Phillies Nation

Who, in your opinion,is the one player we cant do without?and why..

I’ll buy into some of the rumors.

Hamels/Lowe/Moyer/Blantan/Happ

We pick up a LF for Myers in this rotation.

I think Zito would be a solid pick up if we could get off the hook for at least half the salary. The Giants would be happy to rid themselves of him, and it would free up some cash for a potential CC bid. I think all Zito needs is a change of scenery.

As for the rotation: Hamels/Myers/Blanton/Zito/Happ.

I don’t think Lowe is far feteched if they deal Myers. The Phils could go as high as 15 per and get a LF for 11 or 12 and call it a wash(not counting the arbitration salary increases which is a given).

Myers(12)+Burell(14)=26, Lowe(15)+LF(11/12)

Hamels, Myers, Blanton, cheap low level pitcher that is signed after all other teams have got there guy, like a jenkins felix type, happ. And why in the world would any team want Zito how in the world can you bring up him, its like someone wanting eaton.

Hamels/Lowe/Moyer/Blanton/Happ

That’s right folks. I loved what Myers did this second half of the season. Unfortunately, I think his second half made him trade bait. We need a LF and I’m not convinced we can land a good one in the open market. Especially if we sign Lowe and Moyer.

Hamels is obvious for number 1. Lowe is a quality number 2 or 3. I know some are wary and CB isn’t exactly the pitchers park that Dodger’s Stadium is. But I highly doubt Lowe is going to go Adam Eaton on us. I still like Moyer at number 3 but I definately see the case for starting him in the 4 spot as well. Blanton turned it on at the right time this season, when he came to the Phillies. He eats those innings and that’s a plus for a number 4. Yes, I want Happ in the number 5 slot. I think it’s very likely Kendrick and Carrasco will make starts for the major leauge club next season, but Happ has been there, he’s worked for it, and I believe he has the confidence. Having said that, I’m willing to see what Kendrick and Carrasco got for us in spring training.

3/45 isn’t going to get it done for Lowe unless the market collapses on him. I think Burrell is a feasible target considering teams view him as a short term budget guy with the market really hitting the 2nd tier guys, we surely will be able to match an offer but I wonder if he feels to betrayed.

Where do we deal Myers? I don’t see anyone willing to meet a Freddy Garcia level deal which is what we’d want considering his issues and contract situation. I don’t see any teams desperate enough right now to pony up that kind of a deal for him in this economy.

Hamels / Myers / Blanton / Moyers / Happ

It was good enough to win the World Series in ’08 and should be good enough to give us a good shot again in ’09.

Not so enthused about garland…seems like a number 4 starter on a bad national league team, but the phillies are a good national league team, so:

hamels/lowe/myers/blanton/happ

if they want to move myers (to DET for armando gallaraga & matt joyce):

hamels/lowe/blanton/happ/gallaraga

or if myers stays and they cant sign lowe:

hamels/myers//blanton/happ/penny

Geoff, I assume if the Phillies made that trade with the tigers would the Phillies try to move Jenkins? I don’t see a need for two left handed LFs that cant hit lefties. or would you keep Jenkins as insurance for Werth against righties?

Love that trade Geoff, I’ll top it and say we let Moyer leave and don’t sign Lowe and trade Jenkins to Tampa for Scott Shields, Evan Longoria and Willy Aybar and Jason Donald to the Dodgers for Bronxton and Kemp. Lastly I’ll also send Eric Bruntlett and Pat Overholt to the Yankees for A-Rod and swap the Phanatic for Buggs Bunny, Tweety Bird and Bill Murray… I suggest we also put all umpires on the payroll for home games and solve the global economic crisis with one big hug.

well alright then

I want to address the Eaton for Zito talk. I know it is fictitious, but I’ll bite. I am for the trade. Why? HOW could it be worse? One for one, see if the change of scenery helps either of them… I mean, does it even matter? One team may be lucky – hopefully it is us. I would like to see Eaton start a game in 2009 to see where he is – a game that may not matter, of course…

Ok a few other things in response to what I have read. My starting rotation: Hamels/Myers or Lowe/Lowe or Moyer/Blanton/Kendrick or Happ (we shall have to see). I have to leave some flexibility because I would set it differently depending on whom we keep or acquire. If we keep Moyer and Myers and get Lowe, then it would be: Hamels/Myers/Lowe/Moyer/Blanton, with Happ or Kendrick as my DL starters.

I still fail to see why we need starters though. I would rather sink my money into the talent we have. Lock up Werth, Vic, Howard (yes), Madsen (I know about Boras), RUIZ, etc. for a while and pay THEM. I know Ruiz had a slow bat year, but who cares, he can catch! We do not need big names right now; we need to retain these guys for 5 years. Burrell will get other offers and unless he wants to give us his discount then I cannot see him here.

Therefore, in 2009, platoon Jenkins and Stairs in LF (Bruntlett later), Vic in CF and Werth in RF. Platoon Dobbs and Feliz at 3B, Rollins at SS, Bruntlett at 2B for the first two months and then Utley (duh) Howard at 1B. These 25 got us to the World Series.

I agree with Mike – this may be Myers last season here, start him opening day. If for nothing else just a respect to him. Hamels is our ace though and we all know that. I still think w should keep Myers if he has a good year though. I am not for shopping him.

