Phillies, boobs, and Crab Fries. What could be better?

2. Jarred Cosart

3. Jonathan Singleton

4. Trevor May – May turned in another absolutely dominant outing since the recent update. There’s no sign of the command issues that plagued him in Clearwater and if things stay that way, he’ll quickly find himself in the four star category competing with Cosart for top arm in the system.

5. Sebastian Valle

6. Jiwan James

7. Jesse Biddle

8. Brody Colvin

9. Domingo Santana

10. Tyson Gillies – A run in with the law hurts his placement on the prospect list, but it doesn’t entirely strip away his skill. Now there is plenty of added uncertainty as to whether or not Tyson will make it to the big league club. He remains an undeniably better prospect than the large group I nominated as potential #11’s (you can add Harold Garcia to their ranks, a decent utility infield type prospect currently in AA).

And that is that, cocaine use does not mean he’s no longer a prospect, at least not yet. It’s certainly something worth following…

On Saturday, we went over three of the teams currently in the playoff picture, and laughed at related Google image search results. Now, the others, after the jump.

I don't get this, but it's the best of a lousy bunch.

Cincinnati (67-51)

Schedule breakdown: 19 home, 25 away, 16 games against .500 or better

Games against Phillies: 0

Why they’re a threat: Like most people, I picked the Cardinals to win the Central. However, the only thing stopping me from picking the Reds was the fact that they employ Dusty Baker as manager. It says a lot about the man that anyone can consider him terrible enough at his job to cost his team a playoff spot from the dugout. Despite Baker’s general ineptitude, the Reds have been near the top of the division for most of the season. They hit a lot of homers, and they play great defense. Their young arms have performed well: Johnny Cueto, Travis Wood, and Mike Leake could be a great trio for years to come, assuming Baker doesn’t run them out there for 180 pitches every five days and ruin their careers. Joey Votto is the best first baseman in the NL not named Pujols, and I’ll kill any man who says otherwise. Never underestimate a baseball man-crush. Some guy named Scott Rolen is having a pretty good year. Ramon Hernandez has resurrected a flagging career. Brandon Phillips is doing his thing. There’s a lot of talent here, and if Jay Bruce and Drew Stubbs figure things out, we’re looking at a potential NL powerhouse. And their remaining schedule has more cupcakes and cream puffs than a corner bakery: seven games with Arizona, six with Houston, three with Pittsburgh, and nine with Milwaukee. After September 9, they play a whopping one team over .500: the Padres, the last weekend of the month.

Why they’re not: As much promise as the young pitchers have, they’re not there yet. The Reds’ staff has easily the worst FIP and xFIP of any contender in the Senior Circuit, and as the kids surpass their previous workloads, things could get ugly. On the offensive side, once you get past the 3-4 of Votto and Rolen, no Reds regular has an OPS above .800. Playing half their games in Great American Smallpark, you’d think they’d be a little more juiced up. Ultimately, I can’t shake the sense of deja vu that I get looking at Cincinnati; a team that hasn’t had a lot of success in recent years, but has a lot of young talent, good power, and slick gloves around the diamond. They’re more or less the Phillies, circa 2006. I just don’t think they’re ready yet.

Threat assessment: Mild. All three division races are tight, and figure to stay that way until the final weekend, so they could be a team we’re fighting for the wild-card.

That's more like it.

Schedule breakdown: 22 home, 25 away, 15 against .500 or better

Games against Phillies: 0

Why they’re a threat: Their schedule is just as loaded with patsies as Cincinnati’s is, for one. Such are the benefits of playing in the league’s shittiest (and largest) division. Beyond that, they’ve got possibly the most underrated pitcher in the game, Adam Wainwright, alongside a healthy Chris Carpenter at the top of the rotation. Colby Rasmus is one of the better young players in the game, Jon Jay might not be far behind, and Matt Holliday continues to be awesome, despite leaving the friendly confines of Coors. Also, there’s that Pujols character, and the best staff ERA in the majors.

