Hanson will be a very, very good pitcher for a long time. He is much better than Happ and will show that in 2010, when Happ regresses slightly to his true talent level and Hanson gets even better with another year of experience.

Kawakami had a solid year as both a starter and reliever, and got better as the year went on. He was great in May, June, August, and September, but bad in April and shaky in July. That said, this is the same guy who was being bidded on by numerous teams last offseason, the Phillies being one of them, and ultimately signed a 3 yr/$23M contract.

but he’s a good defensive outfielder, hits for a decent average, and with regular playing time could probably be a 15-15, or 20-20 guy with HRs and Steals

No matter what else the Braves do this off-season, the Phils’ offense will remain far stronger. Melky is not a regular outfielder on a good team. He is a fourth outfielder.

The NL East should be an easy win for the Phils. With Halladay (or Lee) for a full season, a bounce-back season for Hamels, and Lidge simply being an above-average closer, the Phils look good for 100 wins in 2010.

The Phils will also be the class of the NL. The Dodgers will be weaker. The Cubs haven’t improved. The Cards will be weaker if they don’t re-sign Holliday. The Giants have great pitching and could be tough if they make the playoffs. Posey should be a good addition to the Giants’ lineup, but their offense remains weak. Nobody else has made any big moves.

http://blogs.suntimes.com/sportsprose/2009/12/chan_ho_park_suing_former_catc.html

If all they have available are crappy and/or overpriced relievers, the Phillies may be better off looking in their own system for somebody, or I don’t know what!

Phillies have agreed to terms with a reliever according to CSN Philly. No clue who. Physical next year.

Writing “forth” instead of “fourth,” however, was my own stupidity.

As far as what the Braves got for Vasquez as opposed to the Phils’ return on Lee, I agree with Corey Seidman. You go for what you need. The Phils weren’t looking for help for this year, but for the future. Vizcaino may be highly regarded, but the other prospect is just a prospect. All three guys the Phils got are highly regarded, and will probably be ready by the time they’re needed. So what if the Braves got Cabrera? They’re already saying they don’t know what his exact role will be. He too might be traded for a prospect–and how much does a forth outfielder bring?

When he wrote it, the tagline was something like “Explaining advanced statistics easy enough that my girlfriend’s mother could understand.”

You can find it here.

http://www.amazon.com/Bridging-Statistical-Gap-Eric-Seidman/dp/1435720407

All I can say in regard to the Braves getting more for Vazquez than the Phillies did for Lee is that the Phils were not looking for major-league talent like Melky Cabrera, they were *looking* for upside prospects. Had they been looking for major-league ready players, the trade would have looked a lot different.

And oh-by-the-way, to those confused by the Brandon Morrow trade, you may have some clarification…

Dave Cameron of USS Mariner posted an article basically theorizing that the Morrow deal was part of the Halladay and Cliff Lee deals all along, but since the teams were given a 72-hour window by MLB, Seattle and Toronto didn’t have enough time to hammer out who would be going to Seattle in return for Morrow.

In other words, the Blue Jays wanted a major-league ready pitcher in the Halladay/Lee deals, and they wanted Morrow all along, but they weren’t given enough time to get him.

This is why the Morrow trade looks so lopsided from afar. And this is why the Phillies didn’t seek another bidder for Cliff Lee or wait to trade him. This all makes MUCH, MUCH more sense now, and Jack Z doesn’t look like as big a genius as he did last week.