Philadelphia Phillies: 10 Trade Options to Keep Them at the Top

The Philadelphia Phillies won both ends of a doubleheader on Wednesday to improve to 43-26. They are beginning to cushion their lead in the National East as they now sit five games ahead of the Atlanta Braves who are their closest competitors.

While teams like the Cleveland Indians and Florida Marlins played over their heads in the early-going, the Phillies have been the model of consistency. They have battled through a myriad of injuries and an anemic offense and finally seem to be “hitting” their stride.

The Phillies have shown us in the past that they are a second-half team. Usually their bat’s start to heat up during the summer swells.

Ruben Amaro has openly stated that the Phillies will not make any moves at the trade deadline. Jim Salisbury of CSNPhilly.com reported that the Phillies are right at the luxury tax threshold and that is something that the ownership will not allow their bankrolls to surpass.

Let’s take Amaro’s words with a grain of salt. It seems like he has been watching too many Andy Reid press conferences and he has become very good at hiding his intentions.

Ruben Amaro has shown that he is not afraid of acquiring the big fish at the deadline. Who could the Phillies add that would fit into their budget and make a difference?

Here are the Philadelphia Phillies top 10 trade moves to bring home another World Series.

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Domonic Brown Improving in His Second Season

Hopefully Tuesday night’s two home run performance was the breakout game Domonic Brown needed for Charlie Manuel to keep him in the lineup everyday. It also punctuated that he certainly is a better player than he showed in his rookie year.

In just 11 more plate appearances he’s already doubled his home run output from last year. Playing 13 less games, getting more consistent at-bats rather than sparsely pinch-hitting appears to be working across the board.

Not only has the standard triple slash line improved from .210/.257/.355 to .250/.321/.486, almost all of his peripherals have as well. That line could even be better if the BABIP gods looked more favorably on him. A .241 BABIP is well below where it should be at.

The biggest improvement bust be his dramatic increase in contact.

Year	K%(K/PA)	Swinging Strike %	Outside Contact %	Strike Zone Contact %
2010	34.3%	13.5%	50.0%	83.8%
2011	13.6%	7.5%	69.1%	92.3%

On a pitch-by-pitch basis, his biggest improvement has been with the fastball. As a result of working on his stance, mechanics and timing, he’s catching up to, and making contact against the fastball much more often. Last year against fastballs, he swung and missed 22 percent of the time. This year it’s down to a solid nine percent.

However, one problem still lurking is his inability to hit a slider versus a left-handed pitcher. While he’s made strides against lefties’ other pitches, he’s still swinging and missing at almost 56 percent against this pitch. Not much improvement from last year’s 60 percent. And unfortunately for Brown, he’s already faced almost twice as many left-handed sliders compared to last year.

Even though he’s improved his walk-rate, he also could stand to be a little more patient. Currently, he’s swinging at 45.9 percent of pitches he’s seeing, second highest among the Phillies regular lineup. But only 39 percent of all pitches against him have been in the strike zone, fewest among the Phillies regular lineup.

While Brown continues to improve, it seems those who were screaming “bust” have gone into hiding. Sadly, the next time they come out of hiding, he’ll all of a sudden be one of their favorite players.

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Philadelphia Phillies: 5 Prospects That Are Tearing Up the Minor Leagues

The Philadelphia Phillies farm system continues to produce major league talent. Chase Utley, Cole Hamels, Pat Burrel and Domonic Brown were all developed in-house and have made progress to the major league level.

The Phillies show their depth with the continued progress of their minor league affiliates. The Triple-A Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs and the Double-A Reading Phillies have a boat load of talent that will be making an effect of the big league club in the upcoming year.

The Single-A Clearwater Threshers and the Lakewood Blue Claws carry the youngest of the potential Phillies and also have some players. 

Hear is a list of five players to keep and eye on in the minor leagues that my eventually become everyday players for your Philadelphia Phillies.

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Philadelphia Phillies: 5 Reasons They Will Cruise to Another NL East Crown

The 2011 edition of the Philadelphia Phillies is one of the deepest teams ever assembled in the City of Brotherly Love.  

However, not all has gone right for the team. They have lost players to injury, watched others fail to live up to expectations, and seen one of their Fab Four hurt his back and lose some zip on his fastball. Their offense has also struggled mightily at times, making the fans and front office scratch their heads in astonishment.  

The team that once struck fear into opponents now struggles to score more than three runs a game.

However it is a long season, things happen, and everyone—even the mighty Phillies— loses some swagger.  

But the Phillies will not lose their division lead again.

Here are five reasons why, when the calendar turns to the end of the season, the Phillies will be left standing as five-time defending NL East Champions.

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Phillies Allow Brian Gordon To Sign with Yankees: A Mistake in the Making?

Creative contract clauses are becoming more and more of a normal occurrence in Major League Baseball, and the creativity is slowly seeping through the cracks in the Minor Leagues. While the classic “opt-out clause” isn’t going anywhere, agents are getting more creative to make sure that their clients have the best chance of making it to the parent club.

