Thursday, May 23, 2013

Subscriber Services |

Thursday, May 23, 2013

High Cheese

Reading outfielder Tyson Gillies suspended

News blogs, sports blogs, entertainment blogs, and more from Philly.com, The Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News.

76 comments

Reading outfielder Tyson Gillies suspended

POSTED: Thursday, July 19, 2012, 6:38 PM

David Murphy, Daily News Staff Writer

(Akira Suwa/Staff Photographer)

The hits keep on coming for Tyson Gillies, the centerfield prospect acquired as part of the ill-fated Cliff Lee trade of December, 2009.

Gillies has been suspended from Double-A Reading for what the club says is a violation of team rules. No further information is available at this point in time.

Gillies has struggled to stay on the field since the Phillies acquired him from the Mariners along with righthanders Phillippe Aumont and J.C. Ramirez in exchange for Lee.

He appeared in just 28 games in his first season in the organization, which was marked by hamstring injuries and an arrest for cocaine possession (the charges were later dropped). The hamstring troubles carried over into 2011, when he appeared in just three games. This year, Gillies is hitting .294/.382/.433 in 46 games at Reading, but he missed close to two months with a concussion, only recently returning to the field.

76 comments

Previous Story: RIP Momentum. We hardly knew ye

Next Story: Nix activated from the disabled list

Comments (76)

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 8:48 AM, 07/20/2012

It seems that when a team trades prospects they know a little more about the player then the the buyer seems to know. If you are going to trade a great player for prospects at least get a almost or major league player or players in return to me a single or double A player has too many risks.

— angrywhtguy

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 9:23 AM, 07/20/2012

Can we officially acknowledge that Tyson Gillies, like Philippe Aumont and probably Dom Brown, is a bust?

— Dave Clemens

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 10:47 AM, 07/20/2012

Paul SoTX --yes, Lee is MUCH better pitcher than Halladay for 2012 and the future, with Halladay likely washed up; Lee was comparable to Halladay in 2011 when both were in top 4 of Cy Young balloting, with Halladay more "consistent" but Lee more dominating for long stretches (led baseball in shutouts; their season-ending numbers were similar)...for 2010 Halladay won Cy Young but Lee was brillliant as well for long stretches and had much better post-season, taking team to 2010 Series before faltering while Halladay lew it in game 1 of NLCS, ...Halladay has NEVER been to a Series because despite a good effort in game 5 of 2011 he gave up an early hr and lost that too (and indeed I might have preferred Lee in game 5 who might have matched zeros with Carpenter)... whatever their differences, the "improvement" of a Halladay over Lee was certainly not worth losing 10 of Phils best prospects (which was the ultimate cost since Clueless Rube lost 3 for Halladay, then 3 for Oswalt, then 4 for Pence)..and when evaluating current value, morons like you constantly cite career stats which is of course irrelevant --nobody is going to pay $80/share now for Research in Motion stick now despite how good they were with sales of blackberries a few years ago

— warbiscuit

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 10:57 AM, 07/20/2012

@orangerhino: Gillies got arrested for the cocaine thing in FLA, while playing for single A. He was at a Clearwater bar with friends who apparently left earlier; a cop saw him hitchhiking and gave him a ride to the team hotel; after Gillies got back to the hotel, the cop looked in the back seat and saw a pack of cocaine; and naturally they charged Gillies, since he was the last guy back there. His lawyer argued on chain of custody issues, that is, they couldn't prove it was Gillies coke just because he was back there last, so the prosecution dropped the case. I'm guessing it was likely his, but that doesn't fly in court.

— drbob1

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 10:57 AM, 07/20/2012

— drbob1

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 5:48 PM, 07/20/2012

He was on a rehab in Clearwater. And I believe he was tested and there was no drugs in his system. Why would he accept a ride with a police officer if he had drugs?

