MLB Trade Speculation: Josh Willingham Would Be a Huge Mistake for the Phillies

After last night’s thrashing of the Florida Marlins, after which the Philadelphia Phillies improved to 55-32 on the season, we may see a bit of a lull in the drastic outcry for offensive help. The arguments against making a move to bolster the lineup have been the same throughout the season—the Phils have the best record in baseball and little flexibility to make a move. In short, why change what’s working?

The counter-argument is even more simplistic. As hard as it is to imagine, with a little bit of thump in the lineup, the Phillies could be even better than they are entering play on July 6. With four more wins than any other team in baseball, that’s a bold statement. Assembling a team with the potential alone to compete for the best record in baseball is an imperfect science, but with a few additions, the Phils may have the winning formula.

While it’s been pitching that has put them over the top, the biggest storyline of the first half has to have been the anemic offense. Loaded with former All-Stars, they were expected to provide enough run support to back their star studded rotation with ease, but that hasn’t entirely been the case.

Even with the lineup at “full strength,” the Phillies have been in the middle of the pack for just about every offensive category throughout the first half of the season. With a lot of familiar faces fielding the diamond in Philadelphia, their offensive standing is a far cry from their usual top five finishes. A once feared offense has spent its time making mediocre, bottom-of-the-rotation pitchers look like the second coming of Cy Young.

So while fans and scribes alike have been able to make excuses for this club’s lack of offensive production, such as the departure of Jayson Werth and Chase Utley’s questionable health, as we pass the midway point of the season, it’s time to face the facts—this is just a bad offensive team.

They certainly can’t use the home ball park as an excuse. Though proven mostly false, Citizens’ Bank Park has been an offensive haven over the years, and with the Phils currently sitting 14th in runs scored and 18th in home runs, it may be time to lay some blame on the personnel.

That said, it wouldn’t hurt to bring in a guy who can provide some stability for this lineup. With its slew of lefties, it isn’t hard to see that a right handed bat could cure a few ailments, but it runs much deeper than that. The Phils’ collective .663 OPS against left handed pitchers is the fourth worst in all of baseball, and for a team that’s made its name in power output over the last few seasons, they’ve hit just 14 home runs against lefties this season—seventh worst in baseball.

With the corner outfield positions being the only spots on the field that a trade candidate makes logical sense, we can quickly gather that a right handed corner outfielder would be a nice upgrade for this ball club. I took a look at one guy who could be a potential fit, Michael Cuddyer, last week, but another guy that makes some sense for the Phils is Josh Willingham of the Oakland Athletics.

Currently on the disabled list with an Achilles injury, Willingham should be activated sometime this week, and will have plenty of time to re-establish his trade value,should the A’s become sellers. At that point, the question becomes, “Is he a fit for the Phillies?”

At a glance, the answer is yes. He fits the criteria of what the Phils would be looking for on the trade market perfectly. Formerly of the Washington Nationals, the Phillies have seen his plus power out of the corner outfield positions first hand, and while the Coliseum in Oakland is taking a toll on his offensive production in 2011, those numbers would likely spike with a trade to a more hitter-friendly park, particularly in the National League.

Looking into his numbers with a little more depth shows that he may cause the Phillies more headaches than anything, however. As we’ve already established, the Phils need to add a right handed hitter that brings some pop to the lineup against lefties, and Willingham probably isn’t that guy.

He’s posted an ugly line of .211/.291 /.465 against left handed pitchers, leaving the yard just five times against them. The Phillies may be inclined to make a move for a guy who has had more success against lefties this season, like the aforementioned Cuddyer or Juan Rivera, who was recently designated for assignment by the Toronto Blue Jays.

Of course, there are certain intangibles that would work in Willingham’s favor. The Phils may be willing to take a risk on his numbers against left handed pitchers because they’re familiar with him, and he’s had some success in the National League East. Despite the fact that he has struggled, he’d still provide guys like Utley and Ryan Howard with some support, and if he can continue to improve, Domonic Brown should help Willingham himself see a good number of fastballs.

All in all, though, he’s probably not a worthwhile investment. He’s a terrible defensive outfielder struggling with a foot injury, and though he’s probably an upgrade over the likes of Raul Ibanez, that isn’t saying much. If the Phils were going to make a move for a hitter at all, they’ll need to bring in a guy who not only swings right handed, but is able to handle left handed pitching.

Making a blind move for a guy like Josh Willingham could cause the Phillies more headaches than he’s worth.