Why they’re not: As great as Pujols is, it’s tough to be all that worried about a team when every other starting infielder they employ sports an OPS below .700. Rasmus runs hot and cold, Jay’s BABIP is approximately nine billion, and it’s impossible to overstate how terrible Skip Schumaker is. Sure, the prospect of facing Wainwright and Carpenter in the first two games of a series is scary, but that didn’t exactly work out great for St. Louis last year. Jake Westbrook has pitched well since arriving from Cleveland’s annual Trade Deadline Pitcher Bonanza, but Jaime Garcia has regressed to the mean, hard, and looks to be tiring in his first full season. This is what fantasy nerds experts would consider a classic “stars and scrubs” roster. Pujols, Holliday, Rasmus, Wainwright, and Carpenter are great players. Jay and Garcia might be, but are still unknown quantities for the moment. Most of the rest are garbage. Everyone remembers Holliday’s drop in Game 2, but the Cardinals mainly lost that series because once you got past the big guns, their repertoire was empty. That hasn’t really changed.

Threat assessment: Minimal, but a bump to moderate if we draw them in the opening round. Even rational fans like myself would be shitting their pants if Brad Lidge were facing Pujols in the ninth with the game on the line.

Colorado (61-56)

Schedule breakdown: 23 home, 22 away

Games against Phillies: 1 (Sept. 2)

Why they’re a threat: You might be wondering why the Rockies are on this list. Of the bubble teams, I consider them the best, and the most dangerous. Coming into the season, I fully expected another October showdown with them. Remember, they were one out away from forcing a Game 5 in the Division Series last year, and Hamels was in line to pitch that game. Who knows what might have happened? Thankfully, we didn’t have to find out, but there’s still a lot of talent on this roster, even if inconsistency and injuries have plagued them. Phillies fans are intimately familiar with Carlos Gonzalez, who has continued to terrorize pitchers in his sophomore season. Troy Tulowitzki is his usual awesome self. Ubaldo Jimenez has come down hard from the high of unsustainable rates, but he’s still one of the best pitchers in baseball. And we all know

Why they’re not: Their rotation behind Jimenez is in shambles. Aaron Cook and Jeff Francis are hurt, Jason Hammel’s been mostly lousy aside from a ridiculous June, and Jorge de la Rosa is still working his way back from a finger injury that cost him over two months. Many of the regulars suffer away from Coors, against lefthanders, or both. They’re one of the worst defensive teams in the league. Plain and simple, this is a team with a lot of flaws.

Threat assessment: Probably minimal, but since I’ve been trumpeting them as a sleeping giant for months, I can’t really stop now.

5 Star

1. Dom Brown, age 22 (.225/.227/.350 in 41 PA at MLB level) – So the former top prospect in the minors has had a rough first bounce with the big club. That’s forgivable in itself, he started the year in AA and he has only had the 41 PA. By now we’ve all had a chance to see why I was saying Brown is more like a 4.5 Star prospect than a true 5 star. In the OF he has a cannon and his range is good when he takes a clean route. He moves about the field like BJ Upton in large, loping strides. If he could learn to judge the ball a little better, he could play CF about as well as Werth can. At the plate we haven’t learned much about him and that is where he’ll need to show us something to break camp as a starter next year. Everything looks fine to me despite some general disappointment from the fanbase.

I suspect Dom’s slow start will convince Ruben to grab somebody to platoon with Francisco if Brown has a rough Spring. Hopefully he doesn’t think that’s Gload.

4 Star

2. Jarred Cosart, age 20 (3.79 ERA, 71 IP, 77K, 16BB) – Bad news with Cosart. An elbow injury has ended his season, although Chuck Lamar is hopeful he’ll be recovered for the fall league. This is something to keep an eye on, hopefully it’s something that won’t linger or recur.

