The Case to Trade Jimmy Rollins
Somebodyisfromhere.com often includes the phillies in his travel stories. In this blog he doesn't hide it
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The baseball season is long and prone to overreaction. With every good winning streak, comes with the assumption of destiny and the losses come with a sense of impending doom.
This however is not an overreaction. Jimmy Rollins should be traded.
It's not a reaction to his poor play this season in which he woke up on June 25th with a .211 batting average. Perhaps he will go on that hot streak Charlie Manual is so confident about and end up near his career .274.
Jimmy's offense has always been a bit overrated. He's always frustrated us more than he hasn't. That's not to take away from his MVP in 2007 which he earned. You can talk about how he was the spark on that team or that he scored all those runs. For me, though, the guy got 94 RBIs from the leadoff spot on a National League ballclub. That's incredible.
To me his career will be summed up by his euphoric interview after the rain soaked World Series clincher. To paraphrase, when asked about moving the runner over after Geoff Jenkin's double, he said he was going to bunt whether Manual told him to or not because it was the right thing to do. He's always seemed to be the guy who knew what he needed to do whether it was to walk more (or at least see some pitches) or bunt more, but he chooses not to do it. Instead, he pops up more than Willie Mays Hayes.
This is not a profession of love for Jason Donald whose play on the US team was patriotic and whose play in spring was encouraging. He's still a minor leaguer and anytime you bring one up there is risk.
This is only about business. The Phillies deserve credit for upping their payroll over the winter. It's assumed that they would even be willing to add to it a little more to it in the right move near the trade deadline. What they need is a number 2 pitcher (hopefully now, but definately before the start of next season) and those are expensive.
How much would a starter of that caliber cost? The Phillies probably won't get one of the pitchers people have recently been salivating over, but their salaries are good indicators of what it will cost. Jake Peavy makes $11 million this year. Roy Oswalt makes $14 million. Roy Halladay makes $14.25.
Would the Phillies spend this much? Is it good business to?
Sooner or later the Philles will have to start to realocate some salary to pitching. Howard and Utley are the core of the team and untradeable. Shane Victorino ($3.1), Jayson Werth ($2.5), and the catchers are fairly cheap. Raul Ibanez's contract is too new.
That leaves Pedro Feliz ($5) and Rollins ($8.5). They are similar in that much of their reputation is earned on defense. There is a chance Feliz won't be back with the team next as his was a 2 year contract signed last year.
That's where Donald comes in. He is cheap and would probably play alright. And that makes Rollins expendable.
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Colin Rodgers writes for the Conversational Travel Magazine Somebodyisfromhere.com. His traveling sports stories have often been about the Phillies.
Spring Training: http://somebodyisfromhere.com/Spring_Training.html
How Pat Burrell Explains Philaelphia: http://somebodyisfromhere.com/Pat_Burrell.html
Washington DC: http://www.somebodyisfromhere.com/National_Park.html
