2009 Philadelphia Phillies - Season's Over, Time to Move On

[ice grillin you]

Think about this...

Hamels:  Reigning World Series MVP

Cliff Lee:  Reigning A.L. Cy Young Award Winner

Joe Blanton: Has pitched basically lights out the last two months.

Jay Z. Happ:  Was undefeated until his last start.  ERA under 3.00.

Jamie Moyer:  Approaching 260 wins.  Still capable of occasionally pitching a gem, although he'd be the first to go if push came to shove.

That is a formidable rotation, boys and girls.  Plus they'll have a certain Hall of Famer ready to step in soon plus the wife-beater will be back in August.  Oh, and their bullpen guys will all be back by then too.

some really out there insinuations in the middle of all that...lets just be happy they have a very formidible one two punch in any playoff series...beyond that hope blanton continues his miracle run happ doesnt turn into kendrick and moyer has a career ending injury next time out

[Don Ho]

From Gammons:

"This next Indians generation will be built around Sizemore, Cabrera, Weglarz, LaPorta, Carlos Santana, Shin-Soo Choo, et al. When you are the Phillies, Yankees or Red Sox, you think about next year. When you're Cleveland or Tampa, you think, "next window." "

How sweet is it to be mentioned in a sentence like that?

I would have like to have seen Shin-Soo Choo on the Phils just to hear it roll off of Wheel's tongue. 

[ice grillin you]

the kendrick is beginning to seep out of happ

[Sgt PSN]

the Phils got the reigning AL Cy Young winner for a song.

freak year

ha.  i'm still not completely sold on lee being a dominant mainstay in the mlb landscape like halliday, but all things considered, this was a great trade for the phils.  even if he is a flash in the pan pitcher who only has a few dominating years, the phils will have him for at least the next 1.5 of them.  so as long as this move translates into 1, if not 2 more titles, then it was a total ass raping by amaro.

the absolute worst (other than a career ending injury to lee) is that lee winds up being another cole hamels.....which isn't a bad thing.  but that's basically the type of pitcher lee has been in his career prior to last year.

 

[Don Ho]

the kendrick is beginning to seep out of happ

yes,  now that the scouting reports are out on him should be interesting.

[PhillyPhreak54]

I'm not sold on Cliff Lee. They are LH-heavy in the rotation. Its nice to get someone, especially at that price, but I don't think he is a dominant guy like Halladay.

I still would have preferred Doc. I don't care about Ricciardi looking like a dolt...I wanted Halladay on my team. They should have given Toronto Drabek and Happ and been done with it.

[PhillyPhreak54]

Early indications were that they were leaning toward bumping J.A. Happ and Rodrigo Lopez to the bullpen to make room for Lee and Pedro. But they'd rather be sorting all that out than contemplating what their prospective October rotation might look like without Cliff Lee.

From Stark...

So lemme get this straight; they are considering bumping JA Happ, a guy who they would not trade to Toronto, to the bullpen?

So basically Kyle Drabek was the ultimate untouchable. Amaro better hope the hype is right with this dude.

[Geowhizzer]

Early indications were that they were leaning toward bumping J.A. Happ and Rodrigo Lopez to the bullpen to make room for Lee and Pedro. But they'd rather be sorting all that out than contemplating what their prospective October rotation might look like without Cliff Lee.

From Stark...

So lemme get this straight; they are considering bumping JA Happ, a guy who they would not trade to Toronto, to the bullpen?

So basically Kyle Drabek was the ultimate untouchable. Amaro better hope the hype is right with this dude.

Phreak, scuttlebutt is that the Phils offered the package they traded to Cleveland plus Happ to Toronto, and they wouldn't take it.

Don't know if Drabek was the lone sticking point.  I think they wanted him and Brown plus.

Seems like Riccardi was truthful all along that they wouldn't easily move Halladay.  We'll see in a couple of days.

[Don Ho]

All I care about right now is this dude pitching for Arizona is owning our ass right now.

[Geowhizzer]

All I care about right now is this dude pitching for Arizona is owning our ass right now.

Why is it that marginal pitchers sporting 7.00+ ERAs so often do that against this supposed offensive juggernaut?

[MDS]

you cant count pedro lil guy hes not even on the roster...you meant lopez who i assume will get sent down...i dont think hes bullpen material is he?

i wouldnt be suprised if pedro gets released after a minor league start

pedro gets factored in because they signed him to start him

lopez is an aaaa starter and will be lucky to be on the team in a month. they can trade him for a wild card prospect or make him the 7th man in the pen who cares.

it really comes down to when pedro is ready and if they want to move happ back. clearly they feel indebted to moyer, otherwise he would be the obvious choice to go.

thats why simply resting moyer for 2 weeks to give pedro 2 starts is a good idea. if pedro has something then you can discuss either moving happ to the pen or working moyer down to a mop up reliever. if pedro sucks then hes gone and moyer comes back like nothing happened.

[Eagles_Legendz]

Happ is not Kendrick.  Take a look at their peripheral stats.  Even when Kendrick was pitching well his H/9 and WHIP are much higher than Happ's and he strikes out far fewer hitters.  In order to pitch to contact like Kendrick did, you need to have real control of your pitches.  I don't think Happ is a top of the rotation starter, but I do think he has far more promise than Kendrick did.

[Don Ho]

Werthless piece of shtein.  WTF was he swinging at?

[Don Ho]

2nd & 3rd no outs and nada

[Eagles_Legendz]

Looked like a pitch that could best be described as an off speed pitch out.  Good enough for strike 3 though.