Phillies Nation

My grade is a big fat juicy turd. I just wish for once we would have made the big move and signed the big player to put a real emphasis on our team statement that we make to everyone in our division and MLB. The statement that says, “Yes we won the world series, yes the best just got better, and yes we will be taking our title back again this year…” Maybe I am just jelous of the big deals that the Yankees, Mets, and Dodgers can do. But then again, maybe I am not… because we proved you can still choke even when the roster and payroll says you can’t.

I have to agree with Mark, I see this more as a mid term for the winter offseason, only halfway done.

Wouldn’t the grade change if they signed Derek Lowe or Ben Sheets?

And I don’t think we needed to make the big moves, I think we are saying, we kept our core players, we upgraded our weak spots, you have to play better than us!

It’s a pretest?

Here’s my thing..

I think that Amaro is doing a good job with the money he has to work with, but I am still baffled by this team’s ownership..

They must have made tons of money last year, having the fourth highest attendance (I think), plus the extra playoff games.

Also, their merchandise from the playoffs must have made them millions.

This season, I would be shocked if 95 percent of the games were not sold out at CBP..

So why, I ask you, why, are we still being thrifty with our money?
I understand the owners not spending money in the late 90′s when no one came to the Vet, and no one really cared, but why not now?

Yeah it’s a tough economic climate, but the Phillies organization is making ridiculous amounts of money from this championship.

The Phillies have surpassed the Eagles for the moment, so don’t they want it to continue?

It smells like greed to me… Anybody have any thoughts? Tim?

There is no doubt about it, the Owners have money to spend but don’t want to spend it. I agree that adding big name guys does not always make you a better team or guarentee anything but I think that is only true to a point. I think adding big bats doesn’t do as much for you but adding a top flight ace or a solid two makes all the difference in the world. I know people say, well a pitcher only effects maybe 30 games a year based on 30 starts but that is totally untrue. If a guy pitches a gem, like 8 innings and you need just one inning from your pen then your bullpen is in good shape for the next day, or next two days. If your starter gets hammered and goes 2 innings now your pen has to come in for 7 innings and you are totally mauled for the next day or two, so now, you haven’t just effected one game, you have effected two or three.

One quality starter can make all the difference. Look at what Sabathia did for the Brewers or what Tim Lincecum did for the Giants. San Fran is terrible but he kept them in the game every single time he went out there.

where’s number 100?

Thats basically right..C+/B-. Park will rep[lace Rudy Seanez, thats an upgrade if Park performs well..So add a third of a letter grade there. I prefer Ibanez over Burrell because Ibanez is the type of hitter they needed, so add a third letter grade there..If a C is staying neutral, then they get a C+/B- basically….

I would prefer them to have traded for a starting pticher, but the trade market for pitching simply has not developed so they got antsy and resigned Moyer..the free agent pitchers, though way overpriced, ridiculously so, are taking WAY too long to sign because theyre all waiting for Derek Lowe. A trade market for starting pitching, maybe even offers for Brett Myers, wont start coming until Lowe signs and maybe a few others sign. Boras, again, with the Lowe fiasco, has screwed up the entire flow of the offseason. Once the top 2 pitchers signed the market is supposed to fall into place within a few days from there…but lowe is taking forever to sign somewhere…

I would still expect Amaro to explore the trade market for starting pitching…he has pieces to move because I doubt theyre going to resign brett myers because that money is reserved for cole hamels and maybe werth and victorino. maybe even madson. So if they wont resign him then I doubt that Amaro will keep him past the trade deadline and risk not getting type A status compensation for him. I think they will reach out to blanton and resign him if he pitches well at a reasonable price during the season…i dotn think itll be too hard to keep him if they want to.

the issue is theres no money for myers if you analyze what theyre doing…so why not try and see what they can get? theyd have to demand a rotation-ready starter in return though, which teams kind of dont have to spare yet..

I give him a C, because I don’t think he’s improved nor worsened the team. If he is able to get rid of Eaton without eating the entire contract that will get him bonus points. Also, I bet he trades Stairs and gets a righthanded bat, at least I hope he does, and that will also give him bonus points.

I’m giving the owners a grade of “Under my desk, swinging on the d*ck trouble”.

