The season is already more than half over for the Philadelphia Phillies, historically though, the measurement for the ‘half season’ is by the All-Star break. It’s a nice break for the players who have been on a constant cycle of playing and travelling.
What we’ve seen from the Phils so far has been somewhat ordinary, they haven’t been on those extended win streaks and running into a bunch of good luck on or off the field. The Phillies have their top two players ranked by salary, in the sick bay on the DL.
The Phillies and the Mets kick off what is a race to the finish line now, it’s still a long race but the teams are all on the down slope of the very long season. What starts to make things a lot more interesting is the July 31st trade deadline, that is the point in the season that anyone who is traded by that date is also eligible for postseason play (players don’t have to clear waivers), so the big names usually are moved at this time in the season. A player can be traded later than this date, but the player must clear waivers, that means he would be offered to all of the teams in the particular league by a ranking of worst to first before such a trade would become official, if the player is claimed by no other team while he is on waivers, the trade can continue.
Here’s a look at what wikipedia says about the MLB trade deadline:
What does this trade deadline mean for the Phillies? The team can either be bullish or pull back and again drop some of the veterans of the team, like it did last year with Shane Victorino and Hunter Pence. Both players were doing somewhat good for the team, but the decision was made to shed the salary and try to rebuild in some fashion. I am not too sure the Phillies were all that successful in accomplishing that with those two players.
The talk will now be centered more than ever on the Phillies players and who will stay and who will go.
Kyle Kendrick (8-6 / 3.68 ERA) kicks off the second-half of the season tonight at Citi Field against the Mets and Jeremy Heffner (4-6 / 3.33 ERA).
