Sports

Blanton Traded to The Phillies

by drgraffnburg | July 17, 2008 at 07:22 pm

384 views | 2 Recommendations | 4 comments

The A’s shipped Joe Blanton to the Philadelphia Phillies for three minor leaguers Thursday, a trade that was not as surprising as the one Beane made nine days earlier. That was when he traded Rich Harden to the Chicago Cubs in a six-player deal, even though the A’s were six games behind the first-place Los Angeles Angels in the American League West. Oakland is still six games out of first and is now four and a half games out of the wild-card hunt.

This is not a very surprising move on Beane's part, but what is interesting is the Phillies just acquired what could be the missing piece in the back end of their rotation. Brett Myers has struggled mightily (3-9, 5.84) since coming back from the closer role he occupied in 2007. He was recently optioned to Triple-A affiliate Lehigh Valley but will rejoin the team sometime next week. But his days in the rotation may be numbered with the acquisition of Blanton.

Cole Hamels (9-6, 3.15), Jamie Moyer (8-6, 3.95) and Kyle Kendrick (8-3, 4.47) have done a fine job leading this rotation so far this season. To add Blanton at this point gives them a pitcher that can eat up a ton of innings (he has averaged well over 200 innings per season since 2005). He's not the dominant anchor to any rotation, but he provides a stable arm that allows their potent offense to win games.

“The rebuilding process is something I find exhilarating,” Beane said by telephone before the Blanton deal was completed. “We’re not interested in being a one-year wonder.”

The antithesis of anyone in Major League Baseball named Steinbrenner, Beane sees a bigger picture, and that picture includes the A's as a perennial playoff contender once again as they were earlier in this decade. Billy Beane has a way of gathering talented pitching and offensive stalwarts to create surprising teams who have staying power in the American League. We haven't seen the last of the A's for a while. They'll be among the contenders in the American League West within the next few seasons and it will be because of Billy Beane.

With Blanton, who was a disappointing 5-12 with a 4.96 E.R.A. this year and has been the subject of trade talk for months, Beane might have waited too long to unload him. The A’s acquired three minor leaguers for Blanton: second baseman Adrian Cardenas, pitcher Josh Outman and outfielder Matthew Spencer.

With the National League East race staying tight between the New York Mets and current division leaders, Philadelphia Phillies, this move might be the one that pushes the Phils just out of reach of their NL East foes. Unless the New York Mets counter with a trade of their own to solidify the very shaky closer situation with Bill Wagner, you're more than likely looking at a headline later this season that reads "Phillies Repeat as NL East Champs".

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Caoimhin1

flagged this story as Good Stuff

at 03:22 on July 18th, 2008

drgraffnburg, I like this story. It's good stuff.

dinurb

at 13:31 on July 18th, 2008

As an A's fan, I trust Beane - the only deal he's made that really didn't turn out well was Hudson to Atlanta for Charles Thomas and Dan Meyer. However, I do have to wonder what it would have been like to keep some of the pitchers he's traded away (Hudson, Mulder, Zito, Haren, Harden, Gaudin, Blanton) as well as guys like Tejada and Damon (who I think is a bigger loss than Giambi). Hopefully the guys we got from the last few deals turn out well - so far Carlos Gonzalez, Dana Eveland, and Greg Smith have been terrific!

drgraffnburg

at 17:52 on July 18th, 2008

I completely hear you. I'm a life-long Cubs fan. I was so tired of seeing our players go elsewhere and excel: see Greg Maddux, Rafael Palmiero, etc. (Thanks for Harden by the way. :)).

All those pitchers you mentioned have had good years since they left, but none of them have had much staying power. Hudson sorta fizzled in Atlanta (but has shown some life in the past year and a half), Mulder is on the brink of retirement, Zito is just $@*$ing awful. So, we will see what happens with Haren, Harden and Blanton over the next 2 seasons. Maybe Beane is more of a genius than I gave him credit for and can see the future.

Damon has been very solid since he left town. In fact, I had forgotten he started as an A before you said it.

I own Eveland in a fantasy baseball league, so here's to some success for him!

christinecoit

at 09:56 on July 26th, 2008

Dinurb --

I completely agree with you. As an A's fan, I've somewhat gotten accustomed to seeing some of my favorite players go, but do wonder exactly what the team would be like had we kept them...