{"id":348,"date":"2009-07-29T23:38:10","date_gmt":"2009-07-30T03:38:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.broadstreetbelievers.com\/?p=348"},"modified":"2009-07-30T09:04:16","modified_gmt":"2009-07-30T13:04:16","slug":"my-how-the-times-have-changed","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/?p=348","title":{"rendered":"My, How the Times Have Changed"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"cliffUntil this season, if you said the words “Phillies” and “deadline deals” to me, it did not invoke good memories.\u00a0 Throughout my lifetime, trade “deadline” has been an appropriate term for Phillie fans, because it’s often been the signal that our season is, in fact, dead.\u00a0 Not that I was the biggest fan of Scott Rolen or Curt Schilling, but suffice it to say that\u00a0I was even much less of a fan of Bud Smith and Trevor Lee.\u00a0 Even as recently as 2006, Bobby Abreu was shipped\u00a0off to the Yankees.\u00a0<\/p>\n

While the team may have gone out and added a Kyle Lohse here or a Corey Lidle there to solidify the team for a possible late-season run, they were never the ones pulling in the names that lead on SportsCenter.\u00a0 Until Wednesday.\u00a0 Funny how winning a championship can change things.\u00a0 Cliff Lee is just a season removed from a Cy Young Award, and he may just make the Phillies the most purely talented team in baseball.\u00a0 This is the first time in my life that I’ve been able to make that statement.<\/p>\n

Other Comments on the Deal:<\/strong><\/p>\n

-Hats off to Ruben Amaro.\u00a0 As Jayson Stark wrote the other day, he was in an extremely tough position as this deadline approached, and he handled it beautifully.\u00a0 While a piece of my heart will always belong to Roy Halladay, if you can land a Cy Young winner in his prime without giving up any of your top 3 prospects or any major-league talent, you deserve a lot of credit.\u00a0 Between this deal and the way the Ibanez signing has worked out, Amaro has to be feeling pretty good right now.\u00a0<\/p>\n

-Hats off, one last time, to Mike Arbuckle, the former director of player development that departed after he was passed over for the GM job in favor of Amaro.\u00a0\u00a0Amaro\u00a0acquiring Lee\u00a0without giving up a top-3 prospect is impressive, but it was\u00a0only possible because of the job Arbuckle did in making sure the farm system was so well-stocked.\u00a0 The Phils gave up four good looking prospects in the deal, but the minor-league cupboard is still\u00a0far from bare.<\/p>\n

-Lee’s stats will be much discussed in the coming days, but here’s my favorite:\u00a0\u00a0in 223 innings last year he gave up 12 home runs.\u00a0 That’s the kind of pitcher you need at the Bank.<\/p>\n

-I don’t know much about Ben Francisco, but he looks like a nice addition to the bench.\u00a0 He plays all three outfield positions, has\u00a0decent pop, and he already\u00a0has 13 stolen bases this year, so he brings some speed to\u00a0the bench as well, which the Phillies need.\u00a0 Also,\u00a0it\u00a0looks like\u00a0he must have played at least one season\u00a0of college ball with Chase Utley, as he was a 2002\u00a0pick out of UCLA, and\u00a0Chase was taken in 2000.\u00a0<\/p>\n

-Suddenly, the Phillies have a surplus of starting pitchers, with seven: Hamels, Lee, Happ, Blanton, Moyer, Rodrigo Lopez, and Pedro when he comes back from the injury.\u00a0 It will be interesting to see who\u00a0end up as the odd men out.\u00a0 Lopez is the first obvious choice, but he’s pitched really well.\u00a0 Moyer is also a candidate to be bumped from the rotation, but that would be tough to do to the 46-year-old, and he wouldn’t really have any value coming out of the pen.\u00a0 These things tend to work themselves out with injuries or ineffectiveness, but there could be some bruised egos before it’s all said and done.\u00a0 In the end, of course, it’s a good problem for the team to have, and the four best guys will emerge as the eventual playoff rotation.\u00a0 It also might be worth moving Lopez in a trade.\u00a0 He must have at least some value right now, and it doesn’t seem like we have a place for him.\u00a0 In the meantime, Phillie fans will be anxiously waiting to see when the team manages to squeeze Lee into the rotation for his first start.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Until this season, if you said the words “Phillies” and “deadline deals” to me, it did not invoke good memories.\u00a0 Throughout my lifetime, trade “deadline” has been an appropriate term for Phillie fans, because it’s often been the signal that … 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":[689,655,277,396,16,395,22],"class_list":["post-348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mlb","tag-ben-francisco","tag-cliff-lee","tag-indians","tag-mike-arbuckle","tag-phillies","tag-ruben-amaro","tag-trade"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348","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=348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/348\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/broadstreetbelievers.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}