3 Star

3. Jonathan Singleton, Age 18 (.296/.392/.487, 13 HR, 57K, 48 BB, 362 PA) – Last update I was mulling moving Singleton all the way up to 4 Star. Now I feel vindicated in keeping him in 3 Star territory (unfortunately). While it’s a great line for an 18 year old in the Sally League, it’s carried by his earlier unworldly mashing. He cooled off of late and in the last 10 games he has a meager .227/.239/.364 line. The plate discipline’s even flown out the door with 9 k’s and 1 BB. The power has cooled considerably as well. He remains a very good 1b prospect, but this serves as a nice reminder that we probably shouldn’t be making plans for the 18 year old with Howard locked up long term. Unless he picks things up now or has himself a nice Fall Season (I assume he’s heading there), he may open 2011 with a repeat at Lakewood.

Of course, there’s a decent chance that all we’re seeing is an 18 year old wearing down from his first full season in pro ball. Despite not playing with a team early in the season, extended Spring Training is just as tiring on a young athlete.

4. Trevor May, Age 20 (2.44 ERA, 48 IP, 67K, 18 BB since demotion): May experienced some serious issues with the walk in Clearwater, handing out 61 free passes in 70 IP. The 90 K demonstrate just how talented he is. Since he was shipped to Lakewood, he’s shown much better control, walking only 18 while still dominating the opposition. Perhaps May could benefit from spending some time under Halladay’s wing because he seems to have adopted the Justin Verlander method of pitching. May will get another shot at Clearwater next season in his age 21 season.

5. Sebastian Valle , Age 19 (.253/.297/.434, 25 2b, 15HR, 92K, 24BB, 423 PA): It’s been a nice full season for Valle who’s continued to demonstrate plus power for a young catcher along with iffy plate discipline. Scouts continue to show some concern about his true defensive position with the consensus being something along the lines of “I think he’ll stick behind the plate.” While it’s a positive comment, it leaves open the possibility that he won’t stick which would be devastating to Sebastian’s prospect status. He’ll move along to Clearwater next season where the Phillies will hope he begins to show some discipline.

6. Jiwan James, Age 21 (.280/.329/.372, 3 HR, 30SB, 17 CS, 111K, 30 BB, 516 PA): The first thing to remember with this ultra toolsy prospect is that he spent the first two season’s of his pro career as a pitcher. He converted back to the OF late last season making this his first full year as a pro position player. The tools are all there, although the power projects the least. He has a powerful arm and the range and speed of a potential plus defender in CF. His plate discipline has improved as the season continued, although he has considerable ground to make up yet. He has a similar ceiling to Dom Brown, except there’s years of distance between the two.

7. Tyson Gillies, Age 21 (Disabled): The good part of the Lee trade seems to have vanished from baseball, ostensibly due to an injured hamstring. I’ve yet to uncover anything, I think I’ll try to get in touch with the guys over at Phuture Phillies and see what they’ve heard.

8. Jesse Biddle, Age 18 (3.06 ERA, 32.1 IP, 39K, 9BB): Not a bad introduction to professional baseball. The Phillies local, first round pick has done well since joining the GCL and is angling for a full season assignment in 2011. There’s not much more to say right now, he’s good but he’s young. We’ll see how things go.

9. Brody Colvin, Age 19 (3.17, 122IP, 108K, 39BB): Colvin was expected to be a project, but he’s settled in nicely in the Sally League. There’s not much to update, he’s having a nice season and  should get a crack at continuing things in Clearwater next season.

10. Domingo Santana, Age 17 (.249/.342/.385, 5HR, 64K, 21BB, 190 PA for Short-Season Williamsport): We’ve covered Domingo’s earlier struggles as the Sally League’s youngest player. While he failed that particular challenge, he has gotten a taste of playing a full season’s worth of games. He remains young, even in the New York-Penn League, but not unheard of young. The power output is a bit disappointing but not unforgivable from one so young. He’s still striking out way too often, but his 33% rate is an improvement. Otherwise, his plate discipline has remained as he’s still drawing plenty of walks.

Bonus!

11. Kelly Dugan , Age 19, (.541/.630/.730 in limited action)/Others: Another ultra toolsy type, Dugan has butchered Rookie League pitchers in seven games. Of course, that doesn’t mean jack, but it’s encouraged me enough about him accessing his tools that I’ve listed him as #11.

