The Phillies Should Have Thought Of Trading Away Some Of Their Best Players For Nothing Earlier This Year

As lifelong Philadelphia residents, we know that there’s no real reason to actually get excited about the local sports teams, especially when they have a record below .500.

But, really, what’s more Philadelphian than inevitable disappointment? Check out the standings and you’ll see the Phillies are only 2.5 games out of first place in the Wild Card, and Chase Utley has hit in 35 straight games, one short of the single-season team record and three short of Rollins’ overall club record. And did I mention the Phils are only 2.5 games out of a playoff spot?

Yes, folks, the Phillies trade away one of their best players and a pitcher (for nothing) and replace their starting third-baseman with a guy with a batting average 100 points lower and, yet, they’ve won 8 of 10.

So, folks, let’s go with some “cautious optimism” here — and, you know, it’d make no sense for the Phillies to have a fire sale and then make the playoffs… so that’s probably when they’ll do it.

After the jump, a look at how this year’s newest members of the ex-Phillie Club are are doing.

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Ex-Phillies Watch

Every day (or thereabouts) until the end of the season Philadelphia Will Do will be running “Ex-Phillies Watch,” a look at the Phillies who have been traded this season and how they’re doing with their new teams.

So far this season, the Phils have traded Bobby Abreu, Cory Lidle, Rheal Cormier, David Bell and Sal Fasano. While not all of those guys are going to play much — especially Sal — it should be interesting to see if they rapidly improve after leaving Philly.

The Phils, by the way, have won five of six while Utley’s hitting streak has hit 34 games in a row. Last night, the Phils won, 16-8, after getting two touchdowns and two two-point conversions.

Chart is after the jump.

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Are Ex-Phillies Killer?

Every time somebody gets traded out of Philadelphia, everyone thinks the same thing: Oh, now he’s going to be awesome. And with the recent flurry of trades the Phillies have made so far this year — including another one today that shipped Rheal Cormier to the Reds — we figured it’d be nice to look at how the ex-Phillies do the rest of the season. Not that it will prove anything, but we think it’ll be a fun experiment. For hitters, we’ll track average, RBI, homers and OPS over the rest of the season. (Click here for an explanation of OPS, on-base percentage plus slugging.) For pitchers, appearances or starts, win-loss record and ERA. And we’ll make fun of Rheal Cormier when the Reds realize he lets every inherited runner score.

Below, a table of who’s been traded, and how they’ve done:

Player	With Phillies	Since Trade
Sal Fasano	.243 AVG, 10 RBI, 4 HR, .701 OPS	.200 AVG, 0 RBI, 0 HR, .400 OPS
David Bell	.278 AVG, 34 RBI, 6 HR, .743 OPS	.143 AVG, 0 RBI, 0 HR, .536 OPS
Bobby Abreu	.277 AVG, 65 RBI, 8 HR, .861 OPS	TK
Cory Lidle	21 GS, 8-7, 4.74 ERA	TK
Rheal Cormier	43 APP, 2-2, 1.59 ERA	TK

Check back in each and every day to see how well these ex-Phillies are doing! (We’ll be changing “With Phillies” to “Last Night” after this first post.) And, hey, more could be added…

Phils deal Cormier to Reds for Germano [AP/ESPN.com]