Pence deal: Future is now
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Pence deal: Future is now
Paul Hagen
When Joe Klein was farm director of the Texas Rangers, he was called out of a staff meeting one spring training evening in 1982 and given a heads-up. The team was about to announce that two of the system’s best young pitching prospects, Ron Darling and Walt Terrell, were being traded to the Mets for veteran outfielder Lee Mazzilli.
Klein, livid, returned to the conference room. “This meeting is [bleeping] over,” he told the stunned aides, slamming his fist on the desk before heading straight to the bar to quench his hot anger with a few cold beers.
If the Phillies development people have similar reactions when they see their best and brightest bundled up and shipped out of town, they keep it to themselves. Or maybe they’ve just gotten used to it by now.
General manager Ruben Amaro Jr. announced the latest future-is-now deal moments after the Phillies beat the Pirates last night, making official what has been rumored for days.
The Phillies are getting All-Star outfielder Hunter Pence from the Astros plus $1 million in cash.
The Astros are getting four minor leaguers including a pair that have the potential to cause real remorse in a few years: Righthander Jarred Cosart and first baseman Jonathan Singleton. The Phillies also agreed to throw in righthander Josh Zeid and a player to be named later.
(Klein’s unhappiness, by the way, turned out to be well-founded. Mazzilli, who never wanted to leave New York, was traded to the Yankees before the season ended. Darling and Terrell went on to combine for 247 big league wins. A Rangers team with hopes of contending ended up losing 98 games.)
Amaro conceded up front that he had paid dearly. But the reality is that he had little choice.
The Phillies have a $175 million payroll and the best record in baseball. They also got a rude reminder of how vulnerable their lineup can be when Matt Cain and Tim Lincecum of the Giants thoroughly dominated them Wednesday and Thursday nights. They didn’t score an earned run in either of those games.
The reality is that the Phillies lineup, as it existed, was flawed. It was too lefthanded. It sorely lacked the righthanded bat that’s been missing ever since Jayson Werth departed for free-agent riches in Washington.
Pence can be that bat. He increases the chances that the Phillies will be able to cash in on one of the remaining years in their window of opportunity.
Domonic Brown might be someday. John Mayberry Jr. might be someday.
Pence is right now and that makes all the difference.
No, he may not be the kind of hitter that will force teams to pitch to Ryan Howard. But as his 62 RBI this season attest, he is the sort of hitter who has a knack for driving in runs if teams pitch around Howard to get to him.
Pence isn’t perfect. He doesn’t have the kind of power teams ideally like in corner outfielders. But he’s an all-out player who should be popular with the fans. He will help Howard but, more importantly, he will help put the slugging first baseman into a position where he can help himself.
One of the most impressive things about Howard on his way toward winning the Most Valuable Player Award in 2006 was his ability and willingness not to swing at pitches he didn’t want to swing at. He was willing to take a walk and he took them a lot, 108 of them, one for every 5.38 at bats.
That ratio has been steadily dropping ever since. Last year he walked once for every 9.32 at bats. That’s probably understandable. After signing his big contract extension, it would be only natural for him to feel the need to take the team on his shoulders.
Howard has been more patient this year, with a walk for every 7.8 ABs so far, and the acquisition of Pence should only help that. If it makes him more comfortable to let the hitter behind him take care of business, that will also be a benefit.
It will also allow manager Charlie Manuel to achieve the balance in his lineup that he talks about so often.
There is absolutely a risk here, but that won’t come into play for at least a couple years. Besides, you can say whatever you want about Amaro, but he isn’t afraid to aim high. And if there’s another parade down Broad Street late in October, will anybody really care about all those chickens that might someday come home to roost?
The Phillies want to win now.
They’ve put themselves in a position where they almost have to win now.
And Hunter Pence improves the odds.
It’s said that a starting pitcher’s job is to give his team a chance to win. The same could be said about a general manager.
Now it’s up to the players.
