The Wait Is Over: Danys Baez Signs With The Phillies

Finally, the mystery is over. 

Eight days ago it was reported that the Phillies had come to terms with a bullpen pitcher, believed to be either Danys Baez or Mike MacDougal. 

Now we have learned that the Phillies have agreed to a two-year deal with Baez, according to MLB.com’s Todd Zolecki and SI.com’s Jon Heyman. 

It’s no shock, seeing that the Phillies have long held interest in Baez, back to his days with Tampa Bay. 

For a bullpen that was in flux for much of last year, it will give the Phillies some stability at the back end of the game. 

Heading into 2010, there are obvious questions about Brad Lidge who had performance and injury problems in 2009, and an elbow surgery in early November.

There will also be questions about J.C. Romero, who missed the first 50 games of 2009 due to his drug suspension, then missed a chunk of games towards the end of the year. He also had elbow surgery, one that was more extensive than Lidge’s. 

The Phillies do not expect to have the services of Chan Ho Park in 2010, who performed admirably last season. Clay Condrey, long-relief extraordinaire, has joined Park as a free agent. 

It’s also unknown whether or not Scott Eyre will return to the team in 2010, as General Manager Ruben Amaro Jr. has offered a contract of the minor league variety to the 37-year-old lefty. 

This much is known: there will be different faces in the Phillies bullpen in 2010 and Baez will be one of them. 

Outside of Baez, the Phillies should expect Lidge, Romero, Ryan Madson, and Chad Durbin to fill out spots in the bullpen. Therefore, expect some heavy competition in Spring Training for the final two bullpen spots. 

Baez, who turned 32 in September, has pitched for five teams, most recently the Orioles in 2009. He was 4-6 with a 4.02 ERA in 59 games. 

When it comes down to it, one of the most important qualities for a bullpen pitcher is an ability to keep walks at a minimum. 

It could be one of the reasons Baez won the war over MacDougal, whom the Phillies also had extensive interest in. Last year, Baez walked just 2.8 batters per nine innings while MacDougal walked 6.3 per nine. 

For his career, Baez has a 3.7 walks-per-nine inning ratio while MacDougal has a 4.7 BB/9 ratio. 

Baez is hardly a strikeout pitcher anymore, with his strikeout-per-nine inning ratio sitting at 5.02 in 2009. However, he is projected to rebound favorably in 2010 by baseball statistician Bill James, who sees his K/9 rising to 6.04. 

Another reason for the signing of Baez? He induced a 2.36 ground ball/fly ball ratio last year, which will be hard to repeat yet appreciated in Citizens Bank Park. 

There is little doubt the Phillies would have been interested in re-signing Park, who went on to post a 2.57 ERA in relief after his early-season removal from the starting rotation. 

Park made $2.5 million last season, and likely wanted a raise for 2010. However, he also likely wanted another shot at having the Phillies’ fifth starting job, one that will most likely be fought for between Jamie Moyer and Kyle Kendrick. 

With that in mind, it appears Amaro had no choice but to pursue other options.

Baez is coming off a three-year, $19 million deal with the Orioles that paid him $5.5 million in 2009. 

He should not expect that kind of payment in Philadelphia, with this two-year contract likely turning out to be in the $6 million range. 

However, he’ll have a chance he hasn’t had something to do in Baltimore: win a championship.

Read more Philadelphia Phillies news on BleacherReport.com

Why the Phillies Traded for Roy Halladay: Analyzing the Deal

Now that the dust has settled, Roy Halladay is a Philadelphia Phillie. 

For a franchise that has started the likes of Jon Lieber, Kevin Millwood, and Robert Person on Opening Day, that previous sentence is a pleasant sight to the eyes of Phillies fans.

A lot of people may not understand why the Phillies have decided to trade Cliff Lee. It’s important to understand a few things. Halladay is an upgrade, potentially the best pitcher in baseball the last six years, and Lee was not going to stay here beyond 2009, especially if the Phillies’ front office had anything to say about it. 

This pretty much came to fruition after Phillies General Manager Ruben Amaro, Jr. met with Lee’s agent recently to discuss a potential contract extension for the left-hander.

Lee is signed for $9 million this season. And while it would have been nice to have a rotation that included Halladay, Lee, and Cole Hamels, the Phillies will still have a vaunted rotation in 2010. 

