Philadelphia Phillies Free Agency: 8 Signs a Cole Hamels Extension Is Coming

The Phillies pitchers, catchers and most of the the position players have reported to Clearwater, Fla. Already have we seen the Phillies re-sign Kyle Kendrick to his second contract of the offseason, could Cole Hamels be next? Hamels enters camp with only one year of club control left with the Phillies.

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10 Ways a Tough NL East Could Help the Phillies in 2012

In 2011, the Phillies finished 30 games ahead of the Marlins.  

Now, in a new stadium in Miami, the Marlins enter 2012 with a new manager (Ozzie Guillen); some new all-stars (Jose Reyes and Heath Bell); another solid veteran starter (Mark Buehrle); and the personality to be one of the most entertaining teams—on and off the field—in all of baseball.

In 2011, the Phillies finished 21.5 games ahead of the Nationals.  

No longer expected to be a doormat in the NL East, the Nationals shored up their bullpen by signing former Phillies Brad Lidge and Chad Durbin in the offseason. They also brought in starters Gio Gonzalez and Edwin Jackson.  

With a full season from Stephen Strasburg, a healthy Ryan Zimmerman, a possible cameo from uber-prospect Bryce Harper, and Jayson Werth looking to rebound from a disappointing 2011, the Nationals have their eyes on a surprise playoff appearance in 2012.

In 2011, the Phillies finished 13 games ahead of the Braves.  

Though Atlanta collapsed at the end of last season, they return a very good team with young players, such as Jason Heyward, Jair Jurrjens and Craig Kimbrel. They are looking to prove that the future of the previously 14-time defending NL East champions is in good hands.

In 2011 the Phillies finished 25 games ahead of the Mets.  

That…well, that actually could happen again in 2012.

The point is, the NL East should be very competitive this year.  And while that is definitely going to make things tougher for the Phillies in their quest for a third World Series title, there are some silver linings to playing in a more difficult division.

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Philadelphia Phillies: Pairs of Pitchers and Catchers

Good things come in twos. Philly knows this. Its pairings are magical. Soft pretzels and mustard.  Pepper and egg. Hall and Oates. Tasty and Kake. 

One match matters most: pitchers and catchers. The words alone warm the hearts of Phillies fans everywhere. They ward off the wind chill, especially this year.    

It has been a long winter. Much business remains. The promise of a parade went unfulfilled last autumn. One hundred-two regular season wins dissolved into the night. 

Poof, they were gone. Maybe that squirrel took them. No matter, only the St. Louis Cardinals, a wild-card team, remained. They played on. The Phillies went home. The ache lingered long.    

But that was then. Pitchers and catchers is now. The mitts are popping. Hopes are renewed, and among Phillies fans, they remain high. This is for good reason. A bunch of them, actually, and they come in pairs.

Start with the best battery in baseball. That is, of course, Roy “Doc” Halladay and Carlos “Chooch” Ruiz. They are a pair worth watching have a catch. Just ask opposing batters; they get caught looking all of the time. 

“Doc” and “Chooch” make making history look routine. First, they combined for a perfect game. Then, they paired for a no-hitter—in the postseason, no less. 

“Doc” was a pretty fair pitcher before coming to Philly. Since he hooked up with “Chooch,” though, his ERA has never been lower. It came in at 2.35 last year, down from 2.44 the year before. 

If Halladay and Ruiz become any more in sync, the Phillies will need to start selling “Doc ‘n Chooch” jerseys (no doubt the “Gnats” will try to ban them).  

Cliff Lee and Cole Hamels follow Halladay in the rotation. They constitute a wicked pair of lefties.  Combined, they started 63 games last year and won 31 of them.      

Hamels won 11 of his 14 games prior to the all-star break last season. Lee was nearly unhittable after the break, going 8-2 with an ERA of 1.79.

