Philadelphia Phillies: Trades? We Don't Need No Stinking Trades

You know when you say or hear something so many times that it begins to lose all meaning? Well, that’s how I feel when it comes to Philadelphia Phillies trade talks.

Day after day, all I hear about is how we need a right-handed outfield bat or another arm, preferably a lefty, in the bullpen.

The call for bullpen help has lessened a bit with the continued success of Ryan Madson, Antonio Bastardo and Michael Stutes. But that group, aside from Madson, is very inexperienced and the fans would still like to get one of the Padres late-inning arms like Heath Bell or Mike Adams to solidify the bullpen.

When it comes to a right-handed outfielder, one day it’s Carlos Beltran, then the next day it’s Hunter Pence or Melky Cabrera, or hell, I could throw out four to five other names that you’ve probably heard at one time or another.

Look, I get it. All of those moves make sense on paper. The collective statistics of the players who’ve batted fifth this year are a .224 average with 10 homers and 58 RBIs, which isn’t very impressive. It’s caused Charlie Manuel to use seven different guys in the five-hole, with Ben Francisco and Raul Ibanez leading the way with 36 and 33 games respectively.

So all year, we’ve been searching for a player to slide into the fifth spot in the batting order to protect Ryan Howard, and someone like Beltran or Pence would seem to be the perfect fit.

But to tell you the truth, I kind of want to go to war with the guys we’ve already got.

Now you’re probably thinking something to the affect of “you’re kidding, right?”

I mean, it seems like Francisco has disappeared from the lineup lately and John Mayberry has had a few big games but never seems to get consistent playtime. Also, Dominic Brown’s production has yet to live up to his potential and Ibanez is a bum. That’s the pulse of Phillies Nation, right?

Well, Ibanez might be a bum, but damn it, he’s our bum. Sure, he’s a streaky hitter, and when you look at those fancy sabermetrics numbers that calculate his defensive range or the number of runs he’s either saved or given up, they're not pretty. But it’s not like an Alfonso Soriano or Bobby Abreu, where you question the man’s effort; the home run saving catch he made a few weeks back should show you that the man’s still out there giving it his all.

When it comes to Brown, people should remember that the kid’s only 23 years old and missed all of April and most of May with a broken wrist. So far in July, Brown is batting .310 with an OBP of .412, and in what I consider to be a great sign of patience for such a young hitter, he has more walks this month (10) than any other player on the team.

Mayberry would seem to fit the description of what the Phils are looking for, being a right-handed bat with some power, and yet for whatever reason, he has the least amount of plate appearances out of all four of these outfielders.

A friend of mine is convinced that Charlie or someone in the front office just doesn’t like Mayberry, but then again, my friend does love a good conspiracy theory. Maybe his performances earlier this month, which included going 3-for-5 with four RBI against the Braves and following that up by going 2-for-4 with five RBI against the Mets will earn him some more playing time.

Oh, and I forgot Francisco. But then again, who hasn’t? Ole Benny Fran has started only four games this entire month while managing to rack up eight DNPs. Did I mention that Cliff Lee has more homers in July then Francisco has in both June and July combined? So in his case, I can understand if the Phils made a smaller move (maybe Marlon Byrd) for someone to replace him.

As of Monday, the reports are that the Astros have backed off on trading Pence, and the Phillies have cooled on their pursuit of Carlos Beltran. Now, Ruben Amaro has worked his magic in recent years, so anything is still possible, but with the team having the best record in the league at 64-36, maybe we don’t need the big move this year.

I know that players come and go, and ultimately it’s the team name on the front of the jersey that I root for more so than the name on the back. But I’ve watched this group of guys come together over a season and so far play better than any other team, so if this is the same group that’s going to be on the field come October, I’ll still be expecting another parade down Broad Street.