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The Phightin Phils
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The Los Angeles Dodgers, who could very well find themselves facing the Phillies again in the playoffs this season, made last-minute deals for Jim Thome and Jon Garland. The Dodgers last week saw their once-comfy lead in the NL West shrink to just 2 games. Though they've rebounded and now hold a relatively safe 5.5 game lead over the Giants and the Rockies (who are leading the chase for the NL Wildcard), the Dodgers are no doubt aware of the fact that Manny Ramirez, since he came back from his suspension for using performance enhancing drugs, is hitting a pedestrian .275/.376/.464 with just 6 HR and 20 RBI in 43 games.
It appears that Thome — who spent the entire season as the White Sox DH — will not unseat the Dodgers' current 1B, James Loney, and will rather step into what we'll call the Matt Stairs role. Thome has zero defensive value at this point in his career, so coming off the bench and swinging for the fences in a pinch hitting role seems about all he's cut out for in the National League. How Thome, a starter his entire career, adjusts to pinch hitting, will alone determine the prudence of this deal.
Garland comes over from division rival Arizona where he was decidedly mediocre, but the Dodgers are a team in desperate need of starting pitching, given that its two best pitchers, Chad Billingsley and Clayton Kershaw, are both very young (24 and 21 respectively) and showing fatigue at their increased workloads, that fourth starter Hiroki Kuroda recently took a batted ball off his head, and that the team has recently turned to the dessicated remains of one-time Phillies cast-off Vicente Padilla for rotation help.
I can't imagine Garland being more than the fourth member of a playoff rotation (after the resurgent Randy Wolf, Billingsley and Kershaw), so ostensibly the Dodgers saw this as a need for fending off the hard-charging Giants and Rockies.
Getting the deal done before midnight last night means both players will be eligible for playoff rosters.
Does this make the Dodgers more formidable? Or does it just show that they're scared?
Well you make a great point. Scared? Or Formidable? Just know the DODGERS are still mad the PHILLIES BEAT THEM LAST YEAR. If they face again in the playoffs and the DODGERS HAVE HOMEFIELD; The Phillies might not repeat! The Line up is more mature and there is a reason they have the best record in the national league?
How many fans will be bringing knives to the stadium for a second year Bill?
The Dodgers are paper tigers and these trades are ridiculous. Thome will only help them as a DH should they get to the World Series, and that won't happen.
@bill "If they face again in the playoffs and the DODGERS HAVE HOMEFIELD; The Phillies might not repeat!" That's a pretty big if, Bill. The Phils and Cardinals are both just a game behind the Dodgers in the overall league standings. "The Line up is more mature and there is a reason they have the best record in the national league?" I'll pretend that the question mark at the end of your pronouncement was intentional and answer your question. Yes, there is a reason the Dodgers are just barely clinging to the best record in the NL: Manny Ramirez was using PEDs, which coincided with their great start, and following Manny's suspension, he and the Dodgers have been .500 team.
Cubs rule. And when they complete the season with a 33-game winning streak starting tonight, the Wild Card Cardinelles will face the Dodgers, thus ensuring that the Phils (who will sweep the Cubs, there I said it) will beat the Dodgers in the NLCS and the Yankees in the Series. Suck on Pujols' roid-riddled big toe, Delaney.
Shhhh. It's feeling a lot like 2006 with everyone focusing on the Dodgers and completely ignoring the quietly very, very good Cardinals.
@Jesse D: I have a problem with your analogy in that the 2006 Cardinals were most certainly not "very, very good." When you finish the regular season 5 games over .500 and wind up winning the World Series, that's called getting lucky. This year's Cardinals would eviscerate the 2006 installment, and in an ugly, bloody fashion.
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