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Philadelphia Phillies: 10 Moves to Get the Phillies to the World Series

With the MLB trade deadline fast approaching, there are moves to be made for teams all across baseball, including the one with the best record: the Philadelphia Phillies.

The Phillies are in need of offensive help and need an arm or two in an injury-depleted bullpen.

Here are ten moves that the Phillies could make to ensure a trip back to the World Series in 2011.

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Philadelphia Phillies: Could 2011 Be Team’s Best Year Ever?

After a 14 run outpouring against the Florida Marlins last night, the 2011 Phillies have demonstrated what they are capable of this season.

I definitely realize that one performance is just that, only one performance. However, they demonstrated that they have the offensive potential we all have known they had.

While currently sitting at a record of 55-32, if these numbers are projected forward, the Phillies should win approximately 102 games, which would be the most in franchise history.

In 1977 and 1976, the Phillies won 101 games, but failed to make the World Series both years.

Given that they are on track to win the most games in franchise history, the inevitable question must be asked.

Is this the best Phillies team ever?

Well, one important detail of being the best Phillies team ever is whether or not they win the World Series. Let’s face it, the ultimate measure of baseball success is winning that trophy, so we can’t evaluate that part just yet.

However, what I will say is that I believe that this may be one of the best starting rotations that the Phillies have ever assembled.

Roy Halladay is on pace to win approximately 20 games, Cole Hamels is on pace for 19 and Cliff Lee is on pace for 17. They all have ERAs under 3.00, and they all have the potential to pitch a complete game every night.

The Phillies have never had a rotation with this much success out of the top three spots if everything goes according to the projections.

The Phillies’ offense has definitely not been as strong as other years, but they have been scoring enough to win. At the end of the day, scoring enough runs to win is enough offense for any team.

If the offense is able to start hitting like they did last night, where every starter had at least one hit, it could create a frightening combination with a pitching staff like the Phillies have.

Chase Utley will start hitting the ball harder although his average is already starting to climb somewhat to .283 currently.

Ryan Howard is on pace to hit 34 home runs, but I also think that that number will rise faster.

An important key to any resurgence of the Phillies’ offense involves Jimmy Rollins. His on-base percentage should be a little bit higher than .334 to be a highly effective leadoff man.

Another key factor that might change here is the variability of my projections.

I based these projections by multiplying the number they currently have of that statistic by 162/87. What this would do is basically give me the average number of the statistic per game times 162 games to determine a projected season total if the current performance remains constant.

The Phillies are a team that tends to heat up down the stretch. Therefore, it is possible that if the trend of a hot second half continues, many of my projections might be low.

If the Phillies finished up on the pace that they are going at and win the World Series, I think that this roster could be the best Phillies team ever.

If they do not win the World Series, it is still possible that this team will be very good and one of the best, but they will not be the best without that trophy.

What do you all think?

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Philadelphia Phillies: Halladay, Lee, Hamels and the Best Starting Pitchers Ever

In this golden era of Phillies baseball, starting pitching has taken precedence. If Philadelphia management can somehow find a way to extend Cole Hamels after 2012, the team will have Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee and Hamels together for at least another couple of years. 

Of course, as of right now, Halladay and Lee will not be ranked as high individually in Phillies lore simply because they haven’t pitched enough.

Nonetheless, as the years pile up, it will be interesting to see not only the jumps they make in the all-time ranks from year to year, but where they wind up when their careers are over.

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MLB Trade Deadline: Who the Philadelphia Phillies Should Target at the Deadline

With the upcoming trade deadline looming, the Phillies have a big hole in the outfield.  

Ruben Amaro will need to make the necessary moves to set this team over the top and contend for a championship.  

They have the pitching, they have the fielding, now they just need that one bat to bring the lineup together.  

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Phillies: Worley to the Minor Leagues and Mayberry Recalled– What’s Going On?

On the surface, it makes no sense.  

After pitching a career-high seven innings in back-to-back starts, winning both and participating in a 1-0 shutout win over the Florida Marlins, young starter Vance Worley has once again been optioned to Triple A Lehigh Valley.  He is an Iron-Pig again, and prospect (is he still one of those??) John Mayberry Jr. has been recalled to the big-league club.

However with the All-Star break next week, the Phillies off-day Thursday, and no true need for a fifth starter until sometime late next week—at the earliest—the move makes sense.  Worley would not have been making his regular starts over the next two weeks or so, and that lack of consistency was shown to hurt the hurler earlier in the season.  