Theyd better as hell not be done though….the minimum I expect is another arm for the bullpen…I dont have any problem with the things they did…but now is the time to move some pieces around the board and try tp upgrade the rotation. they committed to a back end of Blanton – Moyer – Happ, now they need to decide if theyre going to keep brett myers…if they arent resigning him then move him for some good younger, cheaper players. if one of them isnt rotation ready then you move for a stable option via trade or free agency (garland). no, not derek lowe. they vlearly backed out of lowe because nothing abotu lowe has been linked to the phillies in like a week.

Groty- here is the reason for the Paulino trade. It immediately impacts the present and future. Coste wore down last year and is probably done here. They need a MLB ready backup catcher who can endure the season longer than Coste did last year. And it also allows Marson to start a full season at Triple A so he doesn’t sit on our bench and retard his progress. I think this is a shrewd move.

I really like the Ibanez move: http://www.philly.com/dailynews/columnists/bill_conlin/20081217_Bill_Conlin__Ibanez_may_fit_perfectly_for_Phillies_in_leftfield.html

Conlin does a solid job writing about even though the Phils lineup is top heavy with LH, Ibanez has a great track record against LHP and there is a lack of depth of All-star caliber LH starters outside of Hamels, Santana, Moyer and Wolf (based on 2007 win totals).

I would love to see Lowe sign here. But I also understand the financial prudence of not overpaying for him. While you guys want the Phils to make a “big” splash, huge FA pitchers have notoriously been huge disappointments in the past decade. And I love the fact that we have three solid almost ready/are ready prospects and here is why. Pitchers like Lowe, CC, Sheets, et al have numerous scouting reports on them and how to beat them. But there is less information on our rookies and they can be brought up for half a season or a spot start or two. I call it the Dontrell Willis effect. Instead of trading prospects for an established and expensive pitcher, the Marlins simply brought him up and he pitched them into the WS.

The Phils did this with Happ in September. They needed one start out of him. Kendrick’s confidence was in the dumpster because teams had a scouting report on him since he came up in 2007. The Phils can afford to keep the status quo because of the minor leaguers who can be effective in the #5 role. Lowe would be nice but we don’t lose anything from last year’s rotation if we don’t sign him. And we all know we won a WS with that rotation!

This off-season will be truely graded in several months time once we’ve seen the effects of this off-season. The success o the season relies on a return to form from Ryan Howard, the impact Jimmy Rollins, Brett Myers to be an effective frontline starter, Ryan Madson to be the elite set-up guy he finished the year as. The moves made this off-season were underwhelming but with confidence in the guys already on this roster sustaining or reclaiming their top level of performance.

It would have been nice to add a Lowe or a Holliday but there is more than enough talent on this roster and in the system to win, we’ve added character guys an secondary pieces with upside and I’ll give a C, that said I’m throw out the phrase sometimes inactivity in the off-season is the best move. When looking at the Mets and Yankees remember they lost a lot of players this off-season, the Phillies roster is completely in tact.

I give them an F for not signing CC, K-Rod and Manny !!

Burrell needed to move on, hopefully he can find an AL team to join and be their DH, same path as Thome. His fielding is subpar but his bat still has some heat, and if he can keep dinging homeruns, maybe he’ll have a shot at 500 and the Hall before he retires. Ibanez’s numbers seem fine, and I look forward to having more of a line drive hitter in the lineup, too many of our guys swing for the fence when they should just be trying to get on base (JRoll, I’m looking at you).

Park is a bit of a gamble, but it’s not an overly expensive one, and if his production gives us another Durbin type RP, that would be great. The Phils overused Chad last season and he was out of gas by the time the playoffs rolled around. If Park’s usage can balance out the load, that would make him more then worth it.

There’s only so many choices out in the market, and regardless of their increased budget, there are several large payouts looming. I’m much more concerned about locking down Hamels with a long term deal then inking another big name to the roster.

I’ll give em a B- so far for the offseason. Nothing at this point has been overtly bad, and Ibanez and Park have potential but with some performance risk.

