Hunter Pence traded to Giants

Yeah I feel like I would rather have Olt too. Everyone says Upton hasn't scratched the surface of his potential though, so it is a tough choice. But for now, I think Olt is who I prefer.

Mayberry will be in center and Brown in left or right, with Pierre manning the other side.

Definitely Olt. I don't pretend to know anything about prospects (I rely on what scouts say and prospect rankings generally), but with our payroll we need a couple of players we have full control of at low salaries for a few years to mix with any big money players we have. Olt sounds great from all reports, but the control portion makes it an absolute no-brainer to me.

Huh, I thought Brown had continued playing center after he came off the DL. A month or so ago he was crediting his move to center as a reason for his resurgence (doesn't have to think as much as balls don't curve like they do in right and left. Guess not.

I just realized this doesn't even say Lee.

Jack Magruder earlier today:

And Olney just now:

Yeah, I'm sure he will get a shot at it when Mayberry gets off, but Mayberry is a way better defender, and you usually put the best defender in center.

The Phillies make trades like kids at GameStop. Buy it for $65, trade it in a few months later for $15 & then sometimes they even buy the game back used for 49.99.

Haha you just nailed that on the head.. It's like they've never heard of Amazon.

Pence deal is official:

The San Francisco Giants acquired Philadelphia Phillies OF Hunter Pence for C Tommy Joseph, OF Nate Schierholtz and P Seth Rosin.

Phillies have reportedly taken Cliff Lee off the market.

Guess the offers weren't too good.

For the love of God. The Texas Rangers have acquired Ryan Dempster for an undisclosed package.

Yeah I saw that. I was really beginning to like Olt too. I was hoping for the Lee deal.

Seriously... Chad Qualls for Casey McGehee?

You know they were REALLY bad if they weren't good enough for Ruben Amoron. He's worse than Ed Wade.

He's not worse than Ed Wade. Amaro hasn't been great, but I thought all our deals were solid.

If no one was offering any value for Blanton or Pierre, no reason to just give them away. The Phillies aren't as bad as their record. They were injured until the half-way point of the season, and the bullpen was the worst in baseball (outside of Paps) until today's acquisition of Lindblom.

If it wasn't for the atrocious play by the bullpen this season, the Phillies would very much still be in the playoff hunt. Seriously. True story. I've seen at least 20 gms on TV/in the ballpark, where a Phils starter would have a shutout, or a 2-3 run lead going into the 7th/8th, only for Bastardo or Schwimer, or Qualls or (insert name here) to completely blow the game.

With all due respect, my Brewers' bullpen is worse.

K-Rod and Axford, not THAT bad... right? Don't follow Brewers baseball much... but until Lindblom, all we had was Paps.

But I'm pretty certain that your middle relievers/setup guys have to be better than ours were. Schwimer, Qualls, Bastardo... some other palookas... just awful all year.

Uhm the Brewers have the worst pen in baseball. Did you watch the Phillies/Brewers series? K-Rod? Really? They should start calling him Frank Rodriguez.

That's b/c they elected to field a triple a team this year around David Wright - they're overachieving, but they have a lot of guys who couldn't start for other clubs. They don't have guys on their team anyone else would use to close or even set-up. Frank Francisco & Ramon Ramirez were supposed to be their 8th & 9th inning guys & that's a joke.

EYYY we got a win!

K-Rod and Axford both have ERAs OVER 5! Jose Veras, another highly used reliever, also has an ERA over 5. Kameron Loe is our top reliever with a 3.91 ERA. He is the only reliever with 10 or more appearances with an ERA under 4. Tim Dillard is at 4.38 and Manny Parra is at 4.70. We lead the league (MLB, not just NL) with 21 blown saves in 42 opportunities, which is a league worst 50% conversion rate.

Hell, look at that 3 game set we had with your Phillies. We had a late lead in every single game, but the bullpen blew every single game (all ended 7-6).

You guys just be lucky you have pitching to have a 5 man rotation. The Rockies aren't even man enough to do that. Let alone staff a bullpen.

We all got problems.. which is why none of us are going to the playoffs.

WHOO Best record in the NL East since the trade deadline! OH YEAHH

Jeff Passan ‏@JeffPassan
Source: Phillies have placed Cliff Lee on waivers. Executives expect him to clear Friday afternoon, be eligible for trade.

Jeff Passan ‏@JeffPassan
Lee's placement on waivers and clearing was 100% expected. Question now is whether Phillies willing to eat $ to deal him.

Jeff Passan ‏@JeffPassan
Speculation is Phillies would need to swallow somewhere in $7-8M-a-year range to get premium prospects back. They're in a tough position.

Mike Trout, Pujols, Longoria, Tulo, Verlander, etc are probably all put on waivers. Teams do it with all their players in August b/c they can pull them back if someone claims them.

The only reason it's interesting that Lee is on waivers is b/c a team like the Cardinals or Pirates (just an example) could claim him to cockblock another playoff team, and the Phillies could just say "he's yours, take him" just to be off the hook for the 96mil.

Nobody will probably claim him out of fear of the Phillies doing that.

This is just writers trying to make something out of nothing. Like I said - Hamels & Verlander are probably on waivers also. Theres no downside to doing it so teams do it with all their players. Upside - players are eligible to trade after the deadline. Downside - none.

If I'm the Dodgers GM though - I'd claim Lee. I would decline to trade for him if the Phillies revoked the waivers (99.9% chance they would), but if they just let the waivers go through then I've got the $ & I'd get Cliff Lee without giving up anything. Ditto for the Red Sox & Yankees.

The Phillies have traded Joe Blanton to the Los Angeles Dodgers for a player to be named later or cash considerations, the team announced.

Blanton was scheduled to start Friday night against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Kyle Kendrick will take his place.

B.J. Rosenberg has been called up from Triple A Lehigh Valley to replace Blanton on the Phillies' active roster.

The Phillies were close to dealing Blanton to the Baltimore Orioles prior to the July 31 trade deadline, but talks fell through.

The waiver period begins after July 31. Teams can place players on waivers, with the highest priority going to the team with the worst record in that player's respective league.

In this case, Blanton made it through eight NL teams before being claimed by the Dodgers.

At that point, the Phillies had three options: pull Blanton back off of waivers and keep him, allow the claiming team to simply absorb him and his salary, or work out a trade with the claiming team. The Phils chose Option 3.

Blanton, who has 6.39 times as many strikeouts as walks to lead the National League, is a free agent at season’s end.