Phillies Nation

Assuming that there won’t be a trade for Halladay, maybe we should look into acquiring Sherrill from the Dodgers. If we got him he’d take care of our needs from the left side, and provide a back up late inning/closer guy. Then we can do our best to bring back Chan Ho or go with an internal solution like Mathieson in spring training.

Kevin Correia was excellent for the Padres last year after the Peavy trade. In fact he was their top starter after Peavy was traded. He will be 30 and last year was by far his best season. San Diego offered $1.1 million and he turned it down. He could be a decent starter and a bargain. He was a 12 game winner last year with an ERA of about 3.90.
He may be worth a look.

For some reason, reading this post made Terry Adams pop in my head … and how much he sucked … and kinda how we might end up having to shove somebody like that in our pen because Amaro’s wasting time staring at the puppy, i mean Halladay, in the window.

Don’t get me wrong, 2 cy young winners and an “almost” is gonna be maybe the best 1-2-3 around. But something about Lidge’s problems, JC’s health, moyer giving it one more try … again, having no idea whats going to come out of kendrick … screw it. you guys know what im sayin. save a ton of runs in the first 6 ot 7 just to give em up in the 8th or 9th … i dunno. we got starters … we need a bullpen damnit.

What is Jr. Doing. Stop worrying about Doc. We will not get him. We do need another solid starter and alot of bullpen help. Get off your ass and sign someone. You wont win with this pathetic bullpen and starters. Hamels, Happ, Blanton, MOyer pLEASE

There’s a chance that the White Sox will non-tender DJ Carrasco, and if so, I like him…

Also, Kevin Correia is a big possibility. He’ll either be a non-tender or will be traded. With the possibility of trading either JA Happ or Joe Blanton, or both, I think he’d be a good fit for a good price.

Why the hell would you think about swapping Happ out and putting in Hamels? Everyone has sold him down the river, it’s ridiculous. No way you trade Hamels like that.

Why would the Tigers ever think about trading Verlander??

Happ is a #4-#5 starter in the AL

Taylor is unproven

Kendrick would pitch in AAA for an AL team

and Bastardo would MAYBE get to play AAA, only because he’s a Lefty

I don’t know. It seems that there are problems somewhere with the phillies. They desperately need to resign some guys or make a trade. i will leave my support of happ out of this msg, but amaro has done nothing thus far except to deny halliday love

Yeah, I can’t imagine Carrasco being a non-tender, but it’s a possibility. Good point about the innings, but it was through 49 appearances so it’s not as bad as it seems, at least to me…

i freakkin hate the winter.

Cole Hamels will not be a legit #1 or #2 until he gets a third pitch. The book is out on him. While his change is devestating, he fastball is merely pedestrian. Its not that fast and it doesn’t move. His curveball is slop because its speed is too close the speed of his change, comes in loopy, and it throws NOBODY off. he can’t even throw it in a an “Oh, by the way, don’t forget I have a curveball” kinda way. This is a man that needs a cutter in a big way, or at least a baby slider. Someone said that he can’t throw a tight curve because of a forearm injury from his younger days. Whatever it is, the hitters have adjusted and he has to readjust. Back to the lab and get rid of that lisp.

The Dipsy

Hamels and Happ are completely different. Hamels is the kind of pitcher who can turn in to a solid ace. Happ has a much lower ceiling, and he’ll never be more than a #3 guy. Look at his numbers, he was really lucky this year. Hamels was very unlucky.

And Karen, how many postseason wins did Hamels have in 08? Clearly Hamels does practice and train, he wouldn’t be where he is now if he didn’t. He even admitted, after the WS MVP, he was all over doing all kinds of media things and didn’t dedicate the time he should have to training. And, factor in the ridiculous number of innings Hamels pitched in 08. After the 08 season, it was pretty obvious that he wasn’t going to be 100% in 09 due to his workload in the 08 season.

DON M>>>>Nobody wants to ship him out without getting something significant in return. Let’s not cry over a simple disagreement and start name calling. Time for a chill pill. Everyone is entitled to an opinion. Personally, I hope I am wrong in not getting on the Cole Hamels Fan Wagon. But just as he was wonderful in 2008, he was less than stellar last year — far, far from being an ace.