Its more of a halftime offseason grade kind of…ill wait until spring training to give a final stamp on amaros first endeavor into player personnel moves, but so far its like neutral or slightly improved if you factor in all players. paulino could find himself again though and make it very tough for lou marson to get called up, i mean he used to be able to hit….

kendrick is gone, probably before spring training, and the same with coste. travis darnaud is rising to the 4th spot in the organization, now occupied by coste…kendrick/stairs (gone)/coste are the odd guys out here, theyll all be traded or DFA, but two of them could and should be packages (good idea) for some sort of young relief pitching…only myers can get you young starting pithching i think, and even then youd need to send him to a team that has too much pitching or can afford to sign more (thats liek 5 teams)…so you can move him, probably without a lot of trouble, but the options are limited…

^to chime in on the Paulino move it was a very solid one by Amaro. Paulino is virtually the same age as Jaramillo who looked to have reached his ceiling as a defensive catcher with a below average bat at the major league level whereas Paulino has untapped talent at the plate.

Ruiz is the starter and Marson the heir apparent, Coste is still the back-up and Paulino adds a guy who can compete for that job and at the very least add a back-stop with major league experience to the AAA team. Paulino was a no risk addition with a lot of upside and I would like to see Amaro address the AAA more aggressively which was allowed to regress. We need to try and add a higher level of guys with major league experience onto the AAA and make it a productive stop for the prospects so they don’t have to make the jump straight from AA.

The problem with the AAA team has been is an increase in career minor leaguers and a lack of prospects coming up young at a time many teams around the league are very agressive with minor-league deals for guys with major league experience and consider AAA a productive environment for high celing prospects. The Phillies haven’t had that since a couple of years before the AAA team left Wilkes-Barre.

I think that Coste hit a bit of a wall last year… actually, for a guy that has made a name for himself being a clutch hitter, his September/October splits are not very good. His numbers have been declining over the past three seasons. We all like Coste but Paulino is an upgrade. I thought that there was more to it but maybe we’re just insuring ourselves against injury (not ready to throw Marson in everyday). In any case, something has got to give… we’re not gonna keep three catchers on the team, are we? By the way… Paulino kills lefties. In 1/3 as many at bats against lefties, he has almost as many HR (as he does against righties) and batted .355.

Chuck, why were Paulino’s numbers so down last year? Was he hurt? He had a few decent years under his belt. I didn’t realize he batted .300 before.

I’ll give them a D so far.

Ibanez is a slight step down from Burrell

Moyer is not going to be as good as he was last year

Although I like the Chan Ho Park signing, he’s going to have a hard time matching Seanez’s numbers from last year.

It’s hard to believe that the Phillies have spent around $47 million this offseason without getting better.

How is Ibanez a slight step down from Burrell outside of HRs?

And the Phils will not keep three catchers on the ML roster. Marson will be the full time C at AAA so he can keep developing. His development stops if he is sitting on our bench. Sure he can learn by watching but he isn’t a backup QB. He needs to play everyday so we can assess his worth.

Burrell gets on base more and hits for more power than Ibanez. Burrell hits lefties much, much better and is a better fit for this lineup. They are both awful defensive players and Ibanez is very slow (although not as slow as Pat). Ibanez is also 5 years older and can be expected to decline quickly.
That’s why Ibanez is a slight step down from Burrell.

Thanks on Paulino guys.

Nice righty bat on the bench with decent power against lefties. This is the type of little deal that really helps build a winning club.

give them a B- for now, but I think that grade will prove higher once the season starts. Amaro’s moves have been very similar to Gillick’s moves. Are the big names coming to Philly? No, but Amaro hasn’t spent a ton of dough and has filled our holes nicely. Would have loved to see Lowe on his way, but I’ll hold out hope for Park instead

So when they are both standing on the base paths… Ibanez is more likely to have hit a single that drove in a run… Burrell is more likely to have gotten walked

which is good..

Doesn’t it bother you that Burrell hits only .255 over the past 3 years and gets paid $14 M… if we know they wont increase the payroll past whatever dollar amount, don’t you want to see them spend it more wisely, or more productive players?

Burrell gets paid to drive in runs, instead, he walks…and then they replace him with Bruntlett … how does that performance help the team?

Walks are good for a 1 or 2 hitter not a 5 hitter. I always hated the fact that Bobby Abreau would look for a walk in the 9th inning with a runner on second. 3-4-5 need to hit the ball. What will be interesting to me is just how many dingers Ibanez will hit in CBP. Despite the DH Safco was much harder to hit a homer than CBP. Ibanez should easily hit 25 here. At 4 million less per I’d take Ibanez over Pat.