Phightins

Not denying any of that (except the MVP candidate thing, this year anyway), but in all of Major League Baseball, he is one of the two players you came up with as having the most trade value? A bit of a stretch if you ask me.

I agree with ECN....has to be a MLB or NHL player just because of the prospect systems in those leagues.

Wow I did not even notice that.....fish, come on....David Wright? Really?

The issue is this. It is one thing to lose a perfect game by walking somebody or hitting somebody with a pitch, and a completely different thing to lose it when one of your teammates [expletive]s up. It's not that he is unhappy with throwing a no hitter, but that he himself did nothing to prevent it from being a perfect game.

Oh, the perks of winning the World Series. Pissing off Dodgers, Giants, and apparently Mets fans everywhere.

Hmm. Can't really prove the missing the cut off man thing one way or the other statistically, but I will just say that I have seen just about every game he has played as a Phillie and have not found that to be a problem (unlike with his predecessor Aaron Rowand). One time he tried stealing 2nd in the 9th down by 2 with 1 out and Matt Stairs at the plate. This may or may not be the incident you are referring to, but I do remember it and it was an isolated thing. I can honestly not remember him doing that at any other time. It was an incredibly dumb play but it does not make him a "dumb player". As for his stats and being "all star worthy"...not that it matters or anything since he was voted in, but he is 2nd in the league in runs scored and 2nd in hits, not to mention he is a gold glove centerfielder...it's not like it's some travesty that he is on the team.

Hey, it's possible. He was off to a hell of a start.

This trade makes very little sense to me. Two underachieving outfielders (although one far more underachieving than the other). Francouer is still very young, so I guess the Mets are holding out hope that he will some day figure it out.

Then you have not watched much baseball. It is one thing to dislike the Phillies, but throwing ridiculous claims out there just makes you look bad. What are you basing this off of?

Oh no, I'm not underrating him. I've always known what he could do. Two years ago when no NHL team picked him up and he wound up in the AHL I was shocked...the guy is a very serviceable backup and I was happy for him when San Jose picked him up. I just don't think the guy has what it takes to play the majority of an NHL schedule. Couldn't be happier with having him as a backup though.

Well unless it is an injury to Emery, I disagree. The dude is talented, but as you definitely know, the issue is between the ears. He was flat out told that if he screws this chance up, he is out of the league and never getting another chance. Is he stupid enough to mess this up again? Well we don't know for sure, but I doubt it. It has been laid out for him that if he behaves himself and plays to his potential, not only will he get to stay in the league but he has a pretty decent chance of getting a good contract somewhere next offseason. I'd be shocked if he [expletive]s up again, but yeah it remains to be seen.

I did notice that they had computers set up.

I am really happy he got picked up by them....he will have a chance to remain in the Major Leagues. If he would have cleared waivers he would have been optioned to the minors....again. He would have kept playing though, which is what makes him so damn cool.

You aren't little anymore?

Emery will start and play the large majority of the games, and Brian Boucher will back him up.

Chris Coste was placed on waivers and claimed by the Houston Astros today to make room for Raul Ibanez's return from the DL. I am really sad to see him go. He is an awesome story and was a key piece to this team for the past 3 years. It is time though, since he has struggled this year, and Paul Bako is a far superior receiver. I hope he does really well in Houston.

Haha well I assumed his arm was toast, based on what he had done in his past 2 years with the Mets. But hey, if he feels good then why not give it a shot. In his work out apparently his fastball was hitting 95, so that can't be anything but a good sign. He is throwing for them again today and if that goes well I expect him to be signed.

Actually I take back what I said (kind of). Todd Zolecki of mlb.com seems to think that even if Pedro is signed, the Phillies will still make a run at Halladay, which is surprising to me. I guess they think that the Blue Jays would require that JA Happ be part of the trade, so they would need an extra piece to the rotation should that happen.

J Dub is an all star!!! The last team to have all three outfielders make the all star team was the '95 Indians with Kenny Lofton, Albert Belle, and Manny Ramirez.

Desperation? How so? There is so little starting pitching out there. Other than Roy Halladay, there are no sure things on the market. Jake Peavy is hurt, Cliff Lee has a far bigger price tag than he is worth, Erik Bedard has injury concerns and is a clubhouse cancer, the Astros are probably holding on to Roy Oswalt. Halladay would literally take every prospect worth anything in our farm system, and moves like that are typically against the Phillies MO (and against most teams MO for that matter). I can see already that the Phillies are going to try to do this precisely how they did last year...smaller, under the radar moves to fill in some gaps, while preserving the farm system and not going for the big name guys.

Stretch his numbers out for a full season and you get roughly 15 goals and 20 assists...I wouldn't call that nothing. Remember, we aren't asking him to be a superstar, we just need to add some depth and some smaller pieces to replace the 50+ goals we lost with Knuble and Lupul. Having a healthy Briere (fingers crossed) and Giroux for a full season should help fill that void, but they need to get creative and find other ways to add scoring. I really don't see any better/cheaper options out there, and there certainly isn't much RW help coming from within the organization. Ian Laperriere was a nice signing, but he is more of a grit/energy line type guy...they need more scoring punch from the right side. Not to mention if he is signed before the season, he will have a full training camp to gel with his new team as opposed to just jumping into the fire in the middle of the year when everybody else is already in game shape (as he did this past season).

You just earned a +1 on your reputation.

Well, that is why ESPN is never to be trusted...

I don't think JVR has ever played on the right side...might be nice to see if he can though. Seriously though, Shanahan has shown in the past couple years that despite his old age he still has a bit of a scoring touch. With as tight against the cap as we are, we need to come up with some creative options to fill holes. Signing Shanahan to a cheap deal couldn't hurt. And for the record he had 14 points in 34 games with the Devils last season.....not awful.

Name a young RW in our organization who is capable of stepping in and replacing all the offense we lost. Andreas Nodl? It'd be nice, but we're probably dreaming if we expect him to take that step for this season.