2009 Phillies Offseason Thread

[PhillyPhreak54]

Feliz too.

I liked Conlin's shout out to him. He had a few prolonged slumps...but his defense and the fact he drove in 82 runs was pretty good.

I bet they bring him back at a cheaper price.

Adrian Beltre sucks.

[BigEd76]

Amaro shot down the Hamels-for-Halladay rumors, in case anyone was considering it...

[PhillyPhreak54]

Phillies equipped for another title run

By: MIKE SIELSKI Burlington County Times


The man in the red Phillies cap and the red Phillies windbreaker moved like a mist through the visiting clubhouse at Yankee Stadium, for that is how John Middleton generally does things. He is a limited partner in the Phillies' ownership group, a cigar magnate who doesn't often speak to the press, allowing David Montgomery to serve as the group's spokesman. It should be impossible to be an invisible billionaire, but Middleton comes close.


Game 6 of the World Series had ended less than an hour earlier. The five boroughs were still celebrating the Yankees' six-game victory over the Phillies. In the wee small hours of Thursday morning, Frank Sinatra was still singing at Yankee Stadium, and John Middleton was going from player to player in the Phillies' clubhouse, shaking their hands, thanking them, spending a few seconds with each of them, until he came to Ryan Howard's locker.

Howard was seated and, having showered and changed, was slipping on a pair of white sneakers. He had carried the Phillies through the first two rounds of the playoffs only to hit .174 with a record 13 strikeouts in the World Series, and now Middleton crouched down in front of him and spoke to him in a half-whisper for a while. Middleton was supportive and encouraging and grateful to Howard for the way he performed this season, and he delivered even his most striking two sentences with that supportive, encouraging, grateful tone.

"I want my (bleeping) trophy back," Middleton said to Howard, gripping Howard's left shoulder with his right hand. "It's (bleeping) ours."


There might be no other scene that could better sum up how radically the perception and the reality of the Phillies have changed over the last three years. As recently as the beginning of the 2006 season, this was an unlikable franchise. The players shrunk at important moments. The new ballpark, though pretty, was embarrassingly small; what better-than-average pitcher would willingly agree to pitch there? And the ownership seemed to regard winning as a secondary consideration to turning profit and remaining, for the most part, anonymous.


The atmosphere at Citizens Bank Park, the players, the results, the expectations - yes, all of it is different now. And there's no reason it shouldn't remain different. There's a culture of winning here, a mindset that apparently has crept up to the owners' suites. It was created once the Phillies turned their clubhouse over talented players who had come up through their minor-league system, players who had a stake in the Phils' success: Howard, Chase Utley, Jimmy Rollins.


For example, consider the 2009 Yankees. They were no mere "hot team at the right time." They were better than the Phillies. They were the best team in baseball, and it wasn't close. From the time Alex Rodriguez returned from the disabled list on May 8 to the start of their celebration after their 7-3 win over the Phils in Game 6, the Yankees went 101-48. Yet their core is older than the Phillies'. Rodriguez is 34. Derek Jeter is 35. Johnny Damon is 36. Andy Pettitte is 37. Jorge Posada is 38. Mariano Rivera is 39.

So the notion that the Phillies can't win another World Series as Howard (29), Utley (30), Rollins (30), Jayson Werth (30), Shane Victorino (28) and Cliff Lee (32) advance into and through their 30s is mostly bunk. They can keep taking runs at titles for the next several years, provided that they acquire and/or develop the right pitchers and supplementary players. Though they're hardly poor, the Phillies don't necessarily have the financial resources to hand CC Sabathia a $161 million contract, but they have become an attractive destination for free agents, and they can mine their minor-league system for young, useful talent, just as the Yankees did with Phil Hughes and Joba Chamberlain.

Despite the mid-summer sentiment that the Phillies should have been willing to surrender any and all of their best prospects to Toronto for Roy Halladay, the makeup of the Yankees' roster should confirm that Ruben Amaro's acquisition of Lee was always the smarter way to go. Around that great veteran nucleus, New York has a 26-year-old second baseman (Robinson Cano), a 24-year-old center fielder (Melky Cabrera), and two rising right-handed arms (Hughes and Chamberlain) - neither of whom has turned 24 yet. Because Amaro didn't have to give up any of the organization's leading lights - Kyle Drabek, Domonic Brown, Michael Taylor - to acquire Lee, the Phillies presumably can replenish their roster in a similar manner.

Are those prospects still uncertain commodities? Of course. All prospects are. And there are some uncertainties remaining on the roster. The bench must be improved. Brad Lidge has to fix himself. So does Cole Hamels. (If the Phillies are unsure about Hamels, might they not be smart in gauging Toronto's interest in him + in exchange for Halladay? Just a thought.)


But understand: The Phillies aren't fading away anytime soon. As that once-silent partner said, it's their bleeping trophy, and they want it back.

[Don Ho]

Amaro shot down the Hamels-for-Halladay rumors, in case anyone was considering it...

and we pray x 1 zillion

[BigEd76]

latest rumor is they're discussing Tigers closer Fernando Rodney

[phattymatty]

i have a feeling they're going to go after derosa at 3b.  just had surgery so he'll be a little cheaper and he's a philly guy.  they won't break the bank for anything other than pitching this year. 

[ice grillin you]

id be fine with derosa as a top bench guy but no way should he be a full time 3rd basemen

[MDS]

yea 07 and 08 were his tops for games played at 149, and hes coming off another injury plagued year

production wise hes still pretty good, but as a bench guy, he cant play ss. the bench would be derosa, dobbs, francisco, catcher, ? that last spot needs to go to a power bat, not a guy who can specifically play short.

hes just not a good fit unless the 3B you sign can also play short, which limits things down to tejada who sucks.

[phattymatty]

isn't pudge a FA right now?  does he have anything left? i'd guess he's still better than bako.

[MDS]

washed. up.

backup catcher is a pointless position. bako is fine. they play once every 6 days and bat 8th. it really wont make much of a difference who they sign.

[PhillyGirl]

Espn insider saying Lowell a possibility.

[Sgt PSN]

lowell would be farging awesome.  like 8 years ago. 

[ice grillin you]

god jimmy with another gold glove

[ice grillin you]

also victorino win his second

[Sgt PSN]

god jimmy with another gold glove

he sucks