The Philadelphia Phillies were expected to have a Thursday similar to the one the Red Sox did. They are a last place team full of useful veterans that could swing pennant races, and yet they literally made zero moves. GM Ruben Amaro is blaming all the other general managers on that front, according to reports.
""I'm not necessarily disappointed,"Amaro said. "I'm more surprised that there wasn't more aggressive action from the other end. We have some pretty good baseball players here. Our goal all along was to try to improve the club and there really wasn't a deal to be made that would help us do that."
With that said, there is still time for deals to be made. The August 31 deadline is still there for the Phillies, although the players they may trade must clear waivers first now-and that could be a problem. Now, it's time to run through the untraded assets they possess, and figure out what their best landing spot would've been.
Cole Hamels, SP
Hamels is owed an awful lot of money, and is young enough (30) to have several great years ahead of him, so really there's great reason for the Phillies to have kept him. That said, everyone saw what the A's were willing to deal for two months of Jon Lester. Hamels is every bit as good and locked up for way longer. If the Phillies might've lowered their asking price just a bit, maybe they could've convinced the Dodgers or the Yankees to splurge.
Marlon Byrd, OF
Byrd is hitting .271 with 20 home runs and 62 RBI this year. He's 36 years old, which means if you're in rebuilding mode he's not a part of your core. How did the Phillies not trade him? The Mariners were perfect, and instead they settled on getting back Austin Jackson from Detroit and Chris Denorfia from the Padres. And to get Jackson they dealt a promising shortstop in Nick Franklin. Philly couldn't have used him? The Yankees also needed some pop in their order, and parted with a young, power-hitting catcher in the minors named Peter O'Brien. Carlos Ruiz is getting up there.
Papelbon is 2-2 with a 1.79 ERA and 25 saves, so pardon him if he limited his availability to teams that only would use him as a closer. There are very few teams that wouldn't immediately install him as their ninth inning guy with numbers like that though, and if they ate a portion of his money they may have gotten a pretty package from, say, the Blue Jays or the Giants.
Cliff Lee, SP
Lee's older and pricier than Hamels, so he's less attractive. He still had a big name though, and if Philly were to eat some of his money or accept lesser prospects with their trade partner paying off most of his deal, he could've been shipped to a big market team, ahem Dodgers and Yankees. Perhaps even the Orioles would've thought about it. Now Lee has re-injured his elbow though and is likely done for the season.
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