While Hamels tailed off last year, going 3-5 after the break with a 3.54 ERA, he still managed to give the Phillies more innings (84) in the second half than anyone else in the rotation not named Halladay (90.1) or Lee (95.1).

He also dialed down the drama. Hamels avoided melting down as he once did when things went wrong. He recovered to throw six shutout innings in his only postseason appearance against the St. Louis Cardinals in the NLDS.

Such newfound resiliency is surely attributable to Lee’s influence. After all, Lee followed up his demotion to the minors (2007) by winning the AL Cy Young award (2008) with the Cleveland Indians.   

The pair that rounds out the Phillies rotation consists of Vance Worley and Joe Blanton. 

Worley emerged from nowhere last year to win 11 games. He only lost three. On a staff stacked with winners, Worley’s winning percentage (.785) stands out. 

Worley’s partner is no Cy Young. He is an average Joe—all substance, no flash. Blanton’s everyman demeanor works well to complement Worley’s mohawk hairstyle and fashionable eyewear. It also provides the young pitcher with a model of consistency.               

Last year the Phillies famously dealt four aces. This year, the team will be dealing in pairs. That extends into the bullpen. 

There a freshly arrived duo will wait to close things out. During the offseason, the Phillies acquired closer Jon Papelbon, a free agent from the Red Sox. 

As part of the deal, they also received Papelbon’s alter ego “Cinco Ocho.” The addition cost the Phillies nothing extra. They did not even have to throw in a draft pick.    

Papelbon and his fastball firing alias have combined to save 200 games faster than any other single pitcher in history. Who said two closers aren’t as good as one?

It is unclear whether Papelbon and “Cinco Ocho” warm up one another or if they require a catcher.  Whatever the case, the latest pair to join the Phillies is vital to the team’s success.

Pitchers and catchers, indeed. Who could have guessed the prospect of having a catch could be so entertaining?

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5 Reasons Why Roy Halladay Is MLB’s Most Intriguing Man Entering Spring Training

If there is one player in Major League Baseball you could choose to pick their brains over a meal, who would it be?

My choice: Philadelphia Phillies starting pitcher Roy Halladay.

Why?

Here is a player who has dominated his entire professional baseball career, and at a 188-92, record he may be the one of the last pitchers to reach the 300 wins mark in modern day baseball.

In addition, his dominance in both the American League and National League is admirable. He’s shown the ability to adjust through diversity of the leagues and achieve every major accomplishment possible.

Off the field, he has never encountered any problems or situation to land himself in a negative spotlight. If anything, he has only done great things outside the lines that would make anyone on this earth love him. 

Here is a breakdown of why Roy Halladay is the most intriguing man in baseball right now.

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Philadelphia Phillies: Cole Hamels Wants to Win, Says Phillies Fill That Need

Cole Hamels says there is no timeline for reaching a long-term contract with the Philadelphia Phillies, but he hopes that his agent and Ruben Amaro Jr. remain in contact while he continues to focus on producing on the field. For Hamels, all that maters most in 2012 is getting back to and winning the World Series.

“All I ultimately want to do is play for a winning team, and the Phillies want to be a winning team,” Hamels said Monday.

Hamels is entering the final year of his current contract, worth $15 million. He signed the one-year contract in January to avoid arbitration. With Hamels suggesting he would like to stay in Philadelphia and the Phillies looking to reciprocate the feeling, the chances appear pretty good that Hamels will work out a contract with the Phillies, whether it is a long-term deal or another multi-year deal.

Hamels will be the third highest-paid pitcher in the Phillies’ projected starting rotation with Cliff Lee being paid $21.5 million and Roy Halladay being paid $20 million this season.

The contract most in the industry point to as a potential model for what Hamels may ultimately sign is Jered Weaver of the Los Angeles Angels. Weaver signed a five-year contract worth $85 million last August, netting him $20 million in the final year of his contract. Hamels could potentially make more as salaries increase for premier players, especially those on the mound.