Truly, the Phillies have a number of players worth consideration here. Austin Hyatt probably heads the pack of candidates for #11. He’s had himself a strong season despite lukewarm reviews from scouts. There’s still something to Phillippe Aumont and fellow former Mariner J.C. Ramirez has been solid but unspectacular this season (better than Aumont at least). Vance Worley looks like the next spot starter of the system, I’m not sure how he fits onto a Major League roster, but he will (just as Kyle Kendrick does). Relievers Scott Mathieson, Antonio Bastardo, and Michael Schwimer should be helping out at the ML level next season and could all be considered our 11th best. One thing to notice, of the 8 players I named as a potential #11, only Dugan is a position player.

Anyway, there’s the small matter of securing a playoff berth standing between us and a third straight World Series appearance (a few bounces from being a potential third straight championship, but hey…two out of three ain’t bad). This recent run has done a lot of good work toward brushing aside these charlatans who would fain eliminate the possibility of having their faces broken by a Doc-headed triumvirate of terror and a fully operational Death Star of a lineup, but we’re not there yet. Ergo, scoreboards must be watched.

After the jump, a look at those who would dare take our title, including how they stack up against us in a postseason series. Heavy lies the head that wears the crown, bitches.

Atlanta (67-48)

Do I even need to Photoshop this?

Schedule breakdown: 26 home, 21 away, 31 against .500 or better

Games against Phillies: 6 (Sept. 20-22 at CBP, Oct. 1-3 at Turner Field)

Why they’re a threat: For starters, they’ve got a three-game lead on us, despite the wins we’ve been piling up over the last three-plus weeks. I expressed concern about the Braves’ potential back in March, and while not everything has panned out as I might have expected (Yunel Escobar was terrible and got traded, Troy Glaus has cooled considerably, and Chipper didn’t get hot until right before his knee asploded), they’re the ones standing at the top of the East, and it’s because of their pitching. The staff’s MLB ranks: first in home runs allowed, second in hits allowed and FIP, third in ERA and WHIP, and tied for sixth in K/BB. Top to bottom – and, naturally, Billy “Ratface” Wagner is the bottom – they boast arguably the best group in the league. And those 31 games against .500 or better teams? 16 are against the Marlins and Mets, so that number could drop by half two days from now. Other than the six games against us and a four-game set with the Cardinals next month, the Braves don’t play a current contender.

Why they’re not: Eventually, the horseshoe in Tim Hudson’s ass has to fall out- his ERA is nearly half of his FIP. That dog won’t hunt, Monsignor. Kris Medlen is out for the year. Tommy Hanson is on pace for a career-high workload. Derek Lowe doesn’t scare anybody these days. The lineup is solid, but other than maybe Brian McCann, no one player jumps out as a big-time threat. And as easy as the schedule may appear, we all know how much the Fish and Nats like to play spoiler down the stretch. And if we’re within three games by the time that season-ending series rolls around, we control our own destiny. You can’t ask for much more than that.

Threat assessment: For the rest of the season, high. They’ve got a cushion to work with, and they’ll also have control of their destiny in our six games against them, barring a Mets Meltdown Special. In the playoffs, though? I’m not especially concerned. A playoff rotation of Hudson-Hanson-Lowe-Jurrjens simply doesn’t inspire a lot of fear, and if we’re healthy, I’ll take our offense against their every day and twice on Sunday. They easily win the bullpen matchup, sure, but ask the Dodgers how well that worked out for them in the last two NLCS. By the way, remember that that’s the only round we can face them in. Division rivals aren’t permitted to play each other in the…Division…Series. Don’t ask.

San Diego (68-47)

Or this one? Seriously, look at that swing. Explains a lot.

