Better Late Than Never

Well, I’m a little late, but baseball season is back and hopefully so is Heads or Tails. In my last post I mentioned that it was going to be an “interesting off season” for the Philadelphia Phillies. And boy was it. So let’s break it down.

Free Agency

As I had expected Jayson Werth, Jamie Moyer, and Mike Sweeney did not re-sign with the Phillies. Much to the dismay of Phillies fans, Werth signed a 7 year $127 MM deal with NL East rival Washington. Moyer sustained a serious injury while pitching during the winter and will miss all of the 2011 season. Sweeney has yet to find a team for the 2011 season but has expressed that he is interested in playing.

The Phil’s offered a minor league deal to Sweeney, but he has insisted on signing a major league deal with a contender. The other free agent on the Phil’s squad was Chad Durbin. I had speculated that the Phil’s would bring him back to ensure the long role of the bullpen would be locked up. They unfortunately did not. Durbin signed just last week with the Cleveland Indians.

Philadelphia did however make the biggest splash in free agency. After much speculation of Cliff Lee signing with the Yankees and the Rangers, the Phillies came out of nowhere and scooped him up for a five-year $125 MM deal. The five years is unusually long for the Phillies to go with a pitcher (who normally stand solid on a three year contract limit for pitchers), but Ruben Amaro Jr. was intent on correcting his mistake of letting Lee go in the first place.

Spring Training

There has been a lot of news coming out of Clearwater this year. Here are some of the most prominent story lines of the spring.

Chase Utley – Chase Utley has been diagnosed with tendinitis in his right knee. At first, this didn’t seem like a big deal. Now, a month into spring training, Utley has yet to play in a game and has received a cortisone shot. It is looking more and more like this injury is a bit more serious than was originally anticipated. When talking about the injury, Utley went as far as talking about “the big picture” of his career.

The four aces – Without a doubt one of the most talked about topics in baseball is the four aces the Phillies have acquired. There has been talks of them being the best rotation of all time and countless nicknames (Phab Four, R2C2 and on and on). Time will tell just how good the rotation is and if they can live up to the hype.

Charlie Manuel’s Contract – This is no longer an issue. Manuel signed a two year extension with the Phil’s last week ensuring that he will be the skipper in Philadelphia until he is at least 69 years old. Manuel has had an amazing run with the Phil’s and will be looking to continue that this year as they are the favorites to win the National League.

In addition to that the Phil’s re-upped Ruben Amaro Jr.’s contract adding on four more years. RAJ has been extraordinarily aggressive since stepping into the General Manager position after Pat Gillick retired.

Huge Expectations

With the addition of Cliff Lee to an already powerful group of starting pitchers, the Phillies are the favorites to win the National league. The offense will have to do their part too. Especially if Chase Utley misses a prolonged period of time due to injury. They will also have to make up for the loss of a right handed bat in the middle of the lineup (Werth).

Prediction

I believe the Phil’s could win 100 games this year. They finished the 2010 season with the best record in baseball. They could potentially do that again this season. It should definitely be a fun season.

A look at the Phillies Off season

Well it is that time of year again. Pitchers and catchers officially reported today for the Phillies. Baseball season is coming and it makes one wonder, can the Phillies win the National League East for a fourth straight time? Can they really make it to the World Series for the third straight time?

Let’s take a look at the moves they have done this off-season.

Trade for Roy Halladay – The Phillies traded three top prospects to the Blue Jays to get the pitcher they wanted at the trade deadline last season. Two of those prospects were tops in the Philadelphia farm system. Those two were RHP Kyle Drabek and Michael Taylor (Two players who were “untouchable” at the trade deadline in 2009).

It is clear that both Halladay and the Phillies organization wanted this trade to be completed. Halladay signed a three year $60MM contract extension in Philadelphia and seems genuinely excited to be playing for a contender. Halladay even said in a magazine article how excited he is to pitch with someone as good as Cole Hamels.

Dealt Lee - That’s right. He didn’t say Cliff Lee. Lee was traded in a completely unrelated deal that took place the same day. After his stellar performance in the Post-season last year, Lee was shipped to Seattle for three prospects including Phillippe Aumont who became the top pitching prospect in the organization. The other two are J.C. Ramirez, and Tyson Gillies

Lost bullpen help - Other pitchers that also are no longer with the organization are Scott Eyre who retired to tour the country in his RV, and Chan Ho Park, who is still a free agent at this point. The Phil’s have already expressed that they do not have the funds to re-sign Park. Both Park and Eyre made significant contributions to the Phillies Bullpen last season.

Brett Meyers and Clay Condrey are also no longer in Philadelphia. After eight seasons with the Phil’s, Brett Meyers was informed that he was no longer needed in Philadelphia. He signed with the Houston Astros with the GM who drafted him in Ed Wade. Condrey signed with the Minnesota Twins as a free agent.

Replenished the bullpen (Kind of) – The Phillies added two significant veteran pitchers to their bullpen in Jose Contreras (38) and Danys Baez as well as Oscar Villarreal (who signed a minor league deal).

Bolstered the bench – One of the glaring weaknesses of the Phillies last season was their weak bench which Charlie Manuel seemingly never used. After letting go of Eric Bruntlett, Miguel Cairo, 2009 mid-season acquisition Paul Bako, and fan favorite Matt Stairs, the Phil’s signed a number of bench players. The bench now looks like this: Ben Francisco, Brian Schneider, Greg Dobbs and Juan Castro.

Hot corner moves – The Phillies also did not pursue free agent Pedro Feliz after they failed to pick up his option for the 2010 season. Instead, they signed former Phillie and two-time gold glove second baseman Placido Polanco to fill in at third base. When Polanco played in Philadelphia the first time he played third base. Since, he has built quite a resume at 2nd playing for Detroit.

Securing the future –In addition to all the signings and losses, the Phil’s were able to lock up some of their core players. Jimmy Rollins had his 2011 option picked up. Shane Victorino ($22 MM), Joe Blanton ($24MM), and Carlos Ruiz ($9MM) were all signed to three year extensions within the same week.

Did I miss anything?

How did the Phillies do this offseason? Well needless to say it was a busy one. Going into spring training they have some questions to answer still.

One of which is who will be the 5th starter? Jamie Moyer had offseason surgery and then had complications afterwards. He will not be ready for the start of the season. After losing his starting job last season to Pedro Martinez, it has been rumored that the young Kyle Kendrick could replace Jamie in the rotation.

This is an exciting time of the year for baseball. Can the Phillies do it again? We will see.