Phils add Hernandez to bullpen
They signed Boom-Boom Bobby. What is that worth in the standings? Four games? The Braves got rid of him, so that’s two games for them, and the Phillies added him, so they lose two more games.
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Tee hee. I was tickled pink when I saw that.
Best signing of the winter! This made my day.
Hmmmm…
Phils offseason:
Add Billy Wagner, Eric Milton, Tim Worrell, Roberto Hernandez
Lose Jose Mesa, Bradon Duckworth, Terry Adams, Turk Wendell
Likely keep Kevin Millwood
Braves offseason:
Add J.D. Drew, Eli Marrero, Jason Thompson
Lose Gary Sheffield, Greg Maddux, Javy Lopez, Ray King, Roberto Hernandez
Ouch.
Starting rotation: Advantage Phils
Bullpen: Advantage Phils
1B: Advantage Phils
2B: Push, I guess, Giles might hit like that again
SS: Advantage Braves
3B: Advantage Phils, DeRosa? Are you kidding me?
LF: Advantage Braves
CF: Advantage Braves
RF: Advantage Phils
C: Advantage Phils
Bench: Push
Good thing Braves have Furcal, Chipper and Andruw. It’s all downhill from there!
(And I know, blah, blah, blah, the Braves always win the division, blah, blah, blah, look what happened lat year, blah, blah, blah. Oh yeah, the Braves have exactly one WS ring in all that time, and they couldn’t beat the Phils in ’93. All that success and a constant postseason failure. At least this year Braves fans won’t have to suffer through a postseason collapse… since they won’t be there!)
I always roll my eyes when I see these position-by-position comparisons, as if the two opposing catchers or first basemen are going to duel at 20 paces or something.
And CJ, there’s one area where the Braves’ advantage is astronomical and that’s in the manager’s chair. As long as Red-Ass Larry Bowa is running that team, they’ll never win big. (Say what you want about Bobby Cox in the postseason, but he’s been in the playoffs for 12 straight years).
Just think how good the Phillies might be if Bowa hadn’t run off Scott Rolen? And Pat Burrell’s probably the next on the chopping block …
If Rolen wasn’t run off they wouldn’t have (or would claim not to have) the money for Thome. Long term I don’t know which I’d rather have. But for right now, I’ll take the big bopper at first.
Big bopper? Maybe, he did 19 more home runs than Rolen last year. Impressive, sure, but when your OPS is only 48 points higher, then that bopping he does isn’t as impressive. When you strike out almost twice as much as Rolen does, and hit 20 points lower, then it gets even less impressive. Rolen is a five tool player with five more Gold Gloves than Thome and had almost as many stolen bases last year than Thome has had in his whole career. I don’t have contract stats but I’m pretty sure Rolen is cheaper too. The Phillies would be a better team with Rolen at third than Thome at first. If they still had Rolen instead of Thome, they would probably be able to re-sign Burrell, if he starts hitting like he did two years again.
I would probably take DeRosa over David Bell at this point.