Klentak ignores fans' crying, for the good of the team | Marcus Hayes

Matt Klentak sounds like a sane man.

On Wednesday night, Phillies manager Pete Mackanin benched centerfielder Odubel Herrera, again, for too much styling and not enough hustle, again. His infractions on Tuesday night against the Astros spurred the latest, hollow cries from fans and media to trade Herrera — who is, unquestionably, the team's best player over the past three seasons — by the deadline Monday.

A month before, the same voices called for Klentak, the general manager, to move power-hitting third baseman Maikel Franco, whose slow start led Mackanin to give him some time off, too. That same group of cognoscenti opine that, since Rhys Hoskins is destroying triple-A pitching in his first season at Lehigh Valley, major-league first baseman Tommy Joseph should be moved to make room. Joseph, a rookie last season, has played 201 games. He's on a 162-game pace to hit .255 with 30 home runs and 77 RBI.

Klentak is ignoring these cries. It is for the good of those doing the crying.

He did trade veteran middle reliever Pat Neshek to the Rockies for three single-A prospects on Tuesday. That might be enough movement for this year. Veteran hitter Howie Kendrick has continually been injured this season and veteran starter Jeremy Hellickson has been a valuable rotation piece when healthy, and both provide a steadying leadership presence, as does setup man Joaquin Benoit.

Even considering trading Herrera, Franco, or Joseph — cheap, young bats with minimal character flaws — just seems foolish. They are viable major-league starters, and the only conceivable equal value would be a young starting pitcher who projects to occupy the No. 2 or No. 3 slot in a rotation. Teams seldom let players of that ilk depart. The potential of the players on the Phillies roster is just too great.

Combine that with the Allentown bats and the Phillies would be wisest to stand pat.

"I would point you to the roster of the team we just finished playing," Klentak said of the Astros. "Look at the players they have not only in their starting lineup but also on their bench. Look at the hitters and numbers the players on their bench have put up and then check out their record."

The Astros struggled for years but held on to their young talent and now their 67 wins are 11 more than the No. 2 team in the American League has. They lead the majors in hitting and on-base percentage, by 15 and 13 points, respectively.

The Phillies were in a similar situation in the mid-2000s. Chase Utley was blocked by Placido Polanco. Ryan Howard was blocked by Jim Thome. Fans were dismayed by the stylings of Jimmy Rollins. Ed Wade refused to trade any of them.

Five years later, Howard and Rollins had won MVP awards, the team had gone to the World Series twice and won it once and Utley was cemented as the most popular player in franchise history.

Will Franco be the next Howard? He hasn't started off like the Big Piece, but Mike Schmidt said Franco has the talent to be an MVP. Franco is hitting .263 with five home runs, six doubles, 16 RBI and 13 strikeouts in his last 20 games.

Will Herrera regain his all-star form of early 2016? He has: .330 since the start of June, with six homers, 16 doubles, a .372 on-base percentage and some fine, if still raw, play in center field, a position to which he converted in 2015 — in the majors.

Both are worth holding on to. So is Joseph; cheap, 30-homer major-leaguers are precious.

No trades might mean the triple-A talent simmers a little longer. So what?

Big outfielder Dylan Cozens has 23 homers, but he's hitting .230 and he remains a strikeout machine: 141 in 101 games.

Klentak promoted Nick Williams about a month ago, to great success so far — he's hitting .309 with four homers — but Williams had almost 800 triple-A at-bats. Hoskins has 356. Granted, he has been much better than Williams was, and so might find himself in Philadelphia in a few weeks. For Klentak, that doesn't mean ToJo has to go.

"It takes a pretty special fit for us to want to move a player that we really like," Klentak said. "Pete would have to work through the playing time, but he's good at that. I wouldn't rule that out over the final two months of the year."

Why would he?