Philadelphia Phillies: Going Shopping
By Ryan Ritchey
The Philadelphia Phillies in 2013, were a very mediocre team. They fought injuries all season long to major players and just couldn’t find a rhythm. Ryan Howard, Chase Utley and Roy Halladay all spent time on the Disabled List. When three of your stars aren’t playing, you could be in trouble.
So, this offseason you would expect them to try to get better and bring players to Philly to try to turn their organization around back to its winning ways. Well, it has been the complete opposite.
Mandatory Credit: Daniel Shirey-USA TODAY Sports
The Phillies are going shopping. According to CBS Sports the Phillies are shopping Cliff Lee and Cole Hamels. Cliff Lee is arguably the most underrated pitcher that should be getting paid a lot more than he is. He is a strike throwing machine and can give you a great amount of innings along with that. Cole Hamels may have the best changeup the game has seen in a half of decade. If he is on with in, he is dominate, just look at his numbers from 2010-2012.
The Phillies have already gone out and spent $16 Million over the next two seasons on Marlon Byrd. If you are going to do that, why try to trade the pitching that you have? You can’t rely on prospects to win you a lot of games at the Major League level. The Phillies need to find some young, but established Major League talent to get back to their winning ways.
To go along with Lee and Hamels, the Phillies are also shopping closer Jonathan Papelbon and outfielder Domonic Brown. That is four guys on their Major League roster that could help them win some games in 2014. I don’t understand what the Phillies front office is trying to do, but it is crazy to think that they are going to throw the 2014 season away to rebuild. Jimmy Rollins only has a couple of seasons left, he doesn’t want that to happen.
So how does this affect the Nationals? Not all too much. It will only make it easier for them to win the division. If the Phillies are to keep all of their players they could compete, but without them, they will finish near the Marlins in the division. The Nationals are a serious front runner in the division after trading for Jerry Blevins and signing Nate McLouth and Doug Fister.
Good luck Philly fans, you are some of the most passionate fans in sport, but the Phillies front office isn’t doing you any favors by trading away a good amount of the talent on the team.