2012 - Philadelphia Phillies, At Least Cole is Staying

[SD]

I'd give Lee away for free at this point

[Rome]

Haha... stop it.

[SD]

Haha... stop it.

Why? It's $25 million they'd have to spend elsewhere...do you really think he's worth that much money? You have a choice right now, you either keep Hamels or Lee...which one are you taking?

[Rome]

You don't give a guy with Lee's resume away for nothing.  He's still a top of the line ace.  His win/loss record this year has been the result of incredibly bad luck, that's all.  I will say that if I had to choose between him and Hamels I'd take the Coal Train and if the Phillies are concerned about money and the money they're paying Lee would go to him, I'd be fine with trading him.  But not for nothing.  That's just boneheaded.

[SD]

Fine...you trade him for a mid level prospect then. You aren't getting much more.

[Rome]

The Gammons comment pointed toward a set of prospects, not some pygmy playing A-ball in North Dakota.

[SunMo]

gammons speaks into an unplugged microphone half of the time.  i doubt strokey mcstroke has any real sources anymore

[Don Ho]

Victorino should be dealt immediately if they're offering that. Then the punk LA fans who hated him can pretend to love him and his pop outs and bonehead mistakes.

That's exactly what will happen.  Plus I get to hear the phony farg Doyer fans here jump on the local boy playing for LA.  I can hear it now on the local radio sports show "Oh, the Phillies blew it, We get Victorino now, he's still really good, he's really gonna help, etc. etc."  Those fakes haven't seen what we've seen the past two seasons. 

[PoopyfaceMcGee]

gammons speaks into an unplugged microphone half of the time.  i doubt strokey mcstroke has any real sources anymore

Sad and probably true.

[ice grillin you]

The Gammons comment pointed toward a set of prospects, not some pygmy playing A-ball in North Dakota.

lee would bring more back than heidi because hes under contract....deal them both then resign heidi in the offseason

start an american league arms race...trade one to texas and one to the yanks

[MDS]

if they can trade lee i dont even think about dealing cole, not worth the risk

they need prospects back and victorino, lee, polanco, blanton should be able to cover that.

problem is lee's contract is so stupid it might have tough to fully move AND get a legit return

[ice grillin you]

like sd said you dont need a real return for phifer....losing his contract is the return you get...even i think he would bring back more than you think

[MDS]

do you want them to just sign grienke instead of having lee? cause thats what rube will do

he will keep playing this game forever because the farm system is depleted. they need good players that dont cost 15 mil per season. the nationals have like 20 of them.

[PhillyPhreak54]

I lol'd at the thought of Gammons talking to himself with an unplugged mic.

Also - half of you are nuts and should be drug tested. You do not trade Halladay, Lee or Hamels. Pitching wins and to give it away is dumber than shtein.

Quit talking about dumping money too. This ain't 1992.

Stark is reporting that they're preparing an offer for Hamels and thinking of going against the team policy of going more than 5yrs for a pitcher.

The Phillies plan to offer Cole Hamels a large contract extension in order to see if they can lock the southpaw up before the July 31 trade deadline, reports ESPN.com's Jayson Stark.  The size of the proposal is unknown, though a source tells Stark that the Phillies have debated about whether or not to break their unofficial club policy of not signing a pitcher to more than five guaranteed years.

We recently heard that the Phillies were willing to go beyond four years to sign Hamels, though if the Phils aren't willing to go beyond five years, Hamels could easily get a minimum six-year deal on the open market this winter.  If it's just length and not money (an estimated $24-25MM per season) that's the issue, the gap could possibly be closed by a vesting option.

This could explain why the Phillies are internally optimistic that they can re-sign Hamels, Stark hears from two executives from opposing teams.

"They're trying to sign him," said one of those executives. "And they think it's going to happen. At least that's what I was told."

If Hamels turns down the offer, then the Phillies could explore trading the southpaw before the trade deadline, though Stark notes that the Phillies intend to wait as long as possible to decide if they'll be sellers given that Chase Utley, Ryan Howard are off the DL and Roy Halladay will also soon return.

[Munson]

It's not even like CLiff lee's skills have fallen off this year...his velocity has been fine. He's been a little unlucky, and the times he has missed his spots the hitters have been doing what they're supposed to do.

Halladay is the more worrisome one because of how bad he looked early....but his contract is also up after next year because he's not going to vest his option now