Friday, July 20, 2012

Use Lee (And Sands) To Get Hamels From Phillies?

At least, that's what Dan Szymborski of Baseball Think Factory / ESPN thinks (link insider only), in his "Five NL Trades That Must Happen" column:

Trade No. 2: Philadelphia Phillies pitcher Cole Hamels to Los Angeles Dodgers for pitcher Zach Lee, pitcher Chris Withrow and first baseman/outfielder Jerry Sands

As long as the Dodgers want to continue accumulating players who were good in 2007, why not actually add one who is good in 2012? With the exception of Felix Hernandez, whose availability may still be of the pie-in-the-sky variety, Hamels is the best pitcher available who's not getting scratched from starts to "recharge his batteries."

The Dodgers have the ability to extend Hamels long-term, should they choose, and the top of their rotation looks a lot scarier in October with the addition of Hamels, especially if Bud Selig doesn't make Chris Capuano take off his Cy Young Winner Halloween costume.

Lee is the likely prize for the Phillies, and if they aren't willing to wait for Withrow, you could easily substitute another next-tier prospect such as Garrett Gould. Sands doesn't have much prospect status left, but he can provide Philadelphia some 1B/OF depth as a useful throw-in.

2 comments:

John G said...

Much to my delight, Kasten said earlier this week that we won't be trading top prospects for rental players. SO Lee in a deal for CHase Headley, maybe. For Hammels - no.

Dusty Baker said...

[Comment moved from other recent related post]

Listening to MLB Network Radio on commute this morning. Jim Bowden said he had exchanged texts w Stan Kasten last night and that Kasten indicated Lee wasn't on the table to move. And that they were taking the lon view to improving the team, not wanting to give up a lot for a two month rental. In that case, Garza would be the better option bc the team would have player control the next couple or three years.