The tug-of-war match between the Red Sox and Phillies for baseball supremacy in 2011 spilled over into the trade deadline yesterday when Philadelphia, clinging to the best record in the majors, swapped four players, including a pair of highly touted prospects, for two-time All-Star Hunter Pence. Although this move could potentially cost them down the road if Cosart and Singleton (said prospects) pan out, the Phils received a nice offensive boost for the immediate future. Pence, squarely in his prime at 28 years of age, is coming off a fine season in which he set career highs by scoring 93 runs, stroking 25 home runs, totaling 91 ribbies and swiping 18 bases for one of the league's worst offenses in the Houston Astros. Although he's not running as much this year and his power as fallen off some (he's on pace for fewer than 20 home runs after three straight seasons of hitting 25 on the nose), he totes 26 doubles and a nice .308 batting average into the City of Brotherly Love, where he is a career .300 hitter and will join fellow All-Stars Chase Utley, Shane Victorino, Raul Ibanez, Placido Polanco, and former NL MVPs Ryan Howard and Jimmy Rollins in the Phillies' formidable lineup.
The Phillies may have missed out on Carlos Beltran, but Pence is an excellent consolation prize, He is, after all, six years younger and will be under team control through 2013 whereas Beltran becomes a free agent at the end of the season. They gave up a lot to get him, but trading potential for a proven commodity generally seems to work out in baseball and could put the Phillies over the top in their chase for a second World Series title in four years. We all know the Phillies have ample pitching, but their starting nine has been quite ordinary thus far. Despite trotting those aforementioned studs out there everyday, Philly doesn't rank in the top three for any major offensive category in the NL. Every regular besides right field platoon mates Domonic Brown and Ben Francisco is at least 30 years old, and this team desperately needed someone (especially a right-handed batter such as Pence to balance the lineup and step into Jayson Werth's cleats) to breathe some fresh air into it. Pence provides some youth and energy whereas Beltran just would have been another aging star.
But while the Phillies may have vaulted themselves to the top of the baseball world, the Red Sox (who also whiffed on Beltran but can't complain about Josh Reddick) can fire back by snagging Ubaldo Jimenez. Although he has struggled for a full calendar year now, he still boasts a strong 8.6 K/9 rate (nearly identical to last season, when he finished third in the NL Cy Young race) and his FIP, xFIP, and strand rate indicate he has been a bit unlucky so far. We don't know how he'll fare at Fenway because he's never pitched there before, but adding the 27 year-old hurler to a rotation that includes fellow aces Jon Lester and Josh Beckett, flanked by Clay Buchholz (still on the DL for the foreseeable future) and John Lackey (winner of four in a row), would make Boston's staff incredibly deep and nearly as good as the incomparable Roy Halladay-Cliff Lee-Cole Hamels-Roy Oswalt quadruplet. But with a better offense and more stable bullpen, the Red Sox would become the more complete team and World Series favorites once again.
Even if the Bosox can't get their mits on Ubaldo for the stretch run, trading for Erik Bedard (owner of a solid 3.45 ERA and 1.17 WHIP for the lowly Mariners) could help fill the hole Buchholz's back injury has created, although the 32 year-old former Cy Young candidate is notoriously injury prone and just spent a month on the shelf. Jimenez, the top prize still on the trading block, is drawing interest from other teams including the Indians, but if Boston can win this battle you can practically punch their tickets to the Fall Classic.
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