Lee has the opportunity to get $23-25 million over six years on the open market. He’s going to test the free agent market next year, and it’s likely he’ll get that from somebody. 

So for 2010, the Phillies essentially are getting Halladay for Lee. Halladay makes $15.75 million this season. Toronto will send $6 million in the deal, for a total of about $9.75 million in 2010 for Halladay, and what the Phillies pay him in 2009 is similar to what they would have paid Lee. 

The key here is that Lee wasn’t re-signing for what the Phillies wanted. Halladay’s three-year extension at $20 million per season through 2013 (and possibly 2014) is a bargain, much better than Lee at $23-24 million over six years.

The Phillies have taken the stance since the Pat Gillick era began (and to an extent, the Ed Wade era) of not giving pitchers more than three years on a deal. They got what they wanted. 

So what about the prospects? Some will say the Phillies are getting a short stick because they are giving up Lee, Kyle Drabek, Michael Taylor, and Travis D’Arnaud.

That’s really not the way to look at it. Back in the summer, Amaro had a choice of Halladay or Lee. He went with Lee because the cost was Jason Donald, Carlos Carrasco, Jason Knapp, and Lou Marson. It was a decent haul for Cleveland.

Knapp has a good chance to be a decent starter, and if not that, a good back-end of the bullpen guy.

Catchers don’t grow on trees, and Marson has an opportunity to start for Cleveland next year. While Carrasco’s stock fell, Donald will probably be a solid middle infielder in his career. 

At the time, the Phillies had the option of doing that deal or dealing Drabek, Domonic Brown, J.A. Happ, and Anthony Gose to Toronto for Halladay.

This was too much to give up, bottom line. The Phillies would have lost their best pitching prospect and their best position prospect.

The Phillies get to keep Brown in this deal for Halladay, which is important. It’s going to be fun to watch Brown’s career develop, and he will most likely be the highest-rated prospect in the Phillies’ system now that Drabek is gone. 

In the end, the simple way to look at it is that the Phillies traded Jason Knapp, Carlos Carrasco, Jason Donald, and Lou Marson for the three months of Cliff Lee, Ben Francisco, Phillippe Aumont, Tyson Gillies, and Juan Carlos Ramirez. 

Then they trade Drabek, Taylor, and D’Arnaud for Halladay and the $6 million. Not too bad. 

Aumont is 6’7″, and has been bounced between starting and relieving in the minor leagues. It remains to be seen where he will be in 2010 and what role he will be in. 

Gillies has a chance to be the Phillies’ starting center fielder by 2012. He has above-average speed and posted a .916 OPS in the Minors last year, although he played in a hitter’s haven in High Desert, Arizona. 

Juan Carlos Ramirez has electric stuff, with a fastball sitting around 91-92 with room for growth. A lot of people feel he’ll be a solid pitcher in the near future, probably in the middle of a Major League rotation.  

Critics will argue that the Phillies are a cheap organization and that they should have kept Lee to create a potentially dynamic rotation. 

It’s vital to understand that the Phillies do not have a “bottomless pit [of money],” as Amaro explained at today’s press conference.

If it really was about the money, the Phillies would have moved Joe Blanton and his expected $7 million salary in 2010. 

Had the Phillies moved Blanton, however, they would not have gotten the return in prospects that they could get with Lee. 

The Phillies opted to make a bold move, trading Lee and getting three known prospects. At the very least, Amaro is one of the most creative general mangers baseball has seen in the last couple of decades. 

The Phillies are in win-now mode, and Amaro is trying his best to give another championship to the city of Philadelphia. 

So the question becomes, would you rather have had Halladay-Hamels-Blanton-Happ-Moyer, or Lee-Hamels-Blanton-Happ-Moyer?

On the surface it doesn’t look like much of a big difference for 2010, but this is going to be felt further down the road.

There was a good chance that Lee would have walked away after this year, with the best result being the Phillies getting two compensation picks had they offered him arbitration.

Now, instead of pinning everything on Hamels and a patchwork rotation in 2011, the Phillies have a long-term option in Halladay. 

So, Roy Halladay is a Phillie. And we’re all going to enjoy it. When he steps foot on the mound next April, it’s going to be pretty surreal.

Lee will be missed, but there’s a new ace in town. 

