MVN - Most Valuable Network

“Stand Pat” Gillick

Five minutes left and counting, and the Phils appear to be standing pat as the trade deadline comes and goes.

There were plenty of rumors and plenty of whispering going on throughout the MLB universe today. Oddly, with all the talk there had been in previous weeks, the Phillies were mentioned only once on any coverage I watched. That one time they were mentioned was Buster Olney reporting that the Phils were probably going to stand pat. Just another example of “Don’t believe what you hear, until you see it for yourself.”

I was one of the ones who, while the fan inside me was praying for some sort of move before the deadline, didn’t think the Phils would make a move. Pat Gillick has a reputation for not making big moves, especially near the deadline. He did it last year, although Lohse and Iguchi turned out to be more productive than we ever thought they would be. Two years ago he was a part of  big trade, but it was the opposite of what the Phillies needed, being the seller not the buyer in the deal. So, while it wasn’t too much of a suprise, it was a bit of a dissapointment that this front office sees this team as a World Series ready, when they’re obviously not at the moment.

The one glimmering hope is Pat’s reputation for post non-waiver deadline deals. Two years ago he got us Jamie Moyer and Jeff Conine. Last year he got us Russell Branyan, even though that was a complete waste of a roster spot. We can look back in the past though and find some very, very good waiver claim trades made by Gillick. He swung Jim Acker in 1989 to help Toronto in to the playoffs, he then acquired David Cone four years later who was a key part to that World Series team. He’s also acquired names like Jose Offerman and Armando Benitez after July 31st, so it’ll be interesting to see if “Stand” Pat can pull anything together in the next month.

Tonight we see the same Phillies we’ve seen all year go up against the Washington Nationals in the final game of their three game series. The Phillies have taken the first two games pretty easily and will look for their first series sweep since they took Atlanta in four games at Turner Field.

The man going to the hill for the Phils is Kyle Kendrick who, after two poor outings, pitched a great game against Atlanta but came away with a no decision after the Phils bullpen fell apart in the 8th and 9th innings. In spite of a 0-1 record against them, Kyle has been quite succesful in his career against the Nats with a good looking 3.63 ERA. The Nationals counter with John Lannan who the Phils beat up on in his only career appearance against them. They’ll look to do the same thing tonight and bring a five game winning streak in to St. Louis over the weekend.

Note:

To all you vegans out there:

“Hi,

I wanted to let you know that Citizens Bank Park has come in at #1 on PETA’s list of Top 10 Vegetarian-Friendly Ballparks for 2008. The list reads:

If there were a free agency market for delicious vegetarian food, the Phillies would have dominated it this past off-season. CBP added mock-chicken sandwiches and “crab-free crab cakes” to an already stacked lineup, including Philly faux-steak sandwiches, veggie dogs, flame-grilled Gardenburgers, hoagies with roasted veggies, tomato-basil soup, various salads, “The Poppy” sandwiches (roasted eggplant, roasted red peppers, sun-dried tomatoes), and PB&J. Chickens, cows, and sea animals everywhere are putting their wings, hooves, fins, and claws together in honor of Kevin Tedesco, the team’s concession manager, who has spearheaded the Phillies’ veggie surge.

Here’s a link to the complete list of major league ballparks and a list of top 10 minor league stadiums: http://www.peta.org/feat_veg_ballparks.asp?c=pvbpbb08. Please feel free to contact me with questions or for more info!

Best,

Amy

PETA”

I’ll stick to the cheesteaks, but hey to each his own.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 31st, 2008 at 3:27 pm and is filed under Phillies GameDay, Philadelphia Phillies, Trade Rumors. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.