Bodies for an Arm

The Astros traded four players to the Phillies for a closer:

All day long, rumors swirled regarding the Astros and the Philadelphia Phillies, with reliever Ken Giles caught in the middle. Some collection of Astros’ minor-leaguers were said to be going to the Phils in exchange for Giles, with Brett Oberholtzer, Vincent Velasquez and Derek Fisher among the group. Late Wednesday, Evan Drellich of the Houston Chronicle passed along word of what’s expected to be the final package of players sent to the Phillies: the aforementioned three and 21-year-old left-hander Thomas Eshelman.

Giles is in his prime, and in his brief two seasons with the Phillies solved the wildness issues of his minor league time. So the Astros get a high K, low BB closer.

Velasquez is a similar pitcher to Giles, with a better minor league walk rate. He’s also two years younger. Fisher is listed as an outfielder/DH, which means he’s probably not that good defensively. Through his seasonal age 21 season, his batting line is good but not great. Eshelman pitched just 10 professional innings. Oberholtzer should drop into the Phillies rotation. He pitches to contact, so the Phillies will need a good defense behind him.

So this trade strikes me as Giles for Velasquez and Oberholtzer, with some future potential. It’s a nice rebuilding move by the Phillies, and another example of the bullpen mania sweeping baseball. I almost get the feeling that there is a fundamental shift happening in roster construction, where the bullpen is coming first instead of last. I’m waiting for a team to sign three of the big hitters remaining, to try to win with power, building big leads early to make the opponent’s bullpen irrelevant.

from baseballmusings.com http://ift.tt/1NdFYKC