Read more Philadelphia Phillies news on BleacherReport.com

Why the Phillies Traded for Roy Halladay: Analyzing the Deal

Now that the dust has settled, Roy Halladay is a Philadelphia Phillie. 

For a franchise that has started the likes of Jon Lieber, Kevin Millwood, and Robert Person on Opening Day, that previous sentence is a pleasant sight to the eyes of Phillies fans.

A lot of people may not understand why the Phillies have decided to trade Cliff Lee. It’s important to understand a few things. Halladay is an upgrade, potentially the best pitcher in baseball the last six years, and Lee was not going to stay here beyond 2009, especially if the Phillies’ front office had anything to say about it. 

This pretty much came to fruition after Phillies General Manager Ruben Amaro, Jr. met with Lee’s agent recently to discuss a potential contract extension for the left-hander.

Lee is signed for $9 million this season. And while it would have been nice to have a rotation that included Halladay, Lee, and Cole Hamels, the Phillies will still have a vaunted rotation in 2010. 

Lee has the opportunity to get $23-25 million over six years on the open market. He’s going to test the free agent market next year, and it’s likely he’ll get that from somebody. 

So for 2010, the Phillies essentially are getting Halladay for Lee. Halladay makes $15.75 million this season. Toronto will send $6 million in the deal, for a total of about $9.75 million in 2010 for Halladay, and what the Phillies pay him in 2009 is similar to what they would have paid Lee. 

The key here is that Lee wasn’t re-signing for what the Phillies wanted. Halladay’s three-year extension at $20 million per season through 2013 (and possibly 2014) is a bargain, much better than Lee at $23-24 million over six years.

The Phillies have taken the stance since the Pat Gillick era began (and to an extent, the Ed Wade era) of not giving pitchers more than three years on a deal. They got what they wanted. 

So what about the prospects? Some will say the Phillies are getting a short stick because they are giving up Lee, Kyle Drabek, Michael Taylor, and Travis D’Arnaud.

That’s really not the way to look at it. Back in the summer, Amaro had a choice of Halladay or Lee. He went with Lee because the cost was Jason Donald, Carlos Carrasco, Jason Knapp, and Lou Marson. It was a decent haul for Cleveland.

Knapp has a good chance to be a decent starter, and if not that, a good back-end of the bullpen guy.

Catchers don’t grow on trees, and Marson has an opportunity to start for Cleveland next year. While Carrasco’s stock fell, Donald will probably be a solid middle infielder in his career. 

At the time, the Phillies had the option of doing that deal or dealing Drabek, Domonic Brown, J.A. Happ, and Anthony Gose to Toronto for Halladay.

This was too much to give up, bottom line. The Phillies would have lost their best pitching prospect and their best position prospect.

The Phillies get to keep Brown in this deal for Halladay, which is important. It’s going to be fun to watch Brown’s career develop, and he will most likely be the highest-rated prospect in the Phillies’ system now that Drabek is gone. 

In the end, the simple way to look at it is that the Phillies traded Jason Knapp, Carlos Carrasco, Jason Donald, and Lou Marson for the three months of Cliff Lee, Ben Francisco, Phillippe Aumont, Tyson Gillies, and Juan Carlos Ramirez. 

Then they trade Drabek, Taylor, and D’Arnaud for Halladay and the $6 million. Not too bad. 

Aumont is 6’7″, and has been bounced between starting and relieving in the minor leagues. It remains to be seen where he will be in 2010 and what role he will be in. 

Gillies has a chance to be the Phillies’ starting center fielder by 2012. He has above-average speed and posted a .916 OPS in the Minors last year, although he played in a hitter’s haven in High Desert, Arizona. 

Juan Carlos Ramirez has electric stuff, with a fastball sitting around 91-92 with room for growth. A lot of people feel he’ll be a solid pitcher in the near future, probably in the middle of a Major League rotation.  

Critics will argue that the Phillies are a cheap organization and that they should have kept Lee to create a potentially dynamic rotation. 

It’s vital to understand that the Phillies do not have a “bottomless pit [of money],” as Amaro explained at today’s press conference.

If it really was about the money, the Phillies would have moved Joe Blanton and his expected $7 million salary in 2010. 

Had the Phillies moved Blanton, however, they would not have gotten the return in prospects that they could get with Lee. 

