{"id":14,"date":"2007-11-08T12:52:05","date_gmt":"2007-11-08T16:52:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.broadstreetbelievers.com\/?p=14"},"modified":"2007-11-08T17:22:45","modified_gmt":"2007-11-08T21:22:45","slug":"huge-trade-for-the-phils","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/?p=14","title":{"rendered":"Huge Trade for the Phils"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last night, the Phillies made the first big move by any team this off-season, making a trade <\/a>with the Houston Astros for former All-Star closer Brad Lidge.\u00a0 They also acquired infielder Eric Bruntlett in the deal\u00a0and sent outfielder Michael Bourn, relief pitcher Geoff Geary, and third-base prospect Mike Costanzo to Houston.<\/p>\n

The trade allows the Phillies to move Brett Myers back to the starting rotation next season, with Lidge taking over his vacated closer role.\u00a0 Lidge has had some struggles over the last couple of seasons, but there are indications that he could return to being the dominant closer he was in 2004 and 2005.\u00a0 After all, he’s still only 30 years-old and he had 19 \"lidge\"saves\u00a0after the All-Star break in ’07.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Myers has said he prefers to close, but I’ve been saying for months that he should be back in the rotation in ’08.\u00a0 As Pat Gillick said, he’s better than any of the starting pitchers available on the free-agent market and I think it’s easier to find a capable closer than a capable #2 or #3 starter.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It’s not surprising to see the Phillies deal with the Astros, as former Phils GM Ed Wade took over in Houston last month.\u00a0 I would think that Ruben Amaro Jr.\u00a0was\u00a0more involved in this trade than usual, as Wade is his mentor and the\u00a0man that hired him as the Phils assistant GM.\u00a0<\/p>\n

All three players the Phillies gave up in the deal were draft picks during Wade’s tenure.\u00a0 Bourn is a promising outfielder with speed, but he was expendable with the similar Shane Victorino already entrenched in the outfield.\u00a0 Geary has been a useful reliever but I’ve never had too much confidence in him and it’s not much of a loss.\u00a0 One question mark in the deal is Costanzo.\u00a0 He is a local product that many hoped would develop into the third-baseman the Phillies\u00a0have been looking for since Scott Rolen left town.\u00a0 He had a very good year at AA Reading and I would look for him to be in the majors by 2009.\u00a0 How good he will be is still anyone’s guess, though.<\/p>\n

I think parting with Costanzo was well worth it.\u00a0 The Phillies showed this year that they are on the verge of being title contenders.\u00a0 Acquiring Lidge allows them to improve their rotation (and very possibly the bullpen) without losing any major league talent of great consequence or spending a\u00a0ton\u00a0of money.\u00a0 Gillick\u00a0says he will continue to pursue a starting pitcher and this deal brings the 2008 roster into much clearer focus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Last night, the Phillies made the first big move by any team this off-season, making a trade with the Houston Astros for former All-Star closer Brad Lidge.\u00a0 They also acquired infielder Eric Bruntlett in the deal\u00a0and sent outfielder Michael Bourn, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[26,23,28,24,27,29,25,16,22],"class_list":["post-14","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mlb","tag-astros","tag-brad-lidge","tag-brett-myers","tag-ed-wade","tag-michael-bourn","tag-mike-costanzo","tag-pat-gillick","tag-phillies","tag-trade"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}