Gillick's Adventures Part Two

I thought I'd also take a look at what Mr. Gillick has done with the Phillies so far. I'm going to agree with A.J. and not criticize his moves because you can really never gauge how things will work. Like who remember Danny Tartabull back in the 90's? Now I know he was around 34 when the Phillies got him, but he was coming off a great year. I don't think anyone was expecting much more than 20-25 homers out of the guy, but he was suppose to be a solid addition to the outfield. Well three games into the year he fouls a ball off his toe. He finishes his Phillies career with just 7 AB's, not hits, and four walks. He'd never play major league baseball again. Oh the Philly curse.

With all that said, here's my look into their offseason.

I was really upset when Gillick chose not to go after Aaron Rowand and give him the big bucks. I understand he wanted five years, but when you finally get a player that fits in that well with that offense, sometimes you just got to gamble and give him the money. How much the team misses him will really depend in my mind on Pat Burrell. If Pat the Bat can play as well as he did down the stretch batting out of the five hole, they won't miss Rowand too much, but if Pat struggles, this offense won't nearly be as potent as last year. Ryan Howard needs someone to give him protection and Rowand was that man.

I'm still happy with a lineup that'll go something like this:
Rollins
Victorino
Utley
Howard
Burrell
Werth/Jenkins
Dobbs/Helms
Ruiz/Coste

That lineup should still be able to produce 800-850 runs a year, if not more.

I'm with A.J. on this one, So Taguchi was a great pickup. He's a solid player and with great experience.

I actually like the bullpen this year. You figure the Phillies will have Brad Lidge closing, Ryan Madson, J.C. Romero, and Tom Gordon setting him up, with the two Durbins-J.D. and Chad to pitch 6th and 7th innings, or Eaton if he falls out of the rotation. Also they will have Scott Mathieson back as well as Clay Condrey and Francisco Rosario who has a cannon.

I'm going to address the rotation and third base in another post down the road because it is an interesting group of guys that deserve their own post.