The Phillies opted to make a bold move, trading Lee and getting three known prospects. At the very least, Amaro is one of the most creative general mangers baseball has seen in the last couple of decades. 

The Phillies are in win-now mode, and Amaro is trying his best to give another championship to the city of Philadelphia. 

So the question becomes, would you rather have had Halladay-Hamels-Blanton-Happ-Moyer, or Lee-Hamels-Blanton-Happ-Moyer?

On the surface it doesn’t look like much of a big difference for 2010, but this is going to be felt further down the road.

There was a good chance that Lee would have walked away after this year, with the best result being the Phillies getting two compensation picks had they offered him arbitration.

Now, instead of pinning everything on Hamels and a patchwork rotation in 2011, the Phillies have a long-term option in Halladay. 

So, Roy Halladay is a Phillie. And we’re all going to enjoy it. When he steps foot on the mound next April, it’s going to be pretty surreal.

Lee will be missed, but there’s a new ace in town. 

Read more Philadelphia Phillies news on BleacherReport.com

Pedro Martinez Rounding into Postseason Form for the Phillies

For one night, you couldn’t help yourself.

You couldn’t help, be it whether you were at Citizens Bank Park last night or in front of the television, hearken back to about a decade ago when Pedro Martinez made things look so easy.

He may no longer be a Boston Red Sox, but he is a Philadelphia Phillie. And thus far, he has made General Manager Ruben Amaro Jr., one of the few executives with a contending team willing to take a chance on Martinez, look like a genius.

Martinez is now 5-0 with a 2.87 ERA. He has 34 strikeouts in 37.2 innings. He has allowed just 35 hits and has walked just six batters.

Let that sink in for a second.

At age 37, Martinez is doing things he did when he was 27.

It’s always fun to take a look at the past, but what Martinez is doing in the present and what he may do in the near future is the vital headline right now.

Just for the sake of the past, let’s note that Martinez went 118-36 with a 2.20 ERA with the Montreal Expos and Boston Red Sox from 1997-2003. Throw in some syringes, bulking triceps, and growing home run totals, and it’s even more impressive what he has done.

Alas, we’ll fast forward to the present. Amaro Jr. was willing to give Pedro an incentive-laden contract. It’s paid off.

Last night was simply magical. In the nightcap of a day-night doubleheader, Martinez had an opportunity to eliminate one of his former teams, the New York Mets, from playoff contention.

The result? Brilliance, and nothing short of it. Martinez went eight innings, allowed six hits, walked just two, and struck out seven.

His fastball had life, albeit not the blazing velocity that his heater carried about five or six years ago. His change-up had a diving, tumbling motion on it that had hitters flailing. His curveball dropped off the table, proving unhittable for most of the night.

With two outs in the eighth inning, manager Charlie Manuel came out of the dugout and took a slow, yet steady, walk to the mound.

He asked Martinez if he had anything left in him. There was no way Pedro was about to hand the ball away.

So, eight shutout innings and 130 pitches later, Martinez added to his legend. At this stage, that’s what he is.

What began with skepticism has turned into fanaticism.

Should the Phillies hold on to their position and make the playoffs, they’ll have to start thinking about the 25 men that will comprise their roster.

While the Phillies have been somewhat short in terms of bench production this season, they have not lacked pitchers, in quality or quantity. One could make a case that the Phillies have about 14 or 15 adequate options for only 11 or 12 pitching spots.

A couple of weeks ago, leaning toward Martinez as a bullpen piece was the likely scenario. There was a certain sect that would have not thought he would even make the playoff roster.

But, as we have seen, things have changed.

Should the Phillies make the playoffs, it’s likely things will kick off with Cole Hamels, followed by Cliff Lee. It’s possible they could be swapped.

Who will be No. 3? Shockingly, it could be Martinez. Not only could it be, it should be.

Joe Blanton has had a very good year, as has J.A. Happ. Blanton has not pitched poorly lately, save for one start. Happ has been bothered by an injury to his oblique, but has been steady as they come all year.

Now, it’s obvious what Manuel should do. Pencil in Pedro for that third starting slot in the playoffs. He is, after all, a legend.

Read more Philadelphia Phillies news on BleacherReport.com

Will Kyle Drabek Become the Next Pinstriped Stud?

