Phillies - Acquired Moyer

Philadelphia Phillies - Acquired P Jamie Moyer from the Seattle Mariners for P Andrew Baldwin and P Andrew Barb.

So, where’s the Oracle been?  To make a long story short, if your parent(s) get it into their head that the best way to save money when they move is to have you do everything, change your cell phone number and go on vacation.

The Phillies, like most NL teams, are in that odd zone that the NL has created in which 3/4 of the teams can think “Well, our team kinda sucks, but so does everyone else except for the Mets and we’re only a couple games out of the playoffs.”  After dumping Bobby Abreu last month, the Phils haven’t really fallen out of it and so they bring in hometown boy Moyer to fill the hole in the rotation (this hole is generally known as ‘Phils starters’).  Unfortunately, not dropping completely out of the pennant after trading Abreu might just reinforce the tendencies of Phils management and their Phans to not know which players are good and which players are bad.  Scott Rolen?  Gutless whiner!  Bobby Abreu?  Horrific defense!  Pat Burrell?  Non-clutch!  Rico Brogna?  Rico-Tico Awesomeness!  I’m amazed that they seem to like Ryan Howard, but I still give it 2 years until we start hearing about Howard’s strikeouts and defenses when the team still goes 78-84.

So, what do the Mariners get?  Surprisingly much considering it’s an August trade.  Solid A-ball relievers are a dime a dozen, but Barb’s pitched very well and keeps the ball in the park.  Andrew Baldwin’s a bit more polished, but his upside’s a lot lower - standard college sorta prospect with a good slider and a low-90s fastball.  I haven’t seen Baldwin pitch, but David Cameron linked to his MLB scouting video and I gotta say, that guy has just about the least violent arm action around.  Looks almost casual. 

http://mlb.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/mlb/draftday/y2004/search.jsp?sc=lastName&sp=B

(Scroll down to Baldwin)