Eaton is owed $8.5 million (plus a $500,000 buyout)

Zito is owed $94.5 million (plus a $7 million dollar buyout)

Let us never discuss Barry Zito ever again.

well, in Zito’s contract, he gets a free suite for all road games, so maybe someone just wanted some free tickets!

Garland and Byrd will not be high contract and you will be pitted against the likes of pittsburg or kc and they are not places pitcher want to go to, this is the phillies way to wait and sign easier players who command less.

I don’t think baseball needs a salary cap.

I mean, in the same time span that NBA’s had their cap, baseball has had twice as many different teams win.

lets just say the bay area miracle happens and CC gets home sick and goes home to san fran trade madson/jenkins for cain and have Hamels/myers/cain/blaton/happ let burrell and moyer go and spend the money on left field and locking up some players

It would take a lot more than an arbitration eligible Ryan Madson (one year before becoming a free agent) and washed up Geoff Jenkins to get Cain.
They would ask for Howard for Cain.

it will take so much more than carrasco + to get peavy….

it would take like: carrasco, madson, carson, and werth or victorino

seriuosly, forget about it….plus watch out for san diegos pitchers because of petco park…im not sure peavy is really all-world, his road numbers arent the greatest…this season…he was 5-6 on the road with an era over 4….thats really not special…im not so sure hes really even better than cole. actually, hes not better than cole. ill pass on jake peavy..too costly and potentially, key word, overrated.

if the giants sign sabathia you might be able to pry matt cain or jonathan sanchez from them. but it will still be very expensive to get cain..i threw the myers tigers thing otu there just to instigate argument..,..anyways, ill stick with wanting to see them get lowe.

to the guy who said they dont need starters…really? i mean, theres almost no way they go through the season again with their top starters healthy ALL YEAR like they did last season. thats so rare…tahts why you need to trade for or sign at least one additional guy to add depth…depth and avoiding injury are the keys to a great starting rotation

Hamels, Myers, Blanton, Happ, Carrasco

And that is what I WANT to see.

I am tired of waiting. We got the World Series. Let’s see what Carrasco’s got next year.

I want to see the money spent in the bullpen actually. I am not a Clay Conrey believer. Chard Durbin makes me nervous, and I do not want a Rudy Seanez type. Give me a legit long arm.

Sign me a Beimel and an Odalis Perez/Brad Penny risk reward and start them long in the pen, and moved into the rotation of Happ or Carrasco falters.

With the left over cash, give me Mark Loretta or Tadahito Iguchi.

And make a surprise run at Adam Dunn.

That’s what I want.

I would be happy with Raul Ibanez too.

I’d also like to see extensions for Cole, Madson, Werth, and Shane.

Not Ryan though, not considering he’d prolly wants a 8 year, 160 million dollar deal.

Thanks but no thanks.

So to re-answer the question:

Cole, Myers, Blanton, Happ, Carrasco.

and if it works out like most people thinks it will.

It will be Cole, Carrasco, Myers, Blanton, Happ in reality.

I want to see Carrasco– and I think he can be a Johnny Cueto. At least. And we’d take that name in a second.

Hamels-Myers-Blanton-Happ-Carrasco

I’d like to see the Phillies save their money rather than put it into a contract for a top-tier FA SP like Derek Lowe or A.J. Burnett. If we had more salary room, I would love to see Lowe in Citizen’s Bank Park. But, I’d rather secure Rocco Baldelli, Nick Punto, Juan Cruz and Chad Cordero. Kendrick can compete with Carrasco for the 5th spot. In my heart, I would like Moyer to come back, but there is a definite time to think about the future.

The more I read about Lowe the more I doubt hell come here. Boras is simply too good to allowe Ruben Amaro to rush a 3-4 year team-friendly contract on Lowe. Boras is the master of waiting and bringing new teams into the mix and driving up the price. Boras is bluffing when he asked for 5 years 90mm for Lowe, but knowing boras i could see him get 4 years 75-80mm. that means forget about it…too much of a committment for a 34 year old who has never broken down, which means he does for an injury-plagued season or two. if he could be solid and make every start then yeah, but there is some sort of lingering doubt i have about lowe…dunno why…the longer this goes on the less i want them to get lowe..especially as the price goes up.

id be wary of garland too, ill bet he gets overpaid as well. he seems tailor made for the national league though.

If we are able to sign Lowe that gives us two pitchers who have started WS clinching games in the past 4 years. Lowe knows how to win in the post season. Honestly, I don’t see him signing with the Yanks unless they sign CC. Point being the Yankees are too far away from winning the division and Lowe is 35.

Now, we sign Lowe and we can then flip Myers to the Tigers. Remember that the Tigers need a closer and Myers would relish in that role. Who do we get back is key. I like the Galaragga/Joyce scenario because I would feel better plugging Galaragga in at the #4 spot with Blanton moving up to 3.

Or, flip Myers for Ordonez straight up. We take on more salay but Ordonez is signed through next year with 2010 being a mutual option. The Tigers would jump on it because it saves them about 10M in salary. Yes, we take on more, but we are poised to win now, not later. So, we plug in Lowe at #2 and Ordonez between Chase and Howard.

The Phils and ownership CAN do it, it is just a matter IF they will do it. But GET it done!

the yankees are too far from winning the division. Put C.C. and Burnett and add one outfielder then how far are they. They have the money to add a lot of salary. they will replace abbreu with bradley or ibanez type plus two good starters.