Schedule breakdown: 24 home, 23 away

Games against Phillies: 3 (Aug. 27-29 at Petco Park)

Why they’re a threat: After four and a half months, I don’t think there are many doubters left. This team is clearly for real. They’re among the leaders in pretty much every pitching statistic you can think of, but if you’re looking for the major reason they’re leading the West well into August, it’s a vastly improved defense. There wasn’t really much roster turnover, so either everybody got a lot better at fielding or this team will crash and burn next year like so many other surprise contenders. They’ve also managed to score 500 runs so far despite playing in a park that is to offense as Ted Bundy was to pretty young girls, and fielding a lineup of Adrian Gonzalez and seven turds every day. It’s inexplicable.

Why they’re not: As good as that pitching staff has been, the playoff rotation is surprisingly weak. Mat Latos is awesome squared, but dude’s benefiting from some serious BABIP luck and will pass his previous career high in innings in his next start. After him, the candidates are Clayton Richard and a bunch of crappy veterans with mid-4 FIPs who are simply riding Petco’s coattails. Seriously, I know home-road splits are iffy, but these are blatant.

Threat assessment: No disrespect to Padres fans (there are Padres fans, right?) but I want this team in the playoffs. Jon Garland, Wade LeBlanc, Kevin Correia…pick your poison, all of these schlubs would get lit up like the sun in CBP. And while games would also be played at Petco, I think that’s as much of an advantage to the Phillies as it is to the Friars. Our pitching staff’s Achilles heel is the long ball – only six teams have allowed more, and other than Tampa, all those teams blow goat anus. We’re middle of the pack at worst in everything else, and even top-five in a few categories.

Which is worse: Misspelling your city, or employing Eugenio Velez?

San Francisco (67-51)

Schedule breakdown: 23 home, 22 away, 29 against .500 or better

Games against Phillies: 3 (Tuesday-Thursday)

Why they’re a threat: Like the Braves, the Giants currently hold an edge  in the standings, and they also have really fucking good pitching. All those categories I mentioned, talking about Atlanta’s staff? The Giants are up there with the Braves in pretty much all of them, and lead the majors in strikeouts for good measure. One through five, there’s no better rotation in the game right now, though Barry Zito’s pitching over his head and Jonathan Sanchez still walks a ton of guys. Madison Bumgarner’s innings are sure to be an issue down the stretch, but he’d be a dangerous lefty specialist out of the playoff bullpen. Speaking of bullpens, theirs is awesome, despite the fact that it contains Guillermo Mota.

Why they’re not: They’re the Giants, so they’re old, and they mostly can’t hit. Aubrey Huff reversed what looked like a steep decline into irrelevance and is having an excellent year. Andres Torres is this year’s “Wait, who?” guy. Our old friend Pat Burrell has taken kindly to his NL return, and Brian Sabean finally figured out that Buster Posey was better than Bengie Molina. Outside of those guys, though? Utter shit. Pablo Sandoval is a fucking fantasy-team-submariner asshole has struggled all season with his weight because he’s a fat goddamned douche who can’t hit anymore. Aaron Rowand? Freddy Sanchez? Get the fuck outta here. Juan Uribe’s okay, I guess, but does anybody really trust Juan Uribe? I doubt it. And their schedule is brutal. They get the cupcake Diamondbacks nine times, but they also draw the Padres eight times, including a season-ending series. After they leave Philadelphia, they have a four-game set in St. Louis and then play host to the Reds. Combine that with the rubber game in their current series with San Diego tomorrow, and this is a huge stretch for them.

Threat assessment: Mild to moderate for the rest of the season. We don’t play them other than next week, and our focus should be on the division. In the playoffs, though, they’re extremely dangerous, especially in a short series.

In Part II (coming Monday, most likely), I’ll cover the other potential usurpers to the throne.

When you’re a beat writer for the Kansas City Royals, it only takes one article to make them look ridiculous on three levels…

http://kansascity.royals.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20100813&content_id=13407730&notebook_id=13409752&vkey=notebook_hou&fext=.jsp&c_id=kc

Bloomquist expresses happiness for Guillen

“Jose is a unique teammate, and I mean that in a good way,” Bloomquist said. “I think sometimes he was misunderstood a little bit. One thing I know for sure about Jose is he wants to win and you’ve got to respect that about him. Sometimes he might say a thing or two that might not jibe very well with everybody else, but the bottom line is the guy wants to win. He’s a competitor and, above all else, I’ll take that any day of the week — a guy that wants to win.”

