The Zo Zone

I guess the Phillies brass know more than me, but I feel confident that either Happ or Carrasco (probably the latter) could hold down the fifth starter spot should Eaton struggle.

The best option would be to re-sign Romero and go after Rowand. With whatever's left, go for a scrub fifth starter.

Why is it so hard for the Phillies organization to realize that to actually get better, you have to do a little bit MORE? If they go the direction of adding pitching and letting Rowand go, I can see it now:

"While the 2008 Phillies had a much improved pitching staff, they fell just short of making the playoffs due to a less potent offensive attack and a lack of leadership in the clubhouse. They just didn't score enough runs to win those close games, and that 'do or die' attitude seemed to be missing."

Hey, we may not get Rowand due to some wacko team giving him a ridiculous contract, but please let's not lose him for lack of trying!

Go Phils!

Two ways to look at the deal:

1. Cost of starting pitching: We all know how high the cost has been, both in trades and free agency. Assuming that Lidge isn't much of a downgrade from Myers at closer, which seems like a strong assumption, we just picked up a great starting pitcher in Myers for the cost of Geary and Bourne. I'd like to see when the offseason is over what other club picked up a starter of Myers' caliber for so little.

2. Flexibility in the offseason: The Phillies entered postseason talks with a gaping hole in their rotation, which put them in the position of needing to address rotation first. As of right now, they have an acceptable rotation and a really good lineup. Even without Rowand, whom they haven't lost yet,they don't have any gaping holes. If they resign Romero, the back of the bullpen looks like Madson, Romero, Gordon and Lidge. That's potentially better than a lot of teams. You never really know what may become available through either trades or free agency that will improve the team. The thing is, before this deal, if an opportunity came along, Phillies management would have to think Pitching first. Now whatever resources they have are freed up to move on the best opportunities that come along.

Either way, looks like a good move. Yes, it could turn out otherwise, but that's true with any deal. I think it's pointless to fault management for a Garcia type situation. If it happens again, it happens - there's no way to protect against it. Meanwhile, Gillick and crew have taken a trick at the start of the offseason.

I like Aaron Rowand, too, but do you really think he's the only guy in that clubhouse with a do-or-die attitude?

How about J-Roll, who played his heart out?

How about Chase? (Chase loves the game so much ... I have this mental image of Utley, knocking on doors in his neighborhood in the offseason, trying to find someone -- anyone -- to play baseball with him.)

How about Shane-O, who literally fell into the stands, trying to catch a ball?

The Phils have plenty of leaders. What they didn't have, last year, was plenty of decent pitching.

I like Rowand too, and would love for him to return, but I wouldn't overpay him. He is not worth the dollars he is likely to get. He had a career year this year, on a team that made the playoffs, so he is going to get more than he's worth. Its not like he's a 30hr, 100RBI guy that we can't do without. He's more leadership than anything, and I think this team has learned enough over the past year that losing one leader won't destroy the team.

I also don't think we can always take statements by the GM at face value. Sure, he is going to focus on pitching, but that doesn't mean if the right move or player comes along to fill a hole in the OF or 3B that he won't make a deal.

I understand the need for pitching being first on the priority list. But if the Phillies are happy with Burrell, Victorino, Werth, and Dobbs in the outfield, where do they expect to find the 25 or 30 homeruns that Rowand produced from the right side of the plate? In my opinion, they need to add a right handed outfielder or third baseman that can give them 25 to 30 homeruns and balance out their line up.

http://philliesphorum.mlblogs.com

Why is everybody so worried about rowand? He had a career year in a contract year, so yeah if we can sign him for 1 year at the $16 mil per year he wants then fine, but to give a muti-year deal to a guy who has an explosion when he will get paid..I would question. And I would question the Mariners..how is that adrian beltre deal looking.

Rowands numbers should be easy to replace. I don't expect Howard and Utley to miss a combined 6 weeks this year.

Why not save ourselves a $60 million rowand contract and bring in a jose guillen, Marlon Byrd (look at his numbers last year), Willy Tavares..maybe even a rocco baldelli

I don't know Andruw personally but he appears to be a guy who likes to compete and will be raring to show the world that 2007 was an aberation in his career.

Who provided the protection in that line-up, Chipper or Andruw?? Can Anruw help protect Howard or Pat the Bat better than Rowand??

Don't get me wrong. I think Rowand has real talent and is obviously a fan favorite but he may have had his career year.

The big question in my mind is why did the Braves walk away??? Secondly, why is no one in Philly interested in Torii Hunter???

Why not both? Is there a salary cap that won't allow them to sign Rowand AND get a quality pitcher??? The brass only hinder themselves with this logic.

Tony: My number one choice is Torii Hunter. He would be ridiculous in our outfield. Plus, Hunter has said he wants to go to a team where the city has a sizable African American population in order to give back to the community and Philadelphia definitely meets that requirement. If you're going to give Rowand 12 or 13 million a year why not spend the extra 2 or 3 million and get the far better player in Hunter?

If there are several players out there that can improve the club, then open up the purse strings. The only thing that limits our GM's ability to acquire the necessary talent is a limit on the spending. If we need more than one player, than let's go get them.
Let's put our money where our mouth is.

Why not keep Brett Meyers as the closer and use Brad Lidge as a set up man and occaisional closer?
Then we can go after a stud starter, such as Santana and really make an upgrade to the pitching staff.

don't think Carlos santana has the stuff to get major leagues out. And the phillies don't have the tradeable assets to get ervin santana let alone Johan

Player AB R H 1B 2B 3B HR RBI BB KO SB CS BA OBP SLG
Cameron, Mike CF SD 451 70 115 61 29 4 21 66 52 123 20 5 0.2550 0.3379 0.4767
Guillen, Jose RF SEA 452 66 125 78 25 2 20 73 28 81 2 2 0.2765 0.3340 0.4735
Hunter, Torii CF MIN 483 76 132 81 27 1 23 78 40 91 19 7 0.2733 0.3346 0.4762
Jones, Andruw CF ATL 574 96 150 79 29 2 40 116 72 129 5 3 0.2613 0.3505 0.5279
Rowand, Aaron CF PHI 490 77 138 88 31 3 16 62 27 94 14 5 0.2816 0.3377 0.4551

I hope this comes out right, but for all you guys jumping on the sign rowand at all costs bandwagon...3 year averages for the big 3 CFs and 2 other guys who will be available from 2004-2006

The phils only have one outfielder who most of us would feel comfortable as an everyday player (Victorino) and he couldn't even play all of last year because of injuries. It would be stupid to go into next season with the current lineup. The phils have definitely improved their pitching but lost offense. How can we stack up with the mets offense? The phils should stop being cheap and get Romero AND another bat if they really want to win the division again. I would like them to add a 3B like Lowell. Then we never have to see Helms butcher 3B and between Dobbs, Werth and Burrell thats a good platoon LF/RF

I'm not as happy about the Brad Lidge deal as most people around here seem to be. The past five pitchers the Phillies brought in on their free agent seasons were Ashby (for Eaton), Millwood (for Estrada), Milton (for Silva), Urbina (for Polanco), and Garcia (for Gio Gonzalez). None of those deals worked out for the Phillies, and it can be easily argued that they would have been BETTER in 2007 with Estrada catching, Polanco at 3B, Silva in the rotation, and Gonzalez waiting in the wings at AAA. Lidge is not exactly a sure thing, and he's one and done here. There's very little chance of him becoming so enamored of CBP that he decides to sign a long term deal here. Who's closing in 2009?