In about 10 minutes, Joe Blanton, the Phillies' newest pitcher, will hold a conference call with reporters. The Phillies have traded three minor-leaguers -- second baseman Adrian Cardenas, lefty Josh Outman and outfielder Matt Spencer -- to Oakland to acquire Blanton, a 27-year-old right-hander. While we wait, I wanted to pass along a few stats about Blanton, who likely will start Tuesday night in the opener of a series against the Mets at Shea Stadium (Adam Eaton or J.A. Happ would've made that start).1. Blanton has thrown more than 194 innings in each of the past three seasons. Last year, he threw a whopping 230 innings. No idea if that has contributed to his 5-12 record and 4.96 ERA in 20 starts. We'll try to find out.
2. He went 16-12 in 2006 and 14-10 in 2007. Last year, he posted a 3.95 ERA, which is particularly stellar in the American League.
3. Blanton has received only 3.48 runs per game in his starts this season. In seven of his 20 starts, the A's scored less than two runs. They scored more than four runs only seven times.
4. When Blanton receives four or more runs, his career record is 37-5. With the Phillies' offense, that should bode well.
What do you think of the deal?
8 comments:
I don't like it at all. This guy has the same ERA+ as Adam Eaton and we gave up two very good prospects. This reeks of desperation.
Great pick-up. The guy is the consumate professional. can throw lots of innings which will take pressure off of the best bullpen in the NL. Will get better run support with Phils which he did not get in Oakland. Has proven himself in the American League and will probably be the difference in the 2nd half for the Phils. This was a no-brainer. Great job Pat G.
If you don't like this move, you were just to content. These minor leaguers were going no where in Phila.. Not only do you get the A's opening day starter he's here for a few years with Hamels to give you a great 1 2 punch. Maybe Myers could be a good 3? Moyer and Kendrick 4 5 wow!!!! I LOVE THIS MOVE.
I'm glad the Phils were able to get something done. A couple of interesting things: First, as an Opening Day starter, Blanton was slotted above his ability in the early season-- especially difficult for him pitching for a light-scoring team. He faced 1-2 starters constantly and just isn't a 1-2 guy himself. That's good for the Phillies because you can discount that poor record a bit. Some bad news: He gave up almost 500 hits in 2006-07 and led the AL in hits surrendered last year. That's not so good-- however he also started more games than any AL starter. Lastly, he WON'T pitch deep into games in the NL with the poor run support he's been used to (the Phils are right around 3.48 for the last month themselves) because Charlie Manuel will start chafing to pinch hit-- something that wasn't an issue in Oakland. So... we'll see...
I'm on the fence ... Love Cardenas and Outman, but realize that Blanton has been a very solid starter for the A's until slumping this season. The next few weeks will decide whether Gillick made a good deal or not ... in the mean time some may want to check out Joe Blanton's Blog at ... http://joeblanton.mlblogs.com/
This will be hard to judge for a while until we see it all pan out. However, Marson and Carrasco are still in the system and the Phils now have a solid starter, rotation depth and the boost that a mid-season addition brings to a team.
Hard to say that this is a bad deal. Many people I think will overvalue our system and say that giving up Cardenas is too much...but no team is giving away solid Major League starters. You have to actually give up something...and the Gillick did that without giving up 2 of the players that will contribute in the next year or so (Carrasco + Marson) as well as Donald and Happ
how can any of you people say this is a good deal?
cardenas and outman would have been on the ML roster by 2010. blanton might be out of basball by then.
he's 27 and already having a downturn to his career. he has a 5+ ERA on the road.
he was only their opening day starter because Haren was traded and Harden was injured.
this guy is a fat mess who is the second coming of adam eaton.
This is an ATROCIOUS deal. It's not just bad-- it's horrible.
To anybody who says that Adrian Cardenas wasn't play in second base in Philly, do you realize how much more we could have gotten trading him for anything else at any point in the next 2-3 years? He's got Utley upside, and has a better than 50-50 chance of being an average second basemen.
As far as Blanton, this is NOT a good pitcher. This is a guy who doesn't strike people out, and as a result gives up a lot of flyballs even if his groundball/flyball ratio is okay. If you consider how many homeruns more get hit in CBP than get hit in Oakland, his ERA should probably have been about 4.90 every year but last year.
Is that worth trading one of your best chips for? A guy with a 4.90 ERA-- who won't dominate good teams in the playoffs (as low-strikeout guys statistically do not)?
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