Kuzul

The 2012 trade deadline has come to pass. For the Philadelphia Phillies, though, it could have gone better.At roughly noon Eastern time today, the Los Angeles Dodgers acquired Shane Victorino in exchange for reliever Josh Lindblom and pitching prospect Ethan Martin. Then, about two hours later, the San Francisco Giants made a trade that nabbed Hunter Pence from the Phillies for outfielder Nate Schierholtz, catching prospect Tommy Joseph and minor league starting pitcher Seth Rosin.It was thought that Joe Blanton could be traded today as well, but a deal with the Baltimore Orioles fell through. Blanton remains on the team for now, as he could be a trade candidate in August through the waiver trade system.In the meantime, the Phillies have called up Domonic Brown and have activated Brian Schneider off the DL to take the roster spots of Victorino and Pence. But with the returns the Phillies received in ...

As the baseball world surpasses 72 hours until the trade deadline at 4:00 p.m. on Tuesday, July 31, more and more rumors will arise and materialize into trades. Some of the most heated rumors involve two of the Philadelphia Phillies' starting outfielders, Shane Victorino and Hunter Pence.Given the team's current last-place standing in the NL East by a 14.5-game margin, the Phillies are best suited to sell rather than buy this year.In need of prospects to rebuild their thin farm system, the Phillies' only chances of doing that are trading away their proven talent to acquire multiple prospects who could make the team younger as well as help out the club in the future.It makes sense for the Phillies to at least consider trading away their center and right fielder. Maybe they want to trade one of them rather than both, or maybe none at all. It's up to GM ...

According to a multitude of reporters, the Philadelphia Phillies have agreed to terms with shortstop Jimmy Rollins on a three-year, $33 million contract with a vesting option for a fourth year worth the same. Rollins, the team's longest-tenured member, seemingly waned from his previous demands of a five-year deal or a four-year contract with a fifth-year player option.That's great for the team, considering that Rollins doesn't have five years left in the tank.With Rollins back, this spells a few things. First and foremost, Freddy Galvis will not start for the Phillies anytime soon. He'll be stuck in Triple-A Lehigh Valley for the next three or four years, yet he'll still be only 24 years old should Rollins' new contract stand for four years and call for Galvis to start following its conclusion.Then again, the Phillies could also use Galvis as a trade chip in any sort of deal should one ...

Last night, the Philadelphia Phillies made a big yet somewhat expected splash when they received All-Star right fielder Hunter Pence and $1 million from the Houston Astros in exchange for four minor-league players, including their top two prospects—starting pitcher Jarred Cosart and first baseman/outfielder Jonathan Singleton.Despite the ridiculous comment made by Phillies GM Ruben Amaro, Jr. earlier this season that the Phillies "would not make a major move this year" at the trade deadline, Amaro has gotten the job done again for the Phillies.This is the third major move he's made at the trade deadline in as many years as the Phillies general manager—two years ago, he traded four prospects to the Cleveland Indians for Cliff Lee and Ben Francisco, and last year he traded pitcher J.A. Happ and two prospects to the Astros for Roy Oswalt. This year, he got the Phillies the right-handed bat they needed since Jayson ...

Earlier today, Minnesota Twins utilityman and long-time member Michael Cuddyer stated in an interview that he would be willing to waive his limited no-trade clause to go to another team, so as long as it "helps the organization (referring to the Twins)."Cuddyer has been on the Twins his whole career, having been drafted by them with the ninth overall pick in the 1997 MLB draft. His professional career has spanned 10 seasons (seven in which he played over 100 games, including this one if all goes well). In that time, Cuddyer has posted a .271 average, hit 131 home runs and hit 537 RBI. His OPS is a decent .793.While Mauer is now the face of the Twins, one cannot deny that Cuddyer comes in at a close second. He's been with the team for 10 years, and he's been very faithful and has loved his time there.What shows this ...

In Friday night's series opener against the Florida Marlins, Roy Oswalt pitched four innings of no-hit baseball and looked magnificent. After allowing a solo home run to Logan Morrison to lead off the fifth inning, he still pitched well, allowing only one more run through six innings of work. However, at the start of the seventh inning, something was wrong. Roy Oswalt was warming up when he called over trainer Marc Andersen and manager Charlie Manuel to tell them that something was wrong. After some brief discussion, Oswalt was taken out of the game and reliever J.C. Romero was called from the bullpen to take over. From here, the game went downhill. Romero only pitched to one batter, Logan Morrison, and allowed a single before Danys Baez took over for him, and then the nightmare began. To start, Baez walked Gaby Sanchez, which sent him to first and Morrison to second. Next, he allowed ...

After receiving an MRI yesterday, it was determined that Brad Lidge's injury woes will continue: he has a strain in the back of his right shoulder rotator cuff. In other words, according to Courier Post Online, this is equivalent to a tear, and he could even be out until July.This is far from good news that the Phillies have received throughout this year's spring training. Domonic Brown broke his hand after ending a hitless streak of over 15 at-bats. Chase Utley is out indefinitely with tendinitis in his right knee. Placido Polanco hyperextended his left elbow, on which he received surgery this offseason. Roy Oswalt suffered a scare when he was hit by a Manny Ramirez line drive.And now, after returning from bicep tendinitis, Brad Lidge—who was healthy for spring training for the first time in a long time—remains on the list, which at this point seems endless.With every injury ...

It was recently announced that the Milwaukee Brewers acquired Yankees' pitcher Sergio Mitre in a deal that sent outfielder Chris Dickerson to New York in return. At the moment, this seems like a win-win situation for both teams: New York announced that Ivan Nova and Freddy Garcia will round out the rotation, and Bartolo Colon will move to the bullpen, most likely as a long reliever, a role which Mitre possessed last season. Dickerson, on the other hand, has seemed like a bit of a nuisance for the Brewers. At age 28, he was acquired from Cincinnati in the deal that sent Jim Edmonds there from Milwaukee. Once in Milwaukee, he posted a very slight .206/.250/.268 split last season, though he was a bit in 2009, where he posted a .275/.370.373 split. However, he's still only 28, so he's got time to develop. This is hailed as a smarter move for the Brewers, ...

News of Chase Utley's tendinitis in his right knee has spread around the baseball world over the past week. While Utley doesn't look like he'll need any serious treatment, he's already received a cortisone shot in the knee, but it didn't have any effect. He's rested and stayed off the knee as much as possible, but that was to no avail. He's even suggested that he could receive either a steroid injection or lubricant injection to speed up the process, but neither are certain as of yet.Regardless of whether it's been because of being hit by a pitch or simply overworking himself, Chase Utley has definitely felt the impact of an injury on playing time. Over the last few seasons, Utley has been riddled with injuries, from the broken hand to the torn thumb ligament last season, and now the tendinitis.ESPN's SportsCenter recently showed a statistic about second basemen that ...

Charlie Manuel is undoubtedly one of the Phillies' best franchise managers. He's brought the team one of two franchise World Series championships, and he's won the NL East division each of the last four seasons, making it to at least the NLCS in three of them. He's compiled a 544-428 record since becoming the skipper in Philly, which amounts to a .560 winning percentage. That is the third best all-time winning record for any Phillies manager.Manuel is in the last year of his current contract, which was a contract extension he signed on top of a two-year deal signed (with a third-year club option, which was enacted last year), and he's yet to sign an extension on his current deal.This dilemma has many Phillies fans concerned that their skipper won't be returning next year. While it may be too early to call whether he will in fact come back in ...