Phillies Foul Balls

So far this has been a good week for the Phillies, with the re-signing of Cory Lidle and then the naming of the coaching staff today. In both cases there are several positives in the details.

The Lidle signing is definitely a risk, but I think it’s a good one. If we see the version of Cory Lidle who pitched for Oakland in 2001 and 2002 and also for the Phillies over the last 6 weeks of this year, then he is at worst a league average pitcher who will eat a lot of innings. That alone is worth $3 a year, and if he’s somewhat above average then he’s worth a lot more. There is a risk, since his time with the Blue Jays and the Reds was pretty bad, and without the strong finish to 2004, I’d be a lot warier of the deal. However the contract is only for two years, so it’s not going to be a long-term albatross.

What’s also good about the signing is the recognition that this is one move, but not the be all and end all of the pitching moves. In particular the news that the Phils have made an offer to Carl Pavano is extremely good news. Of the pitchers out there Pavano strikes me as one of the two best bets for a top of the rotation guy. (Brad Radke being the other.) After the earlier disturbing talk of Kevin Brown and Derek Lowe, this is a welcome change.

Today’s announcement about the coaching staff was most welcome for who it didn’t include, namely no one included solely because they were connected to a famous Phillies team of the past. Yes Milt Thompson was on the ‘93 team, but he wasn’t made hitting coach because of that. He was named hitting coach because he had done a good job working with young hitters in the minors and working with current members of the big league team last year. In short, he’s being promoted for having done good work at a lower level. Likewise Marc Bombard finally gets his long overdue chance to work at the big league level after doing good things in Scranton for 8 years. Sure, there may be some level of the good ol’ boy network at work given that the new coaches are ones that Manuel has worked with over the past two years, but there are reasons to believe they got the jobs because of what they’ve done as coaches, not because they’re Charlie’s golfing buddies. Which is as it should be.

Now if the Phils could land Pavano or Radke, do something reasonable about center field (where Scott Posednik would not be reasonable), and avoid going on their normal veteran mediocre reliever binge, this could be a good off-season. Somehow I most worried about the last of those items…