Willie Bloomquist, a teammate of Jose Guillen on both the Royals and the Mariners, was happy that Guillen landed with the contending San Francisco Giants.

“That’s what it’s all about — trying to get to the postseason,” Bloomquist said. “Especially with someone later in his career like him, it’s all about trying to get a ring and win the thing.”

Guillen, traded with cash on Friday for a player to be named, had his share of home runs and RBIs as well as a few controversies in his nearly three years with the Royals.

What I think Willie means to say here is that he’s glad there are still organizations like the San Francisco Giants who will acquire fringy veterans just for the sake of having them. Being a fringy veteran himself and of equally dubious utility, Bloomquist has to be heartened that there might be life (in baseball at least) after KC.

Kendall’s longevity celebrated by Royals

Just before Jason Kendall took the field for the 2,014th time as a catcher on Friday, the Royals honored him for his perseverance and longevity.

Kendall was presented with a plaque of a full-sized, blue-and-gold catcher’s mask, a framed jersey bearing the No. 2,000 and a montage of photos from his games. The Kauffman Stadium crowd saw video highlights from his years with the Pirates, A’s, Cubs, Brewers and Royals.

This response could get pretty lengthy. I could focus on Kendall’s lack of talent. I could question the decision of every franchise post A’s to play him. I could even rip the Royals for cutting All-Star John Buck so that they could add Kendall for two years. Maybe I’d note that Kendall’s played a whopping 107 of those games as a Royal.

But my real question is…Why did they wait until game 2,014 to honor him for #2,000? At first I thought to myself, there must be some explanation, perhaps they were away? Nope, home for game #2,000 (and 2,001 in case they were worried he would slip and fall before the game). The only explanation I can conceive is that the Royals didn’t realize it until it was too late and then decided “Oh, we should honor him.”

I wonder if the photo montage included his broken ankle…

DeJesus to be honored for Heart and Hussle

Left fielder David DeJesus will be back on the field on Saturday night — but just long enough to receive an award before the game against the Yankees.

DeJesus is the Royals winner of the Heart and Hustle Award presented by the Major League Baseball Player Alumni Association. The award will be presented by former Royals outfielder Brian McRae.

As goofy as it sounds, the award is given to a player on all 30 teams so I won’t get into a rant about unnecessary awards. I wonder if Carl Crawford is disqualified because he’s too good to need to Hussle?

What I find comical is that the Royals had to reach to their disabled list to pick a viable candidate. Their team is that devoid of Heart and/or Hussle.

2,014 game player Jason Kendall was also considered for the award but was found not to have hussled in games 1,487 and 1,993.

That is all.

(P.S. I’ve been busy as hell this week, mostly with my new job, but I will have the day off and a massive hangover on Saturday, so I promise at least one actual post.)

In the meantime, let us all join together and laugh heartily at a 300-pound bull of a man being made the Phillies’ bitch yet again.

The Moon Shot

The Double (predicted immediately beforehand by our very own Liney)

The Shitshow

In a nutshell:

- Working 40 hours a week at the local YMCA, waiting impatiently for a full-time salaried position opens up
- Finishing up my thesis defense (Payroll Efficiency in Major League Baseball), which ended up being 50 pages deep, to be only the second Sport Management graduate from my university’s honors program ever
- With the end of the defense, being an August graduate with degrees in Sport Management and Communication (cum laude, bitches)
- Being Assistant General Manager with the Reading United A.C., who were the PDL Eastern Conference champs this year
- Working on recruiting for my assistant tennis coach position at my recent alma mater
- Solidifying my role as the play-by-play voice for my alma mater’s webcasts, as well as their crosstown rivals

…I think that’s about it. It’s been a hell of a summer, and left little time for shit like this.

