Phillies Foul Balls

Well that Jayson Stark rumor was sort of right. The Royals traded away their Rule 5 pick, and the Phils acquired a pick, but it wasn’t the same trade. What I found most encouraging about the trade for Chris Booker is not the player they picked up, but the attitude voiced by Pat Gillick. To me this is the most telling quote from the article at the Phillies website: “‘We have to add to the inventory,’ added general manager Pat Gillick. ‘We don’t have enough people to pick from.’”

Or in other words, they don’t plan to have a carefully crafted bullpen with exact roles set going into spring training. They’re bringing in a bunch of arms that show potential and see what they can put together. If they go about building up that inventory by acquiring players for cheap, I really like the strategy.