The Phillies have three pitchers who would be legitimate ace pitchers on any other team, or close to it. Hamels was that guy on this staff before the acquisitions of Lee, Halladay, Roy Oswalt and Lee (uhh, again).

If you took a temperature of what Hamels wants today, it is not necessarily to be the main guy on the mound. Hamels never shied away from wanting to be the best at his position, even referencing Tim Lincecum’s individual accolades at one point when comparing himself to other star pitchers.

Hamels says he is a hard-working competitor, and few would intelligently argue that concept after one of his finest seasons in the big leagues with a career low in ERA (2.79), and dropping his walks allowed (from 61 in 2010 to 44 in 2011) and home runs allowed (from 26 in 2010 to 19 in 2011).

Hamels does not appear to be going anywhere, and that should be great news for Phillies fans. That should mean two more full seasons of Halladay, Lee and Hamels guaranteed. Halladay’s contract expires after the 2013 season, but he has a 2014 option.

 

Kevin McGuire is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter, like him on Facebook and add him to your Google+ circle. This article was originally published and appears on Macho Row.

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25 Unheralded Stars from the ‘Dark Days’ of Philadelphia Phillies Baseball

Life has been sweet for fans of the Philadelphia Phillies gifted with short-term memory. The club has reeled off five straight division titles, won a World Series and has grown to become one of the most dominant forces in the sport of baseball.

It hasn’t always been that way. Not even close.

Fans with a long-term memory will recall that the Phillies were, once upon a time and several times over, one of the worst teams in baseball. They struggled with a number of issues, including terrible ownership, almost no source of revenue, a downtrodden ballpark and a payroll that would make today’s Tampa Bay Rays seem like high-rollers.

The result of that off-the-field struggle was an obvious on-the-field catastrophe. The Phillies failed to field teams capable of winning anything, let alone a title, and played several periods of baseball that were hard  to watch. The Phillies have had their share of dark days indeed.

However, though they, as a whole, were comparable to the Bad News Bears at times, the Phillies still managed to find their diamonds in the rough. In their dark days, the Phillies found a number of very good players, players who often fail to receive the recognition they deserve because of the time period they played in.

May they be unheralded no longer.

For up to the minute Phillies information, check out Greg’s blog: The Phillies Phactor.

Follow @Greg_Pinto

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Philadelphia Phillies: Kyle Kendrick’s Contract Extension Is Puzzling

The Philadelphia Phillies announced today that they have signed Kyle Kendrick to a two-year contract extension worth $7.5 million through 2013. This news comes a month after the team avoided arbitration by signing Kendrick to a one-year deal worth $3.5 million—meaning that Kendrick will make about $4 million in 2013.

This move is a bit of a head-scratcher to me.

Sure, Kendrick posted a 3.22 ERA and had a successful year by the standards we’ve come to expect of him in 2011, but he was helped by a career-low .261 BABIP (batting average on balls in play). He also didn’t really strike anyone out, as he registered only 4.63 strikeouts per nine innings. It seems like Kendrick had a pretty lucky year in 2011.

This is not to say that I don’t think Kendrick is a useful piece of the Phillies’ bullpen, but I just don’t think he’s a piece worth $7.5 million over the next two years. Predictions for Kendrick’s ERA in 2012 are all somewhere around the 4.2-4.3 range. Given the general dominance of pitching throughout baseball these last couple seasons, that’s about the stats I’d expect from a replacement-level player as a long man out of the bullpen.

It was also an unnecessary move to extend Kendrick now. As mentioned earlier, the Phillies had already agreed with him on a contract for 2012, so to extend their replacement-level long man a year before they had to seems like an odd move, in my opinion.  

For a team that could use some extra money to shore up their left field situation, sign another utility infielder or even make a run at Roy Oswalt if his price drops more, this move just doesn’t make sense to me. 

