SkaroffBlog

“Gillick Batting 1.000”

I was far from pleased when I learned of the Phillies replacement for Ed Wade. Don’t get me wrong - ridding the organization of Wade was the best decision since trading Bobby Abreu to the Astros for Kevin Stocker. A close second has to be signing free-agent Danny Tartabull, who broke his foot on his 7th at bat of the season and retired the next season. But I digress…

Frustrated by the old-school mentality of this franchise, I prayed for a young, up-and-coming replacement. Why not pluck an assistant GM from a perennially successful organization such as the Braves, Twins or Indians? Instead, the Phillies went with Pat Gillick, an old-school GM with a proven track-record from his days in Toronto and Baltimore. And that was what I feared most – with very little to prove, Gillick appeared to be another Wade-like pawn, carrying out Dave Montgomery & Co.’s dirty work while taking the heat from the media and the fans.

Thus far I have (thankfully) been proven wrong. Gillick is off to a tremendous start. First, he didn’t overpay for 34 year-old Billy Wagner, who, although he remains a top-10 closer, is far from worth the 4 years and $43 million given to him by the Mets (think Tom Glavine!). More importantly, I really like the Jim Thome–Aaron Rowand trade. There is no doubt that if Thome is healthy, he will have a fantastic year, especially as the DH at homer-friendly Comerica Park. I wouldn’t be surprised to see him hit 40+ homeruns, especially with Paul Konerko alongside him in the lineup.

However, the Phillies had no place for him with the emergence of Ryan Howard. With this trade, the Phillies dumped half of Thome’s salary, provided Howard the reassurance of his role within the organization and received in return a young and very solid CF. Rowand plays tremendous defense, covering great ground in center field and sacrificing his body to make an out. Moreover, his offense is certainly above average; he is a career .283 hitter, including .310 with 24 HRs and 69 RBI in 2004. With the Rowand trade, our lineup should take on the following appearance:

Jimmy Rollins - SS
Chase Utley – 2B
Bobby Abreu - RF
Pat Burrell - LF
Ryan Howard – 1B
Aaron Rowand - CF
David Bell/Abraham Nunez – 3B
Mike Lieberthal - C
Pitcher

My other wish for the Phillies was for them to pursue Nomar. It made sense for them to offer him a one year, incentive-laden contract and play him at 3B. However, after the Nunez signing, I don’t think that will happen.

Fortunately, both Bell and Lieberthal only have a year left on their deals. Offensively and defensively they are the overwhelming weak links. I understand they are untradeable (no team in their right mind would take such bad players with such expensive contracts), but I would still like to see the Phillies go out and sign a replacement for one of them. Why not pursue catchers Ramon Hernandez or Bengie Molina? Both are fabulous defensive catchers and above-average offensive players. More importantly, they would both be drastic improvements over Lieberthal. I know that would mean swallowing Lieby’s $7.5 mil, but the Phillies have extra money with Wagner leaving via free agency along with the salary relief from Thome’s money coming off of the books.

Overall, I am pretty pleased with the lineup the Phillies will put on the field for opening day, 2006. The Phillies have a solid nucleus of young players (sans Bell/Lieby), an above-average offense (sans Bell/Lieby) and an excellent defense (sans Bell/Lieby).

What is certainly missing is pitching, which I will address in my next column.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 1st, 2005 at 2:55 pm and is tagged as Baseball, Phillies, Philly, Sports. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.