It's Hunting Season

For the first time in recent memory I did not think the Phillies needed to add anybody to their roster in a trade deadline deal. The Phils have had the best record in baseball for almost the entire season and they did that without getting much of anything from one of the four horsemen of the apocalypse, Roy Oswalt. Oswalt will be back in the rotation starting this week after missing the last two months with back issues. Phillies GMs have had busy Julys for the last five plus years, if my memory serves me correctly, the Phils added Jamie Moyer in 2006, Kyle Loshe in 2007, “Fat” Joe Blanton in 2008, a washed up but wily Pedro Martinez in 2009, and of course Roy Oswalt in 2010. I’m not sure of the exact number, but that is probably something like 500 combined wins from those pitchers in their careers. Each year I was excited by the moves, to varying degrees, I mean how excited could you be when you get a chubby guy from Oakland who was 4-12 with a 5+ ERA at the time (Blanton), or some guy who made his first ever start against Steve Carlton (Moyer), but nevertheless I thought all of the moves were justified and would help us. With the exception of the stink bomb Pedro threw up in the deciding game six of the 09 World Series, and a shaky start from Loshe in the 2007 sweep at the hands of the Rockies, these guys came through. Hell, Blanton hit a World Series home run. But this year I thought was different. All five of those acquired players were pitchers, and as the saying goes you can never have enough pitching, but the Phillies are as close as you can be to proving that saying wrong. I know the offense has struggled at times, but I did not want to give up on Dom Brown despite the fact that he catches every fly ball like he is scared that he is going to completely miss it and it could hit him in the head. Have you seen his move where he will catch a ball that is on the left side of his body with his lanky right arm reaching all the way across his even lankier frame as if he couldn’t possibly get underneath the damn thing? What’s he thinkin there?!? His penchant for popping up foul to the third baseman with some sort of back-elbow-dipping loopy swing was freaking me out as well, but I digresse. I also thought the emergence of Vance Worley was too much of a good thing to give up on immediately even though there is a large likelihood that his stock is as high as it will ever be. So, whenever anybody asked me, “Who do you want to see us get?” or “What do you think we need?” I told them all that I think we should stand pat because if we can’t win with this team, we can’t win. Period.

Quick tangent. Can anybody believe the Yankees did not make a move at the deadline? Their GM’s name is CASH(!)man. I just hope they know starting CC in three out of five games in the ALDS could be detrimental to his health.

Everybody knows that the bearded flight of Jayson Werth to Citizen’s Bank Park South, erruhh Nationals Park left a sizeable void in the fifth spot in the Phillies lineup. If a righty starts against the Phillies, the lineup is chock full of left-handed bats. Most notably their run producing, All-Star combo of Chase Utley and Ryan Howard. Their spots as the number three and four hitters respectively are non-negotiable in the batting order when they are healthy. Werth created the ideal situation as a protector of these two, a right-handed power bat who worked counts and struck a solid amount of fear into opposing pitchers. It was a huge bonus to know that if a manager brought in a lefty to face Utley and Howard, he would have to make another trip out if Utley and Howard did any damage because that manager would not want to give Werth the opportunity to hit a southpaw. Werth provided possibly the most important asset this offense needs: protection for The Big Piece. If you watch the game, it is clear that Ryan Howard would much rather hit fastballs off the face of the bricks out in center than flail away helplessly because some goofy looking dude sprinted in from the bullpen and threw him Frisbee like breaking balls down and away. Have you seen that happen? So Charlie has used a lot of different guys in the five hole this year, mostly Shane Victorino and Raul Ibanez. They did a decent enough job, but the lineup certainly did not have the same feel as it did the past few years with the Utley, Howard, Werth trio penciled in at 3, 4, and 5. I did not think that this mattered though because of the studs we had on the hill each night.

The two biggest names being bandied about as July wore on were the Mets’ rightfielder and consummate under-achiever Carlos Beltran and the “tweaker” as my friends lovingly refer to as Hunter Pence. Beltran is a proven commodity and brings five tools to the table but is only under contract for the rest of the season and an acquisition of him would basically equate to a 2 (to 3) month rental. Also, Beltran signed a giant contract and had solid years for the Mets but you never felt like he was playing up to what he was capable of, save his first year as a Met, and the first half of this season. Other than his contract status, the main knock on Beltran was that he was a Met. And that’s all I have to say about that. Hunter Pence was a guy that I feared in Houston. I knew he looked, threw, and ran in an unorthodox manner but I also knew he was a .300 hitter with power who could also steal some bases. Nevertheless, I was standing firm in my assertion that we were fine as is.

Then, while we were in the midst of a three game series against the San Francisco Giants, the team that beat us in the NLCS last year and went on to win the World Series, the team that boasted nobody with more than nine home runs at the time of the trade, the team that had enough pitching despite their putrid (if you think the Phillies are frustrating on offense you would not want to live in San Fran, as I write this the Giants have scored 384 runs compared to the Phillies 471) offense to sit atop the NL West, yeah, that team, went out and picked up Carlos Beltran. He immediately became their leader or second best player in every meaningful offensive category; batting average, home runs, RBIs, on base %, OPS, you name it (oh yeah, he leads the NL in doubles). Needless to say, this was a big time acquisition for the only team the Phillies have a right to not feel absolutely great about facing in the playoffs. This move forced Phils’ GM Ruben Amaro’s hand. To use another gratuitous poker reference, the Phils are pot committed on this season and it would be alright for them to mortgage a bit of their future in order to win it all this season. The same is true for the next two seasons. Too much money is invested on players that are nearing the end of their primes for the Phils to not lay it all on the line each season. Although I did not necessarily want to get rid of Vance Worley or Domonic Brown, for the reasons above I knew I would grit and bare it if they had to go in order to get Pence. Luckily, Ruben Amaro appears to be one of these, and we landed what is possibly the best possible fit for our offense in Hunter Pence without giving up any Major League players. Maybe Ed Wade is just one of these though, either way I’ll take it (Ed Wade is former Phillies GM and current Houston Astros GM). So, the Phils acquired Hunter Pence on Friday night and he was in uniform for Saturday night’s game against the Pirates. The Phils are 4-0 with Pence in the lineup and he got to play in two come-from-behind extra inning wins on Sunday and Monday. What must be going through that kid’s head? He went from the worst team in baseball to the best team in baseball. The Phils last two wins are the kind of wins they will talk about on the 2011 season DVD. Right now the Phils are finding ways to win. One 2-run homer at a time.

Update - Howard has obviously benefitted from Hunter Pence's presence behind him in the lineup. Since Pence joined the team, Howard has gone 9-22 with 4 home runs, 4 doubles, and 9 RBIs. The Phils have won six straight, sweeping both the Pirates and the Rockies, and Pence has yet to lose a game as a Phillie.