That was the case for the Philadelphia Phillies‘ Minor League pitcher, Brian Gordon, who essentially guaranteed himself a bit of job security (and a fistful of dollars) by having a solid out-clause written into his contract.

Normally, when a player who has had a taste of the Major Leagues, or is advancing in age, signs a Minor League contract, he agrees to a deal based on the condition that he has the option to opt-out of the agreement on a date that both sides agree upon. The only drawback, of course, is that said player is taking a chance by opting-out and testing free agency.

Gordon, 32, made sure that there were no chances when he opted-out of his deal. Along with the out-clause, he had a condition in his contract stating that he could not opt-out of his deal unless he was added to a Major League roster.

Not a bad deal for a converted outfielder struggling to find his way in the Minor Leagues.

His deal guaranteed that, at the very least, he would pitch an entire season under contract for the Lehigh Valley IronPigs—but, he controlled his own fate. If he could pitch well enough to grab the attention of a few scouts, he could very well be pitching in the Major Leagues by mid-June—and that is, indeed, the case.

Gordon began the season (his second in the Phillies organization) as a reliever, and was soon moved into the starting rotation, thanks to a lack of depth and success out of the bullpen. Little did the Phillies know that they were finding a Minor League gem. Overall, he appeared in 12 games for the IronPigs (with nine starts) and posted a record of 5-0, with an ERA of just 1.14 (2.55 FIP).

His success went much deeper than that though—he was throwing up impressive numbers in every statistical category. In 55.1 innings of work, he struck out 56 hitters and allowed just seven walks. For the stat buffs out there, that is a BB/9 of just 1.14.

Along with the seven walks, Gordon allowed just 37 hits, and only 44 runners reached a base against him. Of those runners, just 11 scored; only seven of those scored runs were earned.

Not bad for a guy who was originally drafted in the seventh round of the 1997 draft by the Arizona Diamondbacks as an outfielder, making the transition to the mound in 2007.

Apparently the New York Yankees thought the same thing, as they made contact with Gordon to express an interest in signing him. Of course, they knew that he would have to be added to the major league roster, and the only way the Phillies could avoid losing him was by adding him to their own roster.

As it turned out, the Phillies did not add Gordon to their roster and the Yankees gobbled him up, signing him to a one-year deal.

Now that he’s on his way to the Bronx, we have to ask ourselves: Was it a mistake letting him go?

At a glance, it may not seem like much of a big deal. With Kyle Kendrick and Vance Worley in the system, the Phillies didn’t have a real need for Gordon in the rotation. But further evaluation shows that he could have helped this team in the bullpen, namely replacing struggling relievers like Danys Baez, JC Romero or David Herndon.

Now all we can do is hope that the Phillies didn’t let one get away, but the track record for this team in similar situations isn’t all too great. The chances of Brian Gordon coming back to haunt the Phillies is fairly high, so break out your lucky charms and pray that this guy stays as far away from the Major League Phillies as possible (more sarcasm intended, of course).

For those who are interested, the Yankees are throwing Gordon right into the fire. He’ll start against one of the most potent offensive teams in all of baseball—the Texas Rangers—on Thursday. We should get a pretty good sense of whether or not he could have helped the Phillies after that.

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Pedro Feliz: World Series Hero Fights for a Comeback

As anyone who has visited Philadelphia will realize, Camden, New Jersey is right across the river.

For former Phillies third baseman Pedro Feliz, it must feel like he is a million miles away.

Feliz came to the Phillies before the 2008 season after playing parts of eight seasons with the San Francisco Giants. He came to Philadelphia after hitting over 20 home runs in each of the previous four years and seeming like a more than capable replacement for the under-performing Wes Helms.

Watching Feliz, it was hard to miss his powerful arm and sparkling defense at third base. As a matter of fact, he currently has the 35th highest career fielding percentage by a third baseman in Major League Baseball history according to Baseball Reference.

In his first season with the Phillies, he was coming off a year in which he led National League third baseman in fielding percentage, so it was obvious that the Phillies were not going to have any defensive problems while he was at the hot corner.

At the plate, his 2008 performance did fall a little bit short of his earlier numbers in San Francisco (.249, 14 HR), but he came up big when the Phillies needed him. In the bottom of the seventh in Game Five of the World Series, he drove in Eric Bruntlett with a clutch base hit to put the Phillies ahead for good 4-3 and secure the World Series championship.

He batted .333 throughout the World Series and did not commit a single error as usual.

After another year with the Phillies and a split year between Houston and St. Louis, Feliz failed to make the Kansas City Royals out of spring training in 2011. With his major-league career seemingly on the decline, Feliz joined the Camden Riversharks of the independent Atlantic League of Professional Baseball.

Despite the fact that the independent leagues get a bad reputation as grounds for the desperate to try to return to professional baseball, Feliz is joined on the Riversharks by former major leaguers Toby Hall and Mike Lamb as well as others.

Currently, he is batting .261 through 25 games with a pair of home runs and nine RBIs.

Who knows what the baseball future will be for Feliz? At 36 years old, he is seemingly nearing the end of a solid career, but he has been quoted as saying that he wants to return to the major leagues.