For one day, the spotlight dimmed a bit.

With Raul Ibanez spending a day in Reading, PA for a rehab assignment, Kyle Drabek had a little attention taken away from him yesterday.

Make no mistake, however: There were still plenty of people at the ballpark to see Drabek.

Plenty of fans. Plenty of scouts. Plenty hoping that very soon, Kyle Drabek will become one of the best pitchers in Major League Baseball.

At just 21 years of age, he is noted as the top pitching prospect in the Philadelphia Phillies’ organization.

Drabek became the Phillies’ 18th overall pick in the 2006 Draft. Most mock drafts had him in the top ten or higher, but he fell down the board and into the lap of the Phillies.

Surely, they didn’t mind.

Drabek was arrested in 2005 for public intoxication, but the charges were later dropped. Many had said he wasn’t mature enough; not ready to take the next step to becoming a Major League pitcher.

Certainly, there were people Drabek wanted to prove wrong.

 

The beginning of a dream

Maybe the future was all too clear for Kyle.

His dad, Doug, pitched for 13 seasons in the Major Leagues. Kyle basically grew up with a baseball attached to his hand.

Drabek attended Woodlands High School (TX), and excelled at shortstop and pitcher. In his senior year, he was 12-0 with a 1.18 ERA.

The year prior, he went 11-1 with a 0.82 ERA.

His fastball touched 96 MPH on the radar gun, sitting in the 93 or 94 MPH range consistently.

Beyond his fastball was an exceptional curveball, which he knows he can throw as a pitch to get batters out. He also possessed an above average slider and change-up in a repertoire that impressed coaches and scouts alike. 

Just 18 years of age, Drabek had a tough time adjusting in the Gulf Coast League at the end of his draft year.

He posted a 7.71 ERA and struggled with his control. He allowed 33 hits in 23.1 innings, and struck out just 14 batters.

It was a far cry from his high school career, where striking out 10 or 12 batters in a game was old hat for Drabek.

He would have to learn how to adjust. For many young players who are levels above their competition as a youth, it can be tough to make changes.

Changes were made, and 2007 was, in part, a successful year for Drabek. He jumped up to the South Atlantic League and started ten games for the Lakewood Blue Claws.

He posted a 4.33 ERA, 1.35 WHIP, allowed just 50 hits in 54 innings, and saw his K/9 ratio spike to a respectable 7.7.

However, in June, Drabek complained of arm troubles. He tried to work through them, but in late July, the symptoms had worsened.

Drabek had the dreaded Tommy John surgery on July 25, knocking him out for the rest of 2007 and most of 2008. The Phillies were confident he would return stronger than he had been.

As it turns out, they may be right.

 

The resurgence

Drabek returned late in 2008, with enough of a window to give the Phillies a taste of where he stood.

He made eight total starts in the Gulf Coast League and New York-Penn League, and fared very well. The velocity hadn’t returned in full, and he wasn’t striking many batters out.

He was, however, healthy and ready to prove that 2009 would be his best year yet.

Drabek didn’t go into the season as the Phillies’ top pitching prospect. That honor was reserved for Carlos Carrasco.

It has become clear that Drabek, while still just 21 years of age, has become the best pitching prospect in the organization.

There was a certain excitement back in 2006 when another impressive prospect, Cole Hamels, took the hill in his Minor League starts. Although he may not be receiving the same attention, there is a buzz about Drabek when he starts.

All Drabek has done this year in two levels, Hi-A and AA, is go 9-1 with a 2.58 ERA. He has 110 strikeouts in 108.1 innings in the Minors, has allowed just 90 hits, and is throwing harder than ever.

There will certainly be some times in the coming weeks that Drabek’s name is tossed about in trade proposals prior to the July 31 trade deadline. 

The Phillies may be interested in Toronto right-hander Roy Halladay, and it would take a cornucopia of talent to acquire Halladay if he becomes readily available.

However, sometimes it’s just best to hold on to your prospects. In the very near future, the Phillies’ rotation could be comprised of Hamels, Drabek, Carrasco, and J.A. Happ, all of whom started their professional careers in the Phillies’ organization.

Many would like to see Kyle Drabek finish his here, too. He has a long way to go before he starts thinking about the end, however.

That spotlight is waiting to shine.

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