Blanton, While Average, Makes the Phillies a Better Team
Ever since the Milwaukee Brewers put together a package for C.C. Sabathia that the Phillies could not match, conventional wisdom has been that the Phillies would look to settle for a "B-level" starting pitcher to upgrade their rotation. In a trade last night that sent prospects Adrian Cardenas, Josh Outman and Matt Spencer to the Oakland Athletics for right-handed pitcher Joe Blanton, the Phillies got just that.
Blanton for several years was a highly regarded prospect in the A's system and many expected him to become part of the stable of pitchers that would replace the excellent but pricey triumvirate of Tim Hudson, Mark Mulder, and Barry Zito. In averaging well over 200 innings pitched the last three seasons, he has certainly been a mainstay in Oakland's rotation, but by the same token, he hasn't lived up to the expectations placed upon him.
Not that there is anything wrong with that. The Phillies very own Pat Burrell hasn't quite done that either, but he's certainly been a valuable player over the course of his career here.
Blanton does a few things well. As stated, he eats a lot of innings. He also walks very few batters and does a good job of consistently inducing more ground balls than fly balls, two things that will come in handy anywhere, but particularly so at Citizens Bank Park. But the one critical area in which Blanton's four-pitch repertoire that centers around a 90 mph fastball does not excel is missing bats. His career strikeouts per nine innings of 5.10 is significantly below the 6.0 you like to see from a starting pitcher, particularly in -- say it with me -- Citizens Bank Park. This year, the mark is even lower at 4.39 whiffs per nine.
The bottom line though is that over the course of his career, Blanton has been a squarely average pitcher and in that sense, represents a huge improvement over Adam Eaton, who Blanton will mercifully supplant in the Phillies rotation. Feel free to go down on bended-knee Phillies phans. The icing on the cake is that Blanton is not eligible for free agency until after the 2010 season and the Phillies gave up three prospects who were probably never going to contribute to the Phillies in a big way.
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Full disclosure: Yours truly lost patience with Blanton two days ago and dropped him from my fantasy team, Whitey's Ashburns.
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What they gave up: On the day last year when Chase Utley signed his 7-year, 85 million dollar contract, Phillies prospect second baseman Adrian Cardenas became a trading chip. While the second baseman looks to be a useful major leaguer, he was never going to present competition for Utley, and so in trading him for Blanton, the Phillies made a wise move.
As for the other pieces, when Josh Outman was moved to the bullpen a few months ago, it signaled to some that the Phillies didn't feel he was going to become a useful starter in the big leagues. If that is the case, then, again, it was a wise move to include him in Blanton trade. Matt Spencer, a high-strikeout, low-average hitter with some pop is easily replaceable in the unlikely event the Phillies ever find themselves short on that type of player.
