Buster Olney reported that the Phillies traded for Oakland A’s starter Joe Blanton yesterday. It was a well known fact that the Phillies were going to make a move to bring in another starter, it was just a matter of finding the right team and players. Without having many top notch prospects in the farm system it was tough for the Phillies to bring in a big name starter like CC Sabathia or Rich Harden. Though the Phillies don’t have too much in the minors, they were still rather unwilling to trade the likes of Carlos Carrasco, Luke Donald, and Greg Golson.
The Phillies did give up one of their top prospects in 20 year old 2B Adrian Cardenas. Cardenas has been playing very well in Clearwater, but is at a position where he will not move up quickly in our organization. Left-handed pitcher Josh Outman (what a great last name for a pitcher) and outfielder Matthew Spencer were the other two included in the trade. Outman was converted into a reliever earlier in the season in hopes that he could move up quickly and join the big league bullpen. He pitched well, but not well enough to warrant a call-up. Spencer has been doing OK in Clearwater. He is more than likely one of the names that nobody will ever hear of again unless he’s included on the tail end of another trade somewhere down the line.
Although Blanton’s numbers don’t look very good this season (he is 5-12 with an ERA of 4.96), he is an innings eater, gets very little run support, and is under contract through 2010. That last part is a big reason why he was highly touted in the trade market. Often-times you will see a big name get traded for the second half of the season only to become a free agent at the end of the year and go elsewhere. Unless the Brewers make a splash in the playoffs I expect that to be the case with CC.
At any rate, Blanton is a much better option than Adam Eaton. It is presumed that Eaton will move to the bullpen. Brett Myers should be making his way back to the bigs sometime within the next 2 weeks. If he can get his stuff together and pitch decently, not even well, then the Phillies look to be in very good shape in the NL East. Right now, the Phillies are tied with the Mets who have been unreal on a current 10-game winning streak. Their run will stop, however, and they should drift back down a little bit.
The Phillies take on the Marlins and THE WORST ALL-STAR OF ALL TIMES tonight in Dan Uggla. Uggla was 0-4 with 3 Ks and grounded into a double play. As if that wasn’t enough destruction for him, he had 3 errors in the field! For all of you at thesouthfloridafan, HE IS NOT NOW, NOR WILL HE EVER BE BETTER THAN CHASE UTLEY. They will argue that Brad Lidge picked up the loss in the All-Star game, which is true. But, Lidge was called on to loosen up 6 different times in the game, and threw an estimated 100 pitches in the bullpen before finally coming in in the 15th inning. Hopefully he is rested by tonight in case we only have a 3 run lead in the 9th and it is a save situation.
