With yesterday’s post only a mere hours old, Pat Gillick listened–and got starting pitching. The Phillies sent three minor leaguers to Oakland for starting pitcher Joe Blanton. I really, really like this deal for several reasons:
- Blanton is an innings-eater. So, even if he does not end up being a lights-out starter in the playoffs like the Brewers and Cubs hope of Sabathia and Harden, respectively, at least Blanton will give the Phillies more than the 4+ lines that they have been getting from Adam Eaton every fifth day. And, this resting of the bullpen could go a real long way in August and September as the Phillies continue to try and hold off the red-hot Mets.
They did not really give up that much for him. The Phillies unloaded three prospects to the A’s, with the best being an A-ball secondbaseman Adrian Cardenas. Cardenas was a sandwich pick in the 2006 draft and was drafted as trade bait from the very beginning, considering the Phillies are pretty comfortable with their secondbase situation in the foreseeable future. They also gave up their 2007 third-round pick, Matthew Spencer (an outfielder in A-ball) and their 2005 10th round pick, Josh Outman (a left-handed relief pitcher in AA). Outman will probably reach the bigs, but does not project to anything more than a specialist left-hander, and Spencer has a decent “upside” and has a chance to reach the bigs, but is only currently hitting .249 at Clearwater. So, in the grand scheme of things, I do not think that the Phillies will be looking back on this trade and kicking themselves about the guys that they gave up.- This is not a rental. As I mentioned in my defense of their interest in Blanton, yesterday, I believe that this is a smart move because Blanton is not a free agent until after the 2010 season. Therefore, the Phillies have acquired a 27-year old pitcher who is clearly on pace to complete his fourth straight season of at least 190 innings pitched (including 230 innings last year). So, you can expect the Phillies to get 500 decent innings out of Blanton over the next two and a half seasons. And, in this era of baseball, the so-called “innings-eaters” are becoming more and more valuable because of their increasing rarity and the dearth of (and expense of) quality middle relief. At worst, Blanton will be an innings-eater in the vein of Livan Hernandez. At best, Blanton, whose ERA in both of his 200-inning seasons was under 4.00 (and WHIP under 1.25), is a solid #2 starter and possibly a borderline All-Star.
- I still believe in Brett Myers. Again, this is probably going to hurt my “objectivity” credibility, but I still believe in our #2, which means Blanton only has to be a solid #3–something that is a much easier sell. I am not going to get too far into why I believe in Myers for fear of sounding like a fool, but let us just say that I think Myers can undoubtably be a solid #2 in this league, which means that for the next two and a half seasons, the Phillies can run out solid pitchers at all three top spots in their rotation. Yes, I am probably completely crazy at this point, but that is what 75 consecutive championship-less seasons will do to a man (I do not count the Flyers seasons as towards my misery because, well, it is hockey).
In summary, Blanton is, admittedly, probably closer to Livan Hernandez than anyone who played in Yankee Stadium on Tuesday night, but still, I really like the deal because the Phillies had to do something for this year and the next couple years, and this move was not very expensive from a prospect or from a salary standpoint.
Do we have to go through the Brett Myers discussion again? His lifetime numbers are shockingly similar to Steve Trachsel’s numbers before he turned 90 years old and posted an ERA over 8 the last two years. Wait a minute, even with his last two years above 8 era, he STILL has a better lifetime ERA than Brett Myers! Face it, your “#2” is a #5. But the most frustrating part (from your perspective) is that he was actually effective as a reliever last season, so gets some smarts and stick him in the set-up role where he belongs. Personally, I hope he’s your “#2” starter for a good long time.
Blanton’s a good move, but only because they gave up next to nothing for him and he’s pretty cheap. So if he turns out to be a bust they haven’t really lost anything.
I’m with you on the Blanton deal. He moves Eaton out of the starting rotation – that in itself is worth the deal. Myers I don’t have confidence in. He’s always been a thrower, not a pitcher, with great stuff but nothing between the shoulders. That means he’ll be an effective starter only when his stuff is really on. The other 30-50% of his starts, he won’t be able to get that kid out from Single A we gave up.