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Philadelphia Phillies: Kyle Kendrick Has Stood the Test of Time in Philadelphia

As pitchers and catchers begin their spring routine in Clearwater, Florida today, the Philadelphia Phillies announced they had signed pitcher Kyle Kendrick to a two-year contract worth a reported $7.5 million. Kendrick will be a part of the Phillies pitching staff now through the 2013 season, avoiding arbitration along the way.

Good for him.

There is no question that we have seen the good and bad of Kendrick in his professional career, dating back to the 2007 season. After going 10-4 in his first year with the club, with a 3.87 ERA, Kendrick was a frustrating 11-9 with a 5.49 ERA in 2008, while the offense pulled him out of trouble on multiple occasions on the way to a World Series championship.

Kendrick’s role was reduced to bullpen duty and emergency starter status when he was not in Lehigh Valley trying to retool his game in 2009. After struggling with command, and with the emergence of J.A. Happ on the mound (or so we thought), Kendrick actually ended the season with a 3-1 record and a very respectable 3.42 ERA, mostly out of relief duty.

With no room on the starting rotation for Kendrick, it appeared as though the Phillies found a good situation for Kendrick, who had adjusted to life out of the bullpen. Having Kendrick in long-relief situations gave the Phillies a decent arm to count on, and one that could be used as an emergency starter if needed.

In 2010, with the Phillies welcoming Roy Halladay to the team, Kendrick was known to arrive to the training facility and shadow Halladay as much as possible, sometimes even beating the hard-working Halladay to the Carpenter complex.

There was no better mentor or model for Kendrick of course as Halladay was set to embark on his first season in Philadelphia, knowing the World Series expectations that were in front of him. Halladay has been a well-documented hard worker, and if Kendrick happened to learn a few things along the way then it could only serve as a benefit for a guy who knows that a trip to Lehigh is never far away.

Kendrick had an up and down 2010 season, going 11-10 with a 4.73 ERA in 33 games, starting 31. He gave up a career high in hits (199) and tied a career high in runs allowed (103) and earned runs (95). A victim of the long ball (26 home runs allowed, a career high), Kendrick also struggled with command at times. But he did show signs of improvement as the season went along at times. Still, Kendrick was inconsistent overall, going 2-3 in September, failing to reach the sixth inning three times in five starts.

Last season Kendrick posted career bests with a 3.22 ERA and 110 hits allowed (with a minimum of 20 games played), while reducing his home runs allowed to nearly half (14) and cutting down on walks (49 in 2010 to 30, with one more intentional walk). Kendrick played out of the bullpen and as a starter, starting 15 games out of 34 total pitched, to once again show his value to the Phillies.

Kendrick is not a strikeout pitcher by any means and will never deserve to be compared to the likes of Halladay, Cliff Lee or Cole Hamels, but his value to the pitching staff should not be understated. He is a ground ball pitcher that relies on contact, and for his place on the starting rotation, or out of the bullpen, that can go a long way.

This two-year contract seems to be deserved. He will see a slight increase compared to his 2011 salary. Now the question will be whether or not he will be needed much as a starting pitcher in 2012. The starting rotation looks as though it will be set with Halladay, Lee, Hamels, Joe Blanton and Vance Worley, but Kendrick will almost certainly be the first man in case of an injury to any of these projected starters. Joe Blanton is hoping to rebound from an injury-riddled 2011 season, and it remains to be seen if Worley can avoid a sophomore slump (the same that hit Kendrick and Happ previously).

 

Kevin McGuire is a featured columnist for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter, like him on Facebook and add him to your Google+ circle. This article was originally published and appears on Macho Row.

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Phillies Are Favorites to Win It All: A Look at Odds to Win 2012 World Series

It is that time of the year again.

Teams are preparing to begin a new season. A new season that brings along a new hope, a new outlook and the chance to achieve the ultimate goal: A World Series Championship.

So who are the favorites to win it all this year? 

