The Phillies, yet again, were unable to string hits together when they need them to give the starters any kind of run support as they lose to the Pirates 2-1. Hamels was brilliant throwing eight innings in which he allowed one hit and just one run, yet the Phillies lineup couldn’t give him his eighth win of the season. The question is where do you go to fix the problem now that everyone is back and more importantly how long do you wait to make an attempt to fix it?
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Jimmy Rollins’ defense makes up for his offensive deficiencies, but at this point I would imagine that the Phillies strongly need to consider how much sense it makes to have Rollins return for 2012 and beyond. Raul Ibanez’ numbers look horrible following a horrendous April but he is hitting over .300 with an onbase percentage over .330 since May 1st.
Outside of Ross Gload, not one member of the bench is producing. Schneider, Martinez, Francisco, and Valdez are all hitting under .242, with Valdez being the only one of those four hitting over .225. Maybe what the Phillies need to add isn’t a superstar regular, but a “superstar” off the bench. Someone who is going to be able to come off the bench and get on base. Preferably it would be a right handed bat that could play the infield, making Michael Martinez returnable. A couple of guys I would like to see minor trades for are:
- Emmanuel Burriss – SF Giants – 2B/SS/3B – .286/.286/.286 – Not a masher, but has been able to get on base. Hasn’t drawn a walk, but has only struck out four times in thirty five at bats. Is in his third year of service time, so will be retainable for atleast two more seasons.
- Brent Lillibridge – White Sox – 2B/SS/LF/CF/RF – .308/.387/.662 – Has cooled off batting average wise, but his batting average is still hovering right around .300. Is he having a career year or finally coming into his own. Still has less than two years of service time so would be retainable for another 3 years or so.
- Jeff Keppinger – Astros – 1B/2B/SS/3B/LF/RF – .385/,407/.577 – Keppinger has been hitting out of his mind since coming off of January foot surgery. Eventually he will probably come down to his career average of .283, but he still would be an asset as he is not susceptible to the strikeout. He has zero thru his first 26 at bats this season 93 times since 2007. He has one last year of arbitration to keep thru 2012.
Despite the service time, I think that Keppinger could be a great fit for the Phillies and deal could easily be done for him. Ed Wade and Ruben Amaro Jr. have a good relationship and hopefully it can lead to an improved bench by adding a guy like Keppinger.
Tags: bench moves, offensive woes, trades
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