SIGNED! Delmon Young

One Year $750K to the Phillies.

Uuuuuughhhhh...yikes. Ok I really don't know what's going on in Philadelphia. As I established in my offseason review, the Philadelphia Phillies are an aging franchise who seem unwilling to give up the ghost. I really don't think Delmon Young is going to be some sort of game changer in Philadelphia, but I can see some logic in his contract being used as a trade chip down the line. Young could have made a lot more money but his burdensome behavioral track record made him arguably a "bargain"depending on how you look at it. I personally don't really want guys who get intoxicated and shout anti-Semetic slurs at passerby no matter how much of a bargain they are, so this signing doesn't impress me. So yep, I guess this one makes sense, assuming you're capable of overlooking and/or taking advantage of really unlikeable character traits in a player and inflicting that on the rest of your clubhouse. Not for me.

Offseason Review: The Philadelphia Phillies

New Philadelphia 3B Michael Young
casually surveying his new
 home in full uniform.

What should a team do when for the first time in five years they are not dominating their division? How do you respond when your team goes from having the most wins in all of baseball one season to a piddling .500 season the next? And when everyone professional analysts to your everyday fan can tell that the reason your dominance has suddenly disappeared is because your older stars are no longer able to remain healthy, and can't compete with the same tenacious viciousness they used to? If your answer is to acquire even more old talent and dying flames than you should put your application in at Citizen's Bank ball park, because the Phillies like your style!

All joking aside, the Phillies offseason wasn't a total bust. The core rotation that made the Phillies the absolute monster they were in 2011 is largely in tact, just no Roy Oswalt and a couple years older. Philadelphia also replaced Shane Victorino and Juan Pierre in center field with Ben Revere, who is an extremely promising young talent who they acquired from Minnesota. The problem with that? They had to trade a comparably valuable talent in RHP Vance Worley. Granted the starting rotation is still very good, arguably dominant even, but exchanging young talent for young talent to fill an empty slot doesn't make sense unless you're poised to win now, and the Phillies are not.

New Phillies CF Ben Revere, young
talent for young talent trade from
Minnesota for Vance Worley.

Other curious additions include veteran infielder Michael Young and veteran reliever Mike Adams. The operative word for these additions is "veteran", and why the hell any more veteran presence in the Phillies roster is necessary is beyond me.  Most puzzling is Michael Young, who at 36 is not exactly a candidate for a boost in performance that comes with some players who are given a change of scenery. I'm not saying Young isn't decent, he is. Michael Young is a team captain type of player with valuable experience. Mike Adams is also a very good reliever who's seen the post season and been completely lights out at times, so what's the problem? The problem is this: the Phillies are looking up at two pretty elite teams in Atlanta and Washington, both in their division, and no amount of realistic spending or acquiring can put Philadelphia in their opposition's, so they should consider sitting this one out.

Philadelphia's fate gambled
 on aging stars (above:Roy Halladay)
 staying healthy.

The Phillies management woes are only woes in my opinion. It might seem weird to look at an upgraded team  (the addition of Adams, Young over Polanco) and consider it an unsuccessful offseason, but it just doesn't seem plausible that these additions are going to be playing in any meaningful capacity by the time Philly is ready to contend again. What reinforces my wary attitude towards Philadelphia's management is who they were/are looking who hasn't become a Philly. Vernon Wells? Alfonso Soriano? It's just not going to work. The Phils window is momentarily slammed shut by insurmountable divisional competition. Management needs to remember that they are only about a half a season separated form a reality that had them shipping out Hunter Pence and debating the same fate for young ace Cole Hamels. Barring fluke circumstance, Philadelphia will end up third or fourth in their division.

Offseason Review: Philadelphia Phillies

Injured MVP Ryan Howard

Last year the Phillies were perceived to be a lock to win the World Series. Their path to the ring was going to be forged by an amazing pitching staff, recalling memories from the 90s Braves staff headed up by the likes of Glavine, Maddux and Smoltz. The result was a dominating, best record in baseball 102 win season, followed by first round elimination at the hands of the wild card Cardinals. The window for the aging Phillies is still pretty wide open, but after their regular season mastery was proven futile, the path to victory could seem a little murky.

What To Do About Hamels' Contract

Dashing

 The Philadelphia Phillies' number one handsy boy Cole Hamels is set to face free agency, and it brings up a serious set of issues for the Phillies front office to deal with. As far as payroll is concerned, it seems the sky's the limit, but with how long ownership will want to pony up enormous contracts for a surefire championship teams that aren't winning championships is hard to say. Don't get me wrong, I think the window for the Phillies to win is still wide open, but it's closing fast, and we're talking about a player with one year left before he reaches a very lucrative free agency.

Adorable

The starting three in the Phillies rotation kicks ass right now. Halladay, Lee and Hamels were a very integral part in making Philadelphia the best team by record in baseball last year. Veteran goatee king Joe Blanton and promising young right hander Vance Worley round out as solid of a four and five as any rotation could have.  Hunter Pence is an amazing trade acquisition from last year to help cover the loss of Raul Ibanez who aged himself out of the roster. The offense is still good, but the core of it is aging. So what does this have to do with Hamels?

Priceless

 

Well, assuming the front office learned anything from Ryan Howard, it means that salary and years are going to have to be a rational factor in how Hamel is approached. Not just from the standpoint of Hamels, but how the team is going to be restructured once the already pretty old players get older. Hamels isn't going to settle for a three year deal when pitchers like CJ Wilson are getting paid up the ass by the Angels, but the Phillies aren't going to want to throw an amount of money at him that could anchor them down to irrelevance. If I were Cole I'd tell Heidi (the beautiful minx in the past two pictures) to start looking at real estate in New York or Los Angeles and get ready to pitch my ass off for the next six months.


I know that none of the media I've posted on here is baseball relevant, so here's a video game home run Cole Hamels crushes off of R.A. Dickey in MLB The Show. MRsuh1312 deems it "rettarted"

Rettarted indeed!