Perhaps he will make it one more time, perhaps he will not, but Phillies fans should remember his big hit that brought a title back to Philadelphia.

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The Real National League All Stars

Over the next few weeks Major League Baseball will give the public updates on the voting for the All-Star teams.

Nothing upsets me more than the rosters that the fans, players, and coaches select. The closers with the most saves and the starting pitchers with the most wins populate the rosters, while deserving set-up men are left at home. 

Here are my picks for the 34 man National League roster. (Every team in the NL will be represented). No matter what there will always be deserving candidates left off the roster, but these are my guys.  

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Philadelphia Phillies: 10 Best Draft Picks in Team History

The Phillies are well known for their roster moves during the offseason and near the trade deadline.  Ruben Amaro Jr. is often able to pull off big moves to improve the team and the Phillies have taken heat for not developing players.

This criticism should be looked at again, however.  

The Phillies have drafted and developed some very talented players over the years.  Here is a list of 10 of the top draft picks in team history.  

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Philadelphia Phillies’ vs Florida Marlins: Phils Win “All in the Numbers”

Who was that team last night? It reminded me of a team that used to play here. You remember them—Ryan Howard, Chase Utley, Jimmy Rollins. Oh yeah, that is this team. But it has been a long time since these Phillies have had a game like last night. High scoring, low stress. Just the way I like them.

And with another game in just a couple of hours I’ll keep this short and sweet. After all, it’s the numbers, not the words, that tell the story of this game: 

“It’s All in the Numbers” Countdown

10. As in 2010. The Phillies haven’t hit five home runs in a game since June of 2010.

9. The number of wins for pitcher Cole Hamels, who became only the second National League nine-game winner. Who’s the first? Teammate Roy Halladay, of course.
 
8. The number of times I asked my son (who was only studying for finals) to check the television during the rain delay to see if the game was on yet.
 
7. Swans a-swimming. Oooops. I mean the number of home runs Ryan Howard has hit against Marlins starter Chris Volstad.  Seven homers is the most for Howard against any opposing pitcher.

 
6.  Last night’s win was the sixth for the Phillies in their current homestand, giving them a 6-2 record going into today’s doubleheader action.

5. This is an easy one. The five home runs in last night’s game including two-run shots from Howard, Utley and Rollins (more on the other homers in No. 2).
 
4. The number of bruises I have on my arm from pitching myself while watching the game last night to make sure I wasn’t dreaming.
 
3. For the only three hits given up by Phillies starter Cole Hamels in another dominant performance, including a a stretch where he retired 17 straight. Hamels left the game with back tightness in the eighth but says he won’t miss a start.

2. As in two solo home runs for Domonic Brown. It was his first career multi-home run game. The way he’s been swinging the bat lately, it won’t be his last.
 
1. First place. That’s where the Phillies sit in the East and, coupled with a Braves loss last night, the Phillies now have a 3.5-game lead.

So there you have it, by the numbers.  

The quote of the night? Phils skipper Charlie Manuel when asked if he was concerned when Hamels had to leave the game: “It’s always a concern when I see something like that happen. I can’t afford to let my heart skip a lot.  I’ve only got one, and I’ve had a lot of work done on it.”

Well, other than Hamels’ early departure, Charlie, last night’s game was easy on the heart.
But with two more games today, we’ll see if the Phillies can put up any more numbers.     

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Phillies Hope to Remain Hot While Marlins Welcome Ramirez Back from Injury

The Phillies hope to win their fourth straight as they return home to meet the Florida Marlins tonight.

The Phillies’ Cole Hamels takes the mound opposite Chris Volstad of the Marlins. The Marlins have lost nine out of their last 10 games, and Volstad himself has been saddled with three straight losses. Hamels on the other hand has been phenomenal over his last five starts posting a 4-0 record and a 1.70 ERA for the Phillies who currently have the best record in baseball (40-26).

On the offensive side of the ball, the highlight for tonight will be the highly-anticipated return of shortstop Hanley Ramirez to the Marlins’ lineup.

Although Ramirez had been having an abnormally cold year batting only .210 with only four home runs through the 48 games he played in before his injury, the Marlins will need his big bat in the middle of the lineup to make up their 7.5 game deficit in the division.

To appreciate how substandard this is, consider that he has a career average of .307 and has averaged 26 home runs per 162 games. He has been named to the last three All-Star games and won a batting title in 2009 by batting .342!

Obviously, he is a great hitter and will make a quick impact.

For the Phillies, the key will be the bullpen. Although it has been heavily embattled by injury throughout the season, it seems as if the set-up combination of Michael Stutes and Antonio Bastardo has recently been able to deliver the ball to closer Ryan Madson with solid regularity.

Madson himself has been a pleasant surprise as he had had difficulty closing games in the past when staff injuries had forced him into that role. This year, he already has 15 saves and the rumor mill is already turning about whether or not Brad Lidge will even be able to return to his traditional role.

When the best team in baseball plays the coldest team in the National League, the results will probably favor the Phillies tonight as well as the series.

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