Ruben Amaro Jr. is in Las Vegas this week attending his first winter baseball meeting as the General Manager of the Fightin Phillies. The entire setting is not new, however, for Amaro as he was given plenty of responsibilities in his role as Assistant G.M. under recently retired Pat Gillick in times past.
The Phillies are in search of perhaps two starting pitchers, a long man for the bullpen, a utility man and an outfielder to either start or platoon in one of the corner spots. It appears they have decided to part ways with Pat Burrell as it would seem that he will get higher offers from other teams to either DH, play first base or left field. Burrell may end up with the Giants or Angels I have been reading. I like him alot as he is one who always got what Philly was about and actually liked playing here for us “passionate” type fans! Same goes for Jamie Moyer and albeit it seems as if the Phillies want him back it may be perhaps not at his price or length of contract. Moyer seems to want more than one year and the Phillies seem to only want to sign him for an additional season. They seem a bit apart on money as well. I am hopeful they can work it out but would not be surprised if they do not.
That being said other outfield options are Raul Ibanez, Rocco Baldelli and Juan Rivera as free agents. My question is if the Phillies are willing to sign a lefty like Ibanez why not take a run at old buddy Bobby Abreau ? Abreau could play right field and Jayson Werth could switch over to Left field in that scenario.
In regards to pitching it has been rumored that the Phillies have talked to Derrick Lowe but it does not seem likely that they would meet his length of contract or money demands. Lowe reportedly wants five years at around 90 million total! We are in a recession right ? More probable to me would be Bradon Looper or perhaps a deal with Texas for old buddy Kevin Milwood.
Nick Punto has been rumored as a name the Phils might pursue as middle infield support but how bout that Damien Easley ? Russ Springer is a name that I have read as a potential add to the bullpen.
I have always liked that Ryan Freel from Cincinatti, wonder if Ruben could work something there for that guy, he would be a great sparkplug type for the Fightins. It seems that Jason Donald is somewhat of a hot commodity in regards to potential prospects to be dealt. The Baltimore Orioles apparently have some interest but not sure what Donald would fetch in a deal.
In any regard the week should be fun and interesting for us “Hot Stove” followers. The big names should go first, Sabbathia, Rodriquez, Ramirez, Burnett, Texieria and Lowe… after that then the deals should move a bit. I don’t think that money will fly as freely as in past years albeit Major League Baseball is coming off a record setting revenue year where gross receipts gained the league around 6.6 billion dollars!
Let the stove fire up, go get them Ruben! We are the champions but sure would be sweet to set us up to stay there!