— EL Zorro

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 10:57 AM, 07/20/2012

— drbob1

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 11:02 AM, 07/20/2012

Halladay is as much to blame for 2011 NLCS loss as Lee, if not more...Lee lost a non-crucial game 2 while Halladay lost the crucial season-ending game 5...given my druthers I'd have preferred Lee in a deciding Game 5 as Lee has been more clutch in high-pressure spots (and indeed Carpenter was even worse than Lee in game 2 yet came back to be brilliant in game 5 so who's to say that Lee wouldn't have matched him?) Lee was as dominating against good teams in 2009 NLDS, 2009 NLCS, 2009 World Series, 2010 ALDS, and 2010 ALCS as an any pitcher in history whereas Halladay has really has only 1 post-season game worthy of special mention

— warbiscuit

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 1:16 PM, 07/20/2012

Sorry to hear this, we saw him play in spring training and he was impressive. He stayed around after the game signing autographs and taking pictures with fans and seemed like a nice kid. We were really hoping he had gotten his act together and would be an asset to the team in the future. As much as I enjoy crucifying RAJ for that abomination of a trade, I get no satisfaction from this.

— TMcG

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 1:25 PM, 07/20/2012

It was a misguided trade for two reasons. First of all, the Phillies could have done better if Amaro had given other teams the opportunity to bid for Lee's services. Do you think any of the 3 "prospects" we got will ever help the big club, much less even be called up? Second, we wouldn't have had to trade for Oswalt if we had Lee on the team. Those prospects we lost in that trade would still be Phillies property.

No one should complain about the prospects we lost in the Halladay trade; that was a terrific move for the Phillies and if we lost something (Drabek now having second Tommy John, D'Arnaud out for the year) then that's the price of getting one of the best pitchers of his generation.

— PhillyfaninVirginia

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 1:49 PM, 07/20/2012

@Dr. Bob--Thanks for explaining the cocaine charge/dismissal. People who can afford taxis should not hitchhike. I can't figure out whether Gillies is stupid, or just immature.

— orange rhino

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 1:58 PM, 07/20/2012

Give me a break....The Lee trade as a total mess. Not in just what they received for Lee and what they got back but for another important reason that many have forgotten. The Lee trade was to " replenish the farm system". Yeah right.

Due to the fact that they didnt have Lee for that 2010 season they had to go out and get Oswalt! Remember who they gave up? J.A. Happ and two prospects, outfielder Anthony Gose and shortstop Jonathan Villar. So the Lee trade was a disaster. We got back weaker prospects in trading with Seattle and then had to give up way more to replace his missing in the lineup. Thus depleting our minor league even more. Dumbest thing Amaro ever did. But no one talks about this.

— PHAZED

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 2:02 PM, 07/20/2012

If we hadn't traded Lee we may have won the WS in '10 and wouldn't have sacrificed Gose & others for Oswalt. We'd trade Shane now for BP, 3B or prospects & Gose would leadoff, hit well, field great & steal at will all for league minimum & club control for years. Instead we got...? Rube's ego has destroyed Philly's best team ever.

— phillies6pack

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 5:02 PM, 07/20/2012

biscuit,

How is giving up one run and then pitching seven shut-out innings (Halladay, Game 5), against a much better offense than the Phillies’, “losing” anything. The Phillies’ nonexistent offense lost that game and the series. And you say Lee has been more clutch in high pressure situations, then cite the 2009 and 2010 playoffs, but a few comments earlier you chide somebody for referring to Doc’s past stats. Halladay was better than Lee in the playoffs last year. Doesn’t matter what Lee did in ’09 and ’10.

— jermigio

0 like this / 0 don't • Posted 5:30 PM, 07/20/2012

all games are crucial in the play-offs, lee blew the lead against cardinals in 2nd game(I even predicted phillies would lose series before it started because cardinals I remember overtook phils in 64") phils did not hit in the 2nd game after first few innings, halladay did not lose game 5 phillies scored zero runs certainly can't win a game if you don't score and if it was not for the much ridiculed ben francisco phillies would have lost in 4 games.

— only 9