Phillies Offseason Talk

[rjs246]

Uh, can't Manny veto any trade anyway? Even if this 'gets done' it won't get done.

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

Agreed.  It's kind of like Tejada.  As soon as he got wind that the Phillies were talking about him, he rescinded his trade request.  And he doesn't even play for a team that won a WS in the last 2 years.

[rjs246]

Not that this is news, but Manny couldn't care less about winning anything.

[PhillyPhreak54]

Both Manny and Abreu can veto trades...so I'm not holding my breath.

This is from Mr. Excitement, Marcus Hayes...

LANCASTER, Pa. - Pat Gillick said he would continue to shop for pitching. Apparently, he meant it.

The new Phillies general manager said at a media luncheon here yesterday that a deal that would have brought the Phillies a No. 1 or No. 2 starter fell through yesterday morning because the other team backed out.

"They fell out," Gillick said. "Could the deal eventually happen? I'm not optimistic."
Gillick, as has been his policy, didn't name the other team or the players involved, but one of the piitchers they've pursued hardest this offseason has been Orioles lefthander Erik Bedard.

Essentially every deal for a top pitcher the Phillies have been involved with has included rightfielder Bobby Abreu.

Abreu would have to waive his no-trade clause, which the Phils have yet to ask him to do. Calls to Abreu's agent were not returned yesterday.

And so was squelched Gillick's latest attempt to fulfill his stated goal of putting a team on the field that will win at least five more games than the 88 games the 2005 version won - a task made all the more daunting considering the improvements made by the Mets.
Asked if he still considered the "Five More Wins" platform possible, Gillick said, "I do. It is realistic."

He allowed that the pitching staff isn't as good, with the loss of closer Billy Wagner, Ugueth Urbina and Vicente Padilla, but that even with the loss of Jim Thome and Kenny Lofton the Phils can get those five more wins.

Why?

"The position players might be the best in the division. As a team - defensively and offensively - I think they could be the best," Gillick said.

Better, said Gillick, than the Mets, who added Paul Lo Duca, Carlos Delgado and stole Wagner - moves that prompted Gillick to say, "Their club is the most improved in the division."

So, the Phils' lineup could be better?

"On paper, they're not," admitted Gillick, allowing that the likes of Carlos Beltran and Cliff Floyd might give the Mets an offensive advantage. But that's only half of the equation: "Defensively, I think we're a much better team than the Mets."

Remarkably, Gillick pointed to the right side of the infield - young offensive standouts Ryan Howard and Chase Utley - as being appreciably better than the Mets' duo of Delgado and Kaz Matsui.

Gillick also included Abreu in his evaluation, even citing Abreu having won his first Gold Glove after the 2005 season. Safe to say, though, that the suitors aren't after Abreu for his defense.

"When we talk with other teams about players, they want to know if he is available," manager Charlie Manuel said.

Such talks led to the Phillies asking for Cubs starter Mark Prior at the winter meetings, which the Cubs, according to several sources, briefly considered. Abreu also was the subject of trade talks for Orioles shortstop Miguel Tejada and Red Sox slugger Manny Ramirez, though both of those prospective deals quickly died.

Yesterday's faded inquiries were the latest in a series of talks that have included Abreu, who is not exactly a fan favorite despite his consistent offensive production - production that Gillick and Manuel are reluctant to lose, considering he is the crux of the Phillies' lineup.

"He's ideal for what we want," said Manuel, who will hit Abreu third in front of Pat Burrell, with Utley occasionally hitting fourth against a righthander. "[Abreu] hit a streak last year when he carried us."

Indeed, Abreu's scorching bat helped the Phillies go 15-13 after a 10-14 April put them in jeopardy of falling out of the race before the All-Star break. Abreu's mystifyingly poor July, followed by an injury-aided dropoff in September, didn't help his already-tarnished profile among the Phillies' fan base. Judging from call-in shows and e-mails, many of those fans wouldn't mind seeing him traded for less than the Phillies want.

Those fans shouldn't hold their breath. Gillick looks at Abreu's career .411 on-base percentage, .303 batting average, his average of 97 RBI and 31 steals since 2000 and he considers Abreu too precious to the lineup to lose for so little.

"Any time you think about somebody with those credentials, you've got to think about what it does to your team" to lose him, Gillick said.

For the time being, Abreu will remain the fulcrum of a team that, in its current composition, will need Gavin Floyd or Rob Tejeda to fill the fifth starter spot and will need Ryan Madson to occupy the setup role. Which means Manuel will have a lot of evaluation to do when pitchers and catcher report to spring training in 5 weeks.

"That's one of Charlie's strong points," Gillick said of the oft-criticized manager he inherited, though, "You might not get the fans or the media to believe it."

Then again, Manuel never has been opposed to trading any Phillie - even Thome, his protégé since Thome was drafted.

Moving Abreu would be easier had Gillick negotiated his extension in 2002 instead of fired GM Ed Wade.

Gillick said he does not believe in no-trade clauses, which, he asserted, players want in order to make sure they don't get traded to a loser. A high enough salary, he contended, essentially eliminates small-market (and, theoretically, less competitive) teams from the equation, anyway, essentially ensuring that a big-money player will be traded to big-market (and, theoretically, more competitive) teams.

Like Wade, however, Gillick doesn't like multiteam trades.

"I'd rather do the one-on-one. A three- or four-way, somebody always gets screwed," Gillick said. "Three ways - if you don't come out on the short end, you're fine."

Phillers
Hall of Fame third baseman Mike Schmidt, who flamed out as the manager of Class A Clearwater in 2004, will return to spring training for his fifth season as a special hitting instructor... Keep an eye on spring invitee Shawn Garrett, 27, an outfielder/first baseman who hit .295 with 17 homers and 82 RBI at Triple A Sacramento last season.
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Hmm...Bedard is a nice pitcher but I wouldn't trade Bobby straight up for him. And Hayes says the Manny deal is dea but he's obviously not referring to this latest bout of rumors since the ILK one hasn't hit the media.

[ice grillin you]

manny aint coming to philly

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

manny aint coming to philly

I concur.

[SunMo]

that thread over there is getting sad...

Manny will be a Phillie
[ Goto pageGoto page: 1 ... 124, 125, 126 ]    1880    IloveKruk    141278

the red number is replies the blue number is views.  wow.

[Geowhizzer]

Is that the Phillies board that takes themselves WAY too seriously?

[SunMo]

oh yeah

[MDS]

I'm convinced this is all made up.

[SD_Eagle5]

Guess they're saying now the mods over there changed ilk's password and emailed it to him to see if he was legit. Supposedly he was.

[MDS]

Well it is later in the week......and we've heard nothing of the sort.

[ice grillin you]

seamheads make me sick

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

I'm sure, just like every other wannabe "inside" source, he will come up with some bogus excuse about why it's not happening, possibly even attempting to explain why we'll never hear publicly that it was even attempted.

[Rome]

Is that the Phillies board that takes themselves WAY too seriously?

Go ahead and curse even mildly there.  I dare you.  Hell, I double-dog dare you.