With Shane Victorino nursing a sore hand/wrist (how he didn’t hurt his ankle on that play still baffles most), it makes sense to bring up an extra outfielder who can play center-field, and play it well.  Mayberry may not move around the way Victorino does when he’s chasing fly-balls in the outfield, but the 27 year old covers a lot of ground with his big, graceful steps.  

At some point, the Phillies are going to have to make a decision about Mayberry and his future in the organization.  He’s either going to be a part of the team—perhaps as a fourth outfielder who rides the bench or part of the solution to replace Raul Ibanez in 2012—or he’s going to have to seek employment elsewhere.  

This season, Mayberry has gotten more of an opportunity than he ever had before and showed improvements in some areas.  As of yet, he has not lived up to the expectations that come from his physical specimen and genetic line in his career—being the son of a man with 255 major league home runs and a couple of top-ten MVP finishes—but there is still time. 

Perhaps Mayberry may never be an everyday outfielder or even a steady major league player.  Or maybe he’s the next Jayson Werth: a player who’d been given up on by at least one organization only to show somewhere else that his talent wasn’t wasted.

If Mayberry ends up becoming a player like Werth, I think I speak for most Phillies fans when I say I hope it happens in Philadelphia and not somewhere else.

So in essence the move makes sense.  The Phillies have two young players they’ll need to make long-term decisions on over the next couple of months or even years.  Vance Worley may not be happy returning to the minor leagues, but at 23 years old, he needs the consistent work being in Triple-A will provide him to hopefully make his next return trip to Philadelphia the last one.

However, despite the excellent start to his major league career, the poise and confidence he has shown early on, the Phillies organization cannot be completely sold on him being a long-term piece to their rotation just yet. 

He hasn’t been around the league enough times for pitching coaches and teams to build up a substantial video catalog of his games, deliveries and tendencies.  Only once they do and we see how Worley reacts and adjusts will we know whether or not he has what it takes to succeed over the long haul in major league baseball.

Kyle Kendrick came up and won ten games in 2007, nearly single-handedly saving the Phillies’ season.  Since then he has been a serviceable pitcher, but nothing special and not the phenom he was right from the start.  

Worley could be another Kendrick, or he could turn into Greg Maddux.  Only time will tell.

The Phillies will have a lot of decisions to make in the next few weeks.  Do they need another offensive player?  Do they need any bullpen help?  What about the lackluster bench? 

The team must be hoping that optioning Vance Worley to Triple-A and bringing up John Mayberry Jr. helps to answer at least some of those questions and it moves forward in its quest for another World Series Championship.

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Philadelphia Phillies: 10 Bold Second-Half Predictions

The Philadelphia Phillies are the best team in the MLB this season, and they have had an impressive first half. Under Charlie Manuel, the Phillies have dealt with injuries to Chase Utley, Roy Oswalt, and just about everyone else on the team to go 54-32.

The Phillies have been the most talked about team in baseball since they signed Cliff Lee in the offseason to give them four legitimate aces.

Their rotation was supposed to be historically good. It has been very good, but they have not been historic just yet.

Roy Oswalt has been injured twice (once during the time he spent away from the team), Lee struggled in the beginning of the season, and Vance Worley has picked up the slack.

It’s been an interesting first half of the season for the Phillies, and it’s time to make or predictions for what will be an exciting second half.

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Philadelphia Phillies: Worley, Bastardo, Stutes and Brown a Much-Needed Re-Up

Antonio Bastardo, Domonic Brown, Michael Stutes and Vance Worley are more couples than cargo. The Phillies youngsters aren’t the train cars screaming around this first half of track, careening to a 54-32 record, far and away the best record in baseball.

That’s on the shoulders (and elbows and wrists) of Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee and Cole Hamels.

But these four offer what even those three can’t.

They’re something extra, to help the Phillies best their best.

They’re connective tissue, between now and the fall.

The Phillies have been better than expected, but they needed more.

That’s why these summer months light up the trading block. That’s why front-office phone bills soar, and players fly across SportsCenter bottom lines.

It’s because this is when teams need surges. It’s when Opening Day rosters start to stale. Things start to fall into place (or apart) and teams adjust accordingly.

