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Saturday, December 13, 2008
Bruntlett, Condrey Get One-Year Deals

The Phillies had until midnight to offer contracts to their unsigned players.

They only non-tendered righthander Scott Mathieson, who has been injured the past two seasons, but then resigned him to a split contract. That basically means he no longer will be making the big-league minimum while he rehabs from his latest Tommy John surgery. The Phillies also signed infielder Eric Bruntlett and righthander Clay Condrey to one-year contracts to avoid salary arbitration.

That leaves the Phillies with eight players eligible for salary arbitration: Joe Blanton, Greg Dobbs, Chad Durbin, Cole Hamels, Ryan Howard, Ryan Madson, Shane Victorino and Jayson Werth.

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Major League Baseball's 2008 World Series DVD is available on Blu-ray beginning Dec. 16.

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Here's the story in today's paper about the end of the Pat Burrell era in Philadelphia.

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Here's something to consider for those fans upset the Phillies lost a first-round draft pick to sign Raul Ibanez: it was a very late first round pick, so it's not an absolute killer. A first-round pick in baseball is a bit different than a first-round pick in basketball or football. Also keep in mind that the Phillies can spend more on their other high draft picks, picks that might not sign, enter college and re-enter the draft later.

Posted by Todd Zolecki @ 12:30 AM  Permalink | 15 comments
15
Comments   
Posted 12:52 AM, 12/13/2008
fcskills
Get ready to ante up Ruby.
Posted 02:17 AM, 12/13/2008
Jeffrey
Two down, eight to go! Should be smoooooth sailing from here on out.
Posted 05:43 AM, 12/13/2008
ronin32
There is no way they will sign Lowe with all these players set to raise the payroll 20-30 million. That's a dream
Posted 09:06 AM, 12/13/2008
PhillyTheKid
Now that the DeRosa deal is dead, signing Bruntlett ASAP was actually a good idea...While his bat is still suspect, his value as a utility infielder is pretty hard to gauge. Avoiding arbitration with him probably saved us a little cash. As for Condrey, every team has "mop-up" guys - ours happens to be decent. The next couple months dictate a serious spending spree for us if we're going to pay the remaining arb.-eligible guys. By the way, after you win the World Series, spending is much easier - hopefully, we'll get back to the "show" as soon - or sooner - than we did after the 1980 miracle! PK
Posted 09:34 AM, 12/13/2008
KMG
I agree with PhillyTheKid- if we sign Park, having him and Condrey at the back end of the bullpen is quite nice, a little depth when the injuries inevitably hit. Look at the Mutts from last year, you think they would've liked having those two guys available when Wagner went down?
Posted 11:52 AM, 12/13/2008
robm0202
Good point about the draft picks Todd, but Keith Law make a great point. Why not offer Burrell arbitration to get the picks back, considering how well the Phils have been drafting lately. In the past couple of years we have made great picks in Michael Taylor, Quintin Berry, Adrian Cardenas, Jose Outman, Jason Donald, Lou Marson, among others. You would think we would want to give as many top picks as possible to our scouting department so that we can draft more quality players. Anyways, I did like the signing but I would have liked to have the picks as well.
Posted 11:54 AM, 12/13/2008
bobbyuk
Condrey signed for 650K and Bruntlett for 800K according to the Phils' website.
Posted 12:44 PM, 12/13/2008
Todd Zolecki
The Phillies didn't offer Burrell arbitration because he would have accepted it. No question about it. If Ibanez can't get more than three years, $31.5 million, there's little chance Burrell will make that much. Burrell made $14 million last year. If he had accepted, he would have made around $15 million next year. The Phillies simply didn't want to pay him that much.
Posted 02:15 PM, 12/13/2008
jeff gross
Todd, it's a waste of time trying to get these guys to understand that baseball is a business and money talks. Brilliant move not bringing Pat back, since HE ALSO can't understand that this is about money. I wonder what he ends up signing for and with whom. DOn't be surprized if he gets under $8 million a year
Posted 02:18 PM, 12/13/2008
chriszak
definitely like bringing condrey and bruntlett back. condrey saved a lot of our good arms, and was solid every time he went out, eventually working himself into meaningful games. same with bruntlett. he's not the most talented guy, and i sometimes cringed when manuel put him into the game to pinch-hit, but you gotta admit...bruntlett was a guy who responded to the challenge.
Posted 05:10 PM, 12/13/2008
philsfan in the atx
I agree jeff. I think the "B" level free agents may get a suprise when their offers are much lower then the past. The economy effects are real and I believe the "B" guys will get much less then they thought.
Posted 05:17 PM, 12/13/2008
robm0202
Cool your jets Jeff, you don't have to be disrespectful, just offering up a point. I guess what it comes down to for me is having our picks plus Burrell for a year might have been better than Ibanez, no top picks, and a 3 year commitment for a guy who will be 37 next season. I understand why they didn't offer Burrell arbitration, because they didn't want him back. But would one year of Burrell really have been that bad considering we wouldn't have to give up any picks? I am willing to give the Phils the benefit of the doubt for now since they won, but I do have my doubts. At least we will have more consistency with Ibanez it seems.
Posted 06:58 PM, 12/13/2008
Wally 24
It will be interesting to see if Amaro is able to get Hamels signed to a contract. I say give him what ever he wants now while we can afford him. If he wants 6 yrs at $15 mil an yr. give it to him but get it behind us. As for Howard we have 3 yrs before he gets the right to walk why risk salary arbitration each yr. If he puts together another MVP type season the Phils could be paying him some serious cash through an arbitrator. I can understand why they are afraid to give Moyer a lenghty contract but as for the rest of the core of the team it only makes sense not to have the distraction of the arbitration process each year. Rubin the team did their job now its time to anti up. Get with it!
Posted 10:16 PM, 12/13/2008
KMG
The bottom line to me is that Ibanez is a better player than Burrell. I think people make way too big of a deal with the age thing on Burrell vs. Ibanez- if you watch them play, Burrell looks a lot older. His foot problems have slowed him to a crawl. Consider this, as well- if you accept the premise that arbitration would bring Burrell a bit of a raise, probably to $15 million or so, we can probably get Ibanez, Park and a right-handed bat for the bench for the same amount.
Posted 10:41 AM, 12/14/2008
EL Zorro
Why people are assuming Burrell would have accepted arbitration? Rarely a veteran player accepts arbitration. As a matter of fact, I don’t recall any player accepting arbitration this year. It does not make sense business-wise, even during these hard economic times. Why risk an injury on a one-year deal and jeopardize your next contract. In Burrell’s case he probably knows that his next contract will be his last big one, why take a one-year deal and go over the same process again next year? Players fought too hard to get free agency, why give it away?
About Andy Martino and Matt Gelb














Andy Martino is in his second season on the Phillies beat. A former New York City public school teacher and graduate of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, he previously wrote for the New York Daily News, where he covered baseball and worked with the award-winning investigative sports "I-team." Follow him on Twitter here.

Matt Gelb is in his first season covering the Phillies. He was hired by The Inquirer in August 2009 after graduating from Syracuse University. He also interned at The Inquirer in 2008 and has covered just about every sport for the paper. Born and raised in Bucks County, he attended Central Bucks High School West. Follow him on Twitter here.

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