i looooooooooove Vic, but he and a “prospect” for an upgraded pitcher, and a CHANCE to compete for the world series now. done. remember, the Phillies think we have good prosects, no one else does, e.g., according to Baseball America in the winter, Carrasco was the #56 prospect in the minors. that’s not great.

Howard’s gonna get better, but if we can get the right taker, trade him for 2-3 prospect, young Pros, and our window of opportunity gets longer. see the Oakland A’s, or the Florida Marlins 2nd World Series team…

Sincerely,

Don M -the GM- wannabee

The latest trend in baseball is to stockpile your young talent, trade away your aging verterans for more young talent, and then re-sign all the young guys you can to buy-out their arbitration years and first few years of free agency… ala Hanley Ramirez, Ryan Braun, Carmona with the Tribe, etc.. Im sure teams that signed Carlos Beltran, Carlos Lee, and Alfonso Soriano.. are kicking themselves about making three of the biggest contracts in sports history on guys that are All-Stars, but probably not Hall-of-Fame type players.

Its a tough road to walk because on one hand.. you never know what a prospect is going to turn into… Gavin Floyd… comes to mind. So if you can get a legit MLB player for a prospect you might do it. Its a risk, but you might just do it. But you wouldn’t trade the #1 prospect in your already weak organization for a guy that is a .500 pithcer. It just doesn’t make sense. Pitching is thin all across the MLB…everyone wants it… but the Phillies will have a few “top prospects” coming up in the next year or two… they might be great… they might be Brett Myers Jr.. you just dont know

“… remember most Philadelphians are negative by association. We thrive on being negative because all we know is failure…”.

That’s an assumption on your part in accepting a stereotype image of “Philadelphians” as being incessantly negative. When the Phillies attracts 3 million fans at CBP during a season of struggles last year, that speaks volume of the support the team received.

I’m amused at such faint praise with words “give him a free pass” from a few posters here when a player helped the Phillies win a game. It seems that some “critics” here have great reluctance to be gracious and give credit when due. ;-)

And Don, remember most Philadelphians are negative by association. We thrive on being negative because all we know is failure. For you – take it with a grain of salt and keep being optimistic. I think it’s great we have people from all across the spectrum throwing their ideas and thoughts in the pot.

the phillies shouldnt have to scramble to bolster their lineup and stabilize their rotation in MAY. when you have to do that it means that the GM failed in the offseason. obviusly lidge has been a good move, but they didnt follow it up with strong moves. Feliz? Jenkins? overpaid free agent slop. fill in guys for a year or two tops. they better not be here after that.

face it, this team is a fraud right now to an extent because of this pithcing staff. when you get shut out twice by tim redding, then the lineup is a bit of a fraud too. this farm system needs to be good enough to support moves when you need them. it isnt. however, the core of this team IS capable of winning the world series provided the rotation is SIGNIFICANTLY bolstered and the lineup is improved as well. i cant ever remember shane being a patient enough hitter to my liking which makes him valuable trade bait. im sorry, but theyre really tempting fate with moyer. time to retire, pal. but he knows they have noone to replace him so he keeps going out there. also, i dont want to give up carrasco for blanton. i think they have to do whatever it takes to keep him unless youre somehow miraculously getting a 25 year old ace in return.

theyre going to have to make sacrifices if they want to get the pitching it takes to WIN. this is a go for it year. no excuses, no more waiting, i want a championship NOW. now is their time. howard 28, utley 29, rollins 28/9, burrell 31. there arent many more years left to built towards. its now, maybe next year, maybe the year after but tahts it UNLESS you make a committment to winning by going out and doing whatever it takes to get the players it takes to get it done.

Tim, I agree with 99% of what you say, and Mike I honestly haven’t read your opinion on enough things on here to knock your opinions either.

But don’t you guys get tired of people saying how bad this team is?? when they are a winning team right now and just won last night!… no it wasn’t pretty, but a win is a win… In my opinion they are better this year than they were last year, and if they can get production from Howard and Myers, they’ll be tough to beat!

We’re basically talking baseball here, negative and positive. Truth is, the Phils aren’t a top-class team yet and won’t be unless they improve now, since they have the foundation to win.

So far this year: Howard blows (but you can get a #1 SP and a top prospect for him anyway), Myers blows harder… Gillick is the worst GM in baseball, our bench is terrible, Lidge is a GOD, Golson could come up tomrw and win the MVP, Victorino and Carrasco should be traded for pitchers with .500 records and 4+ ERAs, Burrell should be moved up to 3rd in the lineup because his average is slipping?? or Rollins should hit 4th… Jamie Moyer is the worst pitcher in baseball… we can package anyone we want and get an ACE in return.. there are plenty of “#2″ pitchers out there that we can get for next to nothing…

What am I forgetting???

You guys are nuts… if you hate the Phillies so much, and “WE ARE NOT A GOOD TEAM”…. “WE DEFINTELY WON’T WIN ANYTHING THIS YEAR”… why are you guys even watching anymore?? The Red Sox or somebody else are probably playing tonight too, go start rooting for them instead! Real Phillies fans don’t want to hear your negativity all season long.

They know what Howard gives them…which is why they haven’t and won’t sign him to huge deal. He passed up on an Utley-type contract, and now he’s probably kicking himself for it… Jenkis has barely played because Werth is playing so well… Feliz already has a couple of game-winning RBIs this year, and palys a solid third base… but you must be one of those guys that bitch about anyone other than A-Rod or David Wright… Pedro Feliz was the best of the 3rd basemen, we needed help there, so we got him…

If you have terrible overall starting pitching, which the phillies do, i mean terrible, you need insane offensive production to have a shot at being more than a fraud in the playoffs. theyre not getting that right now, FURTHERMORE, they got SHUT DOWN in the playoffs last year by a pitching staff that was mediocre at best! what happens when they meet brandon webb and dan haren in the playoffs? and after a legendary pitching duel between webb and hamels in game 1 game two is a blowout because brett myers or jamie moyer get shelled and dan haren pitches a shutout or lets up one run. you NEED another lockdown guy to go against a dan haren in game 2.

now, joe blanton is meant to stabilize the rotation until they can make a move for someone even better than him. ideally, he goes third. hes relatively cheap, eats innings (along with other things) and is under contract for 2 more years. he is better than adam eaton and he has performed better than myers this year. its a no brainer to go and improve your staff if all you have to give up is shane and maybe a prospect.

you all keep waiting for these hitters to come around and excusing their poor performances. no, tahts not good enough to win a world series. i need pitching and patient contact hitting. this team is all or nothing right now and they dont have the pitching to support that habit.

ill even go farther and say that blanton in this rotation still isnt enough. you still need a number two to in the world series. aj burnett, dan cabrera, whatever. i dont care how much money they make or what it takes to get them here aside from the untouchables of which howard is no longer part. they act like howard is so special, honestly whats so different about him than other power hitters who have flamed out or come back down to earth? whats so different about him? because he had more home runs before crashing back down to earth? there are dozens of guys like this throughout baseball history.

this team needs stable, reliable contact hitting and outstanding pitching to win the world series. i want to see players in here that can do that. you keep a few power guys around, but id trade power for average ANY DAY OF THE WEEK.