The Phillies don’t look like they need that right now. Not because of logic, however brilliant its delivery. Not because of stubbornness—Charlie Manuel said Friday, “We could definitely use a solid right-handed hitter,” and “our odds get better if we have one.” Not because of tight-lipped GMs misdirecting with old excuses about lean finances.

But because they have that in-house. The solution is already here, in vibrant youth and fearlessness.

It’s here in Vance Worley, who wrapped a 4-1 midseason stretch with yesterday’s 1-0 win over the Marlins, effectively wiping the hard drive of that 11-run shellacking by the Mets in May. It was announced after that he’s headed to the warming bulbs in Lehigh Valley, to hedge against another dormant two weeks catching up to him, what beget the New York meltdown.

When he’s back—Worley’s informally penned in for Game 2 in the next Mets series—Worley will be back to weed-whacking his 2.20 ERA like did in June, when he dealt a 0.64.

The Phils need that like they needed closing help, in lieu of a scroll-looking injury reports for both. Worley can putty the rotation while Roy Oswalt and Joe Blanton inch back toward contribution, just like Antonio Bastardo has spackled the game-sealing duties while Ryan Madson and Brad Lidge get right.

If there’s one bloc the Phillies need unabated reliability from, it’s those last three outs. Hard to justify $40 million—the sum of Halladay, Lee and Hamels earnings—if relief pitching blows it like they’ve been known to around here.

Bastardo has taught us different. Like Madson (15 saves in 16 opportunities), Bastardo wraps what others start, like Worley’s fourth win yesterday, also Bastardo’s fifth save in as many tries. In 31 innings this season, the Dominican has allowed just three total (all earned) runs, two on home runs.

In other words: save for two pitches, he’s been almost perfect.

Bastardo’s revisionist history—maybe Phillies ninth innings don’t have to be white-knucklers—is the kind of reassurance that gets you through the night (and summer).

What gets you through to Bastardo has been Michael Stutes, the bail-out from off-nights of starting pitching every skipper covets. No matter how you slice it—only 8 runs in 27.1 innings, with a 3-0 record in decisions—Stutes has been a sure-thing.

Stutes is surer on the road, where he’s working a 1.59 ERA in 11.1 innings, compared to his 3.38 at Citizens Bank Park. If you ever wanted a swing to follow your pitching on bus trips, that would be its direction.

And even Dom Brown shows inklings of improvement, exorcising a forgettable June—he batted .165 with only 8 RBI in 79 at-bats on the month—with a .333 last-seven games, a small sample size, but foundation plenty primed for building off of. It’s also what he’s erected since falling to a season trough of .200 on June 23.

You’ll take that like you did yesterday’s not-so-safe slide (dude’s leg was blatantly above home) to plate the game’s one-and-only, and decisive, run yesterday.

Now Brown just has to make that flash longer before it fizzles.

The best part: Worley and Brown are 23 years old, Bastardo 25 and Stutes 24. Those figures read like a weekender’s goals for golf—the lower the better.

Don’t underscore their contribution. This matters, for a team skittish about its foothold on the division, health and chops up-and-down the order.

Without reinforcements, this goes one of two ways.

It could have stayed even, a keel that ran well into the postseason. Maybe the Phils status quo today—first in the NL East and in Lane 1 toward a pennant—would’ve stood up through September. Maybe Game 150-something would’ve caped a 20-win season for Hamels, a few games after Halladay and Lee did.

Maybe somewhere between,

Maybe—really cranking out imagery here—Ryan Howard would earn his third-highest first baseman salary (behind Mark Teixeira and Adrian Gonzalez).

But it could’ve soured, too. Maybe injuries would’ve struck them where they were down, in the bullpen or starting rotation—maybe (gasp!) even one of the three dealers. Maybe the bug would’ve made headway where it hadn’t yet, the batting order. Hard to imagine how Phillies hitters would flop if one of their core went lame.

Maybe you bounce back. Maybe you don’t.

Maybe you add a piece. Maybe you can’t (or won’t).

But these four remove the moving parts. They simplify the machine. They reduce the equation to bite-size, with fewer letters (variables) than numbers (results)—the mix everybody can enjoy and be easy over.

In other words: you don’t have to make a move, whether it be a transaction or peaking over your shoulder.

Because know what you’ll find. And you know you’ll like it.

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Philadelphia Phillies: Placido Polanco Not Worthy of All-Star Start

Someone is going to have to help me figure this one out.