Hopefully we still haven’t lost our faithful, and will gain new viewers as time passes. This won’t happen again… I think.

We’ve been the Eric Bruntlett of blogs lately, and that just ain’t cool.

There are any number of reasons as to how and why this happened. The Phillies stunk on ice for a while, and that shit is depressing enough without writing about it. Ryan lost his job a while back. I moved for the sixth (!) time in 15 months, and my grandfather passed. Liney’s been swamped by thesis defense and doing whatever it is that assistant GMs of soccer clubs do, which I am assuming involves a lot of penis. Chris has tripped and fallen over the first of 12 steps so often that AA kicked him out. And A Team…that turncoat bastard got himself a cushy gig writing for The Hardball Times and left us. He did not turn around, to see our hearts breaking. We didn’t want him to see us cry, anyway. Actually, we were all planning to step on one another to reach infinitesimal Internet fame, and just pissed that he beat us to the punch.

However, I have made it my mission to get things rolling around here again. Chris has hiccuped assent. Together, we will lead this blog into a glorious new age of prosperity and wonderment, an age where posts appear more than once or twice a month.

To show how much we mean business, I will invoke the most sacred rite I know.

I’m off to scream Meech’s name from the top of a mountain that I climbed in tennis shoes.

Well, here we are on July 29th, and the situation has worked out better than any sane, rational Phillies fan could have hoped. Werth isn’t going anywhere, and Amaro deserves credit for getting Roy Oswalt for pennies on the dollar. Granted, he was dealing with Ed Wade, so it wasn’t exactly a triumph of intellect, but I can’t be as harsh toward his many failures without giving the man credit for his successes. Not without being a Mets fan giant hypocrite.

Ed Wade (Artist's rendering).

Seriously, folks, this could’ve been so much worse. Word ’round the campfire was that the Astros wanted Jonathan Singleton, that they wouldn’t kick in a significant amount of cash, and that Oswalt wanted his $16 million option for 2012 guaranteed as a provision for waiving his no-trade clause. Any and all of that would have been terrible for the Phillies.Instead, Amaro sold high on J.A. Happ, packaging him with outfielder Anthony Gose and shortstop Jonathan Villar. Both show potential, especially Gose, but are a long way from helping a major-league club. Mostly important, neither is Singleton, Cosart, Colvin, May, etc. On top of that, Houston is paying nearly half of the $23 million due to Oswalt through next season; the 2012 option remains, though it’s now a mutual instead of a club option.

I’m on record as being something of a Happ fan, but this trade is pretty much a steal. Happ’s value will only diminish from here on out: His performance last year was unsustainable, and though he’s probably still a solid #4, he’s also arbitration-eligible next year. Meanwhile, the farm takes only a slight hit and we’re paying Oswalt $12 million for ~45 starts, not including postseason. So, we thank the Happopotamus for his service, and present him with some jorts while “Kiss from a Rose” plays softly in the background.

The Phillies now have approximately $150 million committed to just 16 players next season, though the bulk of the money received from the Astros in this deal will probably be applied to the 2011 payroll. Even if we plan on letting Werth walk – and that seems more apparent every day, sadly – either ownership will have to raise our budget, or peoples is gettin’ traded. There really aren’t a ton of options as far as trades, though. Raul Ibanez has finally started to hit, and one of his notorious streaks could increase his value to the point where the Phillies could dump him for a non-prospect without paying much of the $12 million owed to him. Joe Blanton is a candidate to be moved, but he’s making $21 million over the next two seasons. Even if he continues his recent turnaround, will there be a market for him at that price? Brad Lidge has negative trade value at this point. Victorino could be moved, but there’s nobody in-house to replace him. Halladay, Hamels, Rollins, Howard, Utley…not going anywhere. Nobody else signed next year would provide significant salary relief, if traded.

I simply don’t see any way around raising payroll next season, for better or worse. For now, though, let’s enjoy the spoils of another deadline swindle by Amaro.