointed to his 5 for 7 performance with 2 HRs as a great sign in his first game, but I'm focusing in on the fact that he hit an infield single. It sounds to me like the wheels are working. moving left and right might prove to be the biggest challenge, but it certainly seems like Utley has been easing himself into a full workload while trying to maintain the basics. Still, I can't help but wonder if Joe Blanton would have gotten so lucky with 4 double play balls the other night had Utley been turning them over instead of Pete Orr. Sounds like most of the beat writers are expecting an Utley return for the two game series against Colorado starting on the 18th, which means we could possibly be seeing the end of the Pete Orr/Wilson Valdez offensive disaster at 2B. Utley started in Cleawater yesterday, but not today so don't expect to see 6 games a week of Utley when he first returns, but anything from 26 would be nice!

• I read an article this morning from The Talented Mr. Roto that said to take the under on 50 combined HRs from Ryan Howard, Jimmy Rollins, and Utley. So I did a little research... Howard's 8 HRs right now put him on pace for about 37 for the season. Probably not enough to win a HR title, but certainly nothing to turn your nose up at. But looking at his career numbers through 35 games, here's his yearly totals: 
• 2006 - 10 (52 total)
• 2007 - 9 (47 total)
• 2008 - 6 (48 total)
• 2009 - 8 (45 total)
• 2010 - 6 (31 total)

I don't see how 40 HRs isn't a given. His .274 BA is about his career average at this point and his RBI numbers project him right up into the 150 range he usually is. There is nothing to be concerned with here. Rollins and Utley will contribute another 25-30 between them making 50 HRs a mark easily attainable before the end of August.

• The injury bug is back this year, but the team has kept trucking along. Considering that your All Star 2nd baseman and Closer haven't played a game, your expert game caller hasn't been behind the plate in 2 weeks, your #3 and #5 pitchers have missed starts due to injury, and your backup closer hit the DL as well, you'd think there would be a little more panic in the air. But 23-12 is tops in the NL and 2nd best in baseball. The Phils enter tonight with a good chance to take 2 out of 3 from the team chasing them in the standings and finish out their month with what I would call their toughest stretch of the season with series against Atlanta, St Louis, Colorado, Texas, Cincinnati, and 2 division opponents in a 20 games in 20 days marathon. The first five opponents site right now with a record of 99-66 and a winning percentage of exactly .600. This is the first true test of the season and coming out with a 12-8 record would have to be considered a success.... But the stars are all aligning for this stretch with Utley, Carlos Ruiz, Roy Oswalt, Blanton, and Brown all likely to see some action. It's certainly shaping up to be an exciting end to the spring. By Memorial Day Weekend, we should know exactly what this team is made of!

The Worley-Bird!

Get it? Because those things on your roof are called whirleybirds and Vance Worley pitched for the Phillies last night? Yeah, I agree... not as funny as it first sounded in my head.

But Vance Worley did get the job done last night and that's what really matters. In fact, he was riding a 21 inning scoreless streak until a few borderline ball/strike calls let him to give up a run. Not a bad start for a career, but I wouldn't get used to it. The fact remains that while Vance Worley is looking like a stud right now, the minute Joe Blanton is healthy, Worley will be back down in the minors. He's 23 years old with plenty of time left to develop and the best opportunity for regular action will be in the minors. With 3 or our 4 starters throwing complete games pretty much whenever they feel like it, some of our bullpen arms are already under-worked. Kyle Kendrick only pitches once a week and Dany Baez has thankfully been left to ride the pine pretty often. Worley will continue to be your #1 "In Case of Emergency, Call Reading" guy for the better part of the season.

Also, in case you hadn't noticed, Raul did exactly what I said he would... fail at becoming the world worst slumper. Naturally, that's a good thing for the Phillies and it's nice to see some semblance of power from the $12M man in left field. It also gives Ruben and Charlie some piece of mind knowing that they can let Domonic Brown get daily at bats in the minors for a few more weeks before pressing the panic button.