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| Photo by Richard Wilkins Jr. |
Cole Hamels threw eight shutout innings tonight. He has a 2.55 ERA this season. He's one of the best pitchers in baseball. Apparently he's not even being discussed seriously in any trades. This is making some people doubt anyone will be traded.
If I had to guess, the Phillies will make a trade this week before Thursday's deadline. I would bet on Burnett, Bastardo, and probably Byrd being traded. While I think the Phillies should do more than that, I don't think they will. I also don't think they will completely stand-pat. Unless David Montgomery is completely hamstringing Ruben Amaro, who I'm by no means endorsing the work of here, Amaro would have to know that inaction is unacceptable for a team this bad. Even if the Phillies think they want to do very little, they could need as many as three new pitchers next season, and pretty much need to pick up a young, controllable arm for the 2015 rotation now.
The Phillies should be in sell-now mode. I'm extremely disappointed that they are not. With that said, I'd be really shocked if they are stupid enough to do nothing this week. If that's the case, this team will be down to 15,000 fans a night in no time, and they will stink for a very long time.