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Love the move. But your comment about the Giants makes no sense. You said we got a reminder of why we needed a bat after the Cain and Lincecum games because our line-up was "flawed" and too lefty heavy. But Cain and Lincecum are both RH pitchers, not lefties. Top pitchers are going to get people out whether they hit LH or RH. Yes, Pence helps and I love the move...but they were making this move even if they swept the Giants...had nothing to do with those 2 games. By the way, read an article about the trade on the website for a Houston paper and not one of the Astros fans posted that they thought the Astros made out well. They are livid and most of them posted that Wade must either still work for Philly or he's trying to line up a job with them after the new owner takes over the Astros and cans him. Pretty funny stuff, lol.— JimG- Yes, people must not have been watching. It was the two SF right-handers who beat us. We beat one of their lefties.
The Philles just don't match up well against SF pitching. Lincecum in particular. Pence may or may not help but he doesn't hurt. The complexion of the lineup should change. With a strong RH behind Howard they can move Vic back up in the order. It should help. But hope that we're the team on fire this year in the playoffs if we meet the Giants again.
I heard RAJ asked if the Giants series made getting Pence more urgent (WIP interview with Paul Jolovitz). He laughed. He said they're not a team that reacts to one or two games and this deal was in the works for a while.
— s - How has Pence done against SF pitching? — Cheesedog
- The Phillies are making very smart moves. They let Werth go instead of paying 126 million. Werth is batting .215 this year. Pence is getting 6.9 million next year and is only 28 vs. Werth's age of 32. The Phillies still have a lot of years with this current team, and years to rebuild the farm system. You can't find fault here.— Larry Byrd
- Nice pickup for the Phils. Not too thrilled by Pence' lack of success against SF's pitching though. Check the numbers and be ready for disappointment— Tracer41
- "Nice pickup… …be ready for disappointment!" Now that's a Philadelphia sports attitude I can recognize!
If you hadn't noticed, as with most of the people in Philly, and on philly.com, most teams have about the same success against the Giants's pitching as most teams do against the Phillies's pitching.
Of course, what with the trades, the advantage is certainly to the Phillies in any case, since they began at a higher hitting point that the Giants did.— BEMiller - Major League Baseball is hitting .228 against the SF Giants this year. The Giants are the #1 team in MLB in that category. The Hunter Pence trade was made because we have a better chance with Pence in RF, then trying to manuever between Mayberry, Francisco and Brown. The effect is that CF and RF are now stable, barring any injuries (knock on wood). Now Ibanez is the weakest link in the outfield. Mayberry can repalce Ibanez at times and POSSIBLY improve the situtation. or maybe Ibanez gets hot, which would be welcomed! — Bob20Philly
- Carlos who?— maurysline
- Ruben Amaro, You are the man!!!!! (Apologies to Chase and Harry)— maurysline
- While the players given up were good, the phils do have an abundance of young pitching and a ton of 1st basemen in the sysetm. So, they gave up some promising players but there is an abundance of talent in order to get another chip. Great move
— t.o.78 - listen to him write this article as if the guys we gave up were something special. everyone in the baseball world knows rueb just bent ed wade over a desk. and ed wade was perfectly fine with it.— AlexSp
- I think this was a fair deal for both sides. I don't see that Houston really loses here. Over time we may even find that Houston got the better part of the deal. That doesn't matter if we can get another parade. — s
- .309 BA - flawless fielder with a rocket launcher arm...me likee!1 Send Dom to AAA where he can perhaps learn how to play baseball and keep Mayberry up here.— ziggy26
- I like the deal. Singleton is blocked by Howard here so I had no problem trading him. Cosart hurts a little bit but he's a single A pitching prospect. Pitching prospects may be the biggest gamble going. And we still have guys like Trevor May, Brody Colvin and Jesse Biddle in the system. I like that we kept Brown. He's frustrated me lately, particularly with his defense but it's way too early to give up on him yet. This gives him time to develop in AAA if needed. The expanded roster is only a month away anyway. I also like that we kept Worley. He may come back down to earth but I like seeing what he has, particularly with Blanton on the DL and Oswalt's back issues.
Welcome to Philadelphia Hunter Pence.
Now let the complaining begin ... :-)
— s - This is a great trade because they kept a guy (Brown) who actually isn't far away from being a major leaguer. Singleton and Cosart, even under the best of circumstances, are three years away, not to mention the 2-3 years for them to actually get comfortable enough to achieve their potential. That's if, obviously, if they even are able to reach their potential.— Hemingway
