Wednesday, July 16, 2008

Good Idea/Bad Idea Continued

Another name has come up in the Phillies' search for starting pitching so I thought it deserved an entry:

Joe Blanton, A's - Bad Idea - First of all, dealing with Billy Beane is always dangerous. Look at what he was able to get from the Cubs and Diamondbacks for Rich Harden and Danny Haren. Beane likes to pillage farm systems, and the Phillies have a weak farm system to begin with. Blanton himself isn't terrible, but has yet to live up to the hype surrounding him. He pitches a lot of innings and hasn't missed a whole lot of time due to injury, but he's on his way to career highs in most of the major pitching categories. He would be a decent secondary option, and probably be a more intriguing option than say, Bronson Arroyo, but Beane will want to trade him for a lot more than he's worth, and good pitchers from Oakland going elsewhere have a mixed success rate. Yes, there were Tim Hudson and Danny Haren, but there were also Mark Mulder and Barry Zito. It remains to be seen how Rich Harden will fare. Even trading one of the second-tier prospects such as Greg Golson or Jason Donald might look foolish just to get Blanton.

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