The same people who got pissed when JRoll called them frontrunners, mind you…

Call me crazy, but I’m not that worried about the bullpen, especially given the free agent RP signings so far. Glad we didn’t overpay for Lyon, and honestly I don’t think Putz is that good anymore. I guess there’s some upside with him should he bounce back to his performance levels of three seasons ago, but there’s also some upside in our farm system with Matthieson, Bastardo, etc. Sign me up for DJ Carrasco.

I can completely understand how Hamels can frustrate and aggravate people, myself included but he is a STUD pitcher. His “main stream” stats looked bad, but all of his peripheral stats were the same or better than 08. Also, let’s not forget what the man did for the WS Champs in 08! He pissed off a lot of people with some of the things he said and did after the WS last year and this year, but we have this guy locked up for a little over 16mill for the next 2 seasons. You don’t trade young STUD pitchers who are locked up at a good price over 1 bad year.

Not sure how I qualify as a frontruner when I am wanting to keep Happ and Blanton and not trade away young talent so that the phillies have the chance to maybe win in 2010.

Man i dont agree with Don on much but how can anyone say Hamels isnt a ace. Ridicious. mvp of world series , has a bad year is only 25 and y people are selling him down the river. amazing, The kid learned a lesson this year he didnt get into pitching shape after the series and knows it , now we will see the real hamels if he really wants to be great , he has the pitches location killed him all year and lost velocity due to not being in pitching shape.

Cole Hamels is about to get what he didn’t get last year… A proper off-season! When you look at all the struggles he had last year it’s been seen before when good pitchers don’t focus on maintaining themselves in the off-season or sit out spring and spend the rest of the season on the backfoot not being able to establish the fastball with any consistency. I’m not saying we’re going to see the 2008 Cole Hamels again for definite but if he goes into spring healthy and prepared he’ll at least be somewhere between the two…

Anyway on subject who cares about Brandon Lyon or JJ Putz, if teams are going to give creaky guys big money let them! I’d rather see us give decent money to a couple of guys, bring two or three vets in on minor-league deals with their opt-out clause and look to the guys in the system that can relieve at the big league level. The guy I wanna hear about is Scott Matheison not JJ ‘DL’ Putz

I understand not overpaying for mediocre relief pitching … but paying for any? I know we’re still months away and who knows who they even bring up north in april but … without having much to do but worry and over analyze everything in head and worry some more … well I’m nervous …and not nearly as much as I am over Lee, Hamels, Blanton, Happ, Moyer/Kendrick/_____?

Given their numbers in the bullpen last year I wouldn’t blame Eyre or Park for the bullpen issues. I’d like to see them get a back up closer, but I’m not sure we want to pay closer money for a guy who’s probably not going to close.

I’m surprised the Phils didn’t jump on Putz. Signing relievers for only one year is the smart way to go.

I’m still confused as to why the Phils didn’t offer Park arbitration. If he accepted, then the Phils get him back for one year with a slight raise in his $2.5 mil salary from last season. If he signs with someone else, the Phils would have received a sandwich pick between the first and second round. Seemed like a win-win situation.

I’d love to have Park or any of those guys on a one year deal but NOT if they cost Brandon Lyon prices.

Why would you want to put $3m into JJ Putz when you have limited money to finish out the roster? Your not putting that money into ’06 or ’07 Putz, it’s going to a guy who might spend at least half the year either throwing hurt or on the DL.

With relievers in free agency your paying for what a guy has done and isn’t likely to replicate. Lidge is the closer and we have to build a strong flexible set-up crew to insulate him as much of possible instead of reaching to find a closer controversy and sell the bullpen look very thin like it did this year when the injury bug hit.

I agree that spending money on relievers gets tricky, since their performance fluctuates greatly from year to year. But Amaro mentioned that Lyon was “stolen” from the Phils by the Astros, so I do think that he plans on signing a reliever. I hope it’s not for multiple years and it’s just a one-year contract like Park last year and like Putz this year.

stolen from us do y believe that if y are a pitcher and a team like the phillis offer y near what a houston offers, where do y go to a bad team or the phillies who have a chance to go back to the series, how many chances to close would he get with houston staff they stink, so i believe the phillies offeer was way off in lyons mind.