Placido Polanco will get the starting nod at third base for the National League when the All-Star Game commences next Tuesday. He’ll do so after being overwhelmingly elected by the fans, who I assume we are supposed to trust, right?

Another story for another day, I suppose, as to whether or not fan balloting should essentially help determine who gets home field advantage in the World Series. The story here is that Polanco may become, statistically, the worst starting third baseman in the history of the All-Star Game.

As of the completion of last night’s game in Florida, Polanco is hitting .274, with a .331 on-base percentage and .346 slugging percentage. Yes, that’s right, a man with a .676 OPS is going to start in the All-Star Game. What a wondrous world we live in.

They always said it’s good to have friends in high places. The popular Polanco may have benefited from voters in St. Louis and Detroit, two places Polanco called home in his Major League career. Not to mention the 30-some-odd times Citizens Bank Park opened its doors to All-Star voting this year.

So here we are, with a player hitting just over the Mendoza line since the first of May starting the All-Star Game. It’s hard to agree with the fans on this one. They were wrong, terribly wrong about a player who seems to avoid criticism in some way, shape or form in the city of Brotherly Love.

Yet to put a hit on the board in July, the reports are now coming out that Polanco is dealing with a sore back. It’s always interesting to see how the excuses come out when somebody is in a slump. If he’s injured, then maybe he shouldn’t be playing.

While Raul Ibanez was putting up a .569 OPS in June, Polanco was putting up a .545 OPS. Two men struggling, but only one taking criticism. Meanwhile, Polanco starts in the All-Star Game next Tuesday.

It seems like Philadelphia fans have forgotten the “what have you done for me lately” motto with Polanco, who simply put, is not producing. Yet Ibanez takes criticism and Polanco is above it. Riddle me that.

Polanco did nothing wrong here. He is not boisterous or loud, not clamoring for All-Star votes like his life depends on it. This one is on the fans, and as long as they have control, they will make mistakes now and again. They’ve made one here. Rewarding a player for having one good month seems to be the description of an All-Star in this situation.

Heck, if you could combine Polanco’s April with Ibanez’s May, maybe you’d have an All-Star player on your hands. This was not a cream of the crop type year for third basemen in the National League, that’s for sure.

It’s been a bit of a strange year, with severe injuries knocking guys like David Wright and Ryan Zimmerman out of the lineup for long periods of time. Pablo Sandoval has also suffered from the injury bug, and a guy like Casey McGehee has been unable to follow up his outstanding 2010.

The pickings were certainly slim, but Polanco made things a no-contest with his April. However, Polanco’s April is not his May and June, and he coasted to an easy All-Star victory despite not producing much since the first of May. 

As much as it may pain Phillies fans to read this, Chipper Jones has had a better year at the plate than the Phillies’ third baseman. Chase Headley has put together a strong season in San Diego, but with little name recognition, the Padres’ third-sacker had little chance. That is despite posting a .306/.394/.405 season thus far.

Even Aramis Ramirez in Chicago has a stronger case than Polanco.

Polanco may become the weakest third base All-Star starter since Scott Cooper of the Boston Red Sox in 1993 and 1994.

One thing Polanco does have going for him? He has had an above-average year at third defensively, and could be on his way to winning his first ever Gold Glove at third. (He has two at second base.)

Polanco’s advanced defensive numbers are well above his career norms, and it doesn’t take much to see that he has been in position and fielding well. But, is that worthy of an All-Star bid? Not necessarily.

That said, his WAR of 1.9 is not far off of Headley’s 2.0, which suggests one thing: it’s been an awful year for third basemen in the National League. In fact, it could be one of the worst on record.

Next Tuesday, Polanco can count his lucky stars that he had a little bit of name recognition, some friends in high places, and a whole lot of votes to push him to Arizona for the Midsummer Classic. Did he deserve it? Probably not.

In a weak year for third basemen, Polanco essentially took advantage of one thing: the fans voting him in on the Internet and at the ballpark.

And this time around, fan balloting reared its ugly head and sent a man to the All-Star Game who didn’t truly deserve it.

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Philadelphia Phillies: Why Shane Victorino Deserves to Be the Final All-Star

Shane Victorino is hoping to be heading to Arizona next week.

However, if he is going to do that, he needs fan support.

He is one of five players who are vying for the title in one final vote.

Victorino should not worry though.

When matching the other candidates up with Victorino, it seems as if he should really have the upper hand.

His performance this season has been strong, and you will see how he deserves to defeat all the other candidates for the vote.

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