According to bovada.lv, the Philadelphia Phillies are the overall favorite, with 6:1 odds. The Los Angeles Angels, with the additions of Albert Pujols and C.J. Wilson are the second most likely to win, at 13:2. 

The New York Yankees round out the top three as 7:1 favorites.

The worst chances to win? Those honors go to the Baltimore Orioles and the Houston Astros, both with 150:1 odds.

Here is a look at the complete list of teams and their chances of being the last team to celebrate on the diamond this season.

Philadelphia Phillies 6:1    

Los Angeles Angels 13:2    

New York Yankees 7:1    

Detroit Tigers 8:1    

Texas Rangers 10:1    

Boston Red Sox 12:1    

Miami Marlins 15:1    

San Francisco Giants 16:1    

Cincinnati Reds 22:1    

St. Louis Cardinals 22:1    

Tampa Bay Rays 22:1    

Arizona Diamondbacks 25:1    

Atlanta Braves 25:1    

Washington Nationals 28:1    

Colorado Rockies 35:1    

Milwaukee Brewers 35:1    

Chicago Cubs 40:1    

Los Angeles Dodgers 40:1    

Toronto Blue Jays 40:1    

Chicago White Sox 60:1    

Cleveland Indians 65:1    

Minnesota Twins 65:1    

Oakland Athletics 65:1    

Kansas City Royals 75:1    

New York Mets 75:1    

Pittsburgh Pirates 75:1    

San Diego Padres 90:1    

Seattle Mariners 90:1    

Baltimore Orioles 150:1    

Houston Astros 150:1 

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Spring Training Preview: Phillies Must Be Wary of Improved NL East

With pitchers and catchers set to report to Clearwater in a mere two days, it’s time to start wrapping our minds around a fresh season of Major League Baseball.

Since winning the NL East title in 2007, the Phillies have been the class, not just of the East, but of the entire National League. They have been to two World Series’ since 2007, winning that memorable series against Tampa Bay in 2008.

At this point it would be easy to look at the Phillies roster and pencil them in for 95 wins and another National League East crown.

However, I’m not ready to jump to conclusions yet.

After an offseason of surprise signings and departures, the National League East is looking like one of the more competitive divisions in baseball.

While the Phils did enhance their bullpen in the form of closer Jonathan Papelbon and middle relievers Dontrelle Willis and Chad Qualls, they did not add a definitive answer at first base to replace the injured Ryan Howard.

Jim Thome is a start, but there are still questions about his ability to field the position at 41 years old. Thome will be a huge upgrade as a bat off of the bench, but his presence in the field may be minimal.

The Phillies also added veteran infielder Ty Wigginton, and if I had to guess I’d say Wigginton will be the primary replacement for Howard until he is able to return from his torn Achilles.

When evaluating the rest of the division it’s easy to notice vast improvement.

While the Mets and Braves didn’t add much this offseason, the Nationals and Marlins sure did.

With their new stadium set to open this season, the Miami Marlins knew they had to make a big impact in free agency.

They did not waste any time.

After hiring Ozzie Guillen as the new face of their franchise they went out and signed All-Star shortstop José Reyes to a six-year, $106 million deal.

In addition to signing Reyes, the Marlins also snagged former White Sox hurler Mark Buehrle, and eventually signed All-Star closer Heath Bell, formerly of the Padres.

Meanwhile, the Washington Nationals kept busy, signing former Phillies Brad Lidge and Chad Durbin to bolster their bullpen.

While those names don’t seem like a big deal, they will provide necessary depth. In addition, the Nationals drastically improved their starting rotation by adding pitchers Gio Gonzalez and Edwin Jackson who combined to win 28 games and strike out 345 batters a year ago.

Maybe the Nationals won’t make a run towards the playoffs this year, but I would expect Miami to be in contention for a Wild Card spot at the very least.

So while the Marlins and Nationals may not be as well-rounded as the Phillies, they’re taking notes on how to become like the reigning NL East champs.

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