Silence Sarge wrote:

Trent Steele wrote:One of the "Five Trades That Need to Be Made" from Schonenfeld today on ESPN:

Astros trade OF Hunter Pence to Phillies for OF Domonic Brown and P Jarred Cosart.

Why should the Astros trade their best player? For several reasons: (1) He's good, but not that good; he does a lot of nice things on a baseball field, but a mediocre OBP prevents him from being a true star. (2) He's starting to get expensive. He won $6.9 million in arbitration for 2011 and will likely get at least $10 million next season. (3) He's 28, and while he's at his peak right now, he may not be at his peak as he turns 30 ... aka, by the time the Astros are likely to be good again.

As for the Phillies, they are in win-now mode. Sure, Brown and Cossart are arguably their top prospects, but the jury remains out on how much Brown will contribute this season. They risk giving up a future All-Star, but Pence gives them a much-needed dependable bat for the middle of the lineup. With $24 million of Raul Ibanez and Brad Lidge coming off the books after this season, the Phillies can also afford to pick up Pence's future salary.

I don't make that trade and I like Pence alot.

I was going to post this earlier because I thought it was pretty crazy but then thought I might be over-valuing Dom and/or under-valuing Pence. I still think it seems pretty crazy.

bleh wrote:He does know Ed Wade is still running the Astros right? Give them Worley and make them pay half of Pence's salary.

Soren wrote:IMO, if you give him ~400 or so PAs over the rest of the year I think Dom could give you a .800+ OPS easily enough. His OBP track record in the minors was excellent and I find it hard to believe he couldn't post a .360/.440 OBP/SLG line or better

bleh wrote:He does know Ed Wade is still running the Astros right? Give them Worley and make them pay half of Pence's salary.

Eem wrote:Honestly...

If Brown OPSes in the .700s and Raul remains kind of streaky... do we absolutely positively NEED an outfielder? Francisco has been unlucky this year, too.

Meanwhile, continuing rumors of the Phillies' interest in Pence appear to be exaggerated. Clubs that have spoken with the Phillies report they're doing no more at the moment than compiling a shopping list of potentially available bats. But since their payroll is wedged right up against the luxury-tax threshold, they've been telling other teams they can only talk about hitters making no more than about half of Pence's $6.9 million.

mcare89 wrote:Stark:

Meanwhile, continuing rumors of the Phillies' interest in Pence appear to be exaggerated. Clubs that have spoken with the Phillies report they're doing no more at the moment than compiling a shopping list of potentially available bats. But since their payroll is wedged right up against the luxury-tax threshold, they've been telling other teams they can only talk about hitters making no more than about half of Pence's $6.9 million.

Rube's already in deadline form. Planting the seeds for the Astros to take back Kendrick.

mcare89 wrote:Stark:

Meanwhile, continuing rumors of the Phillies' interest in Pence appear to be exaggerated. Clubs that have spoken with the Phillies report they're doing no more at the moment than compiling a shopping list of potentially available bats. But since their payroll is wedged right up against the luxury-tax threshold, they've been telling other teams they can only talk about hitters making no more than about half of Pence's $6.9 million.

Rube's already in deadline form. Planting the seeds for the Astros to take back Kendrick.

Eddie Jordan wrote:Pence is one of the most awkward looking athletes I've ever seen, moves around kinda like someone who played at the turn of the 20th century