World Champs Add Ibanez

[love_that_reefer]

Free-agent outfielder Raul Ibanez has reached preliminary agreement with the Phillies on a three-year, $30 million contract, according to major-league sources.

The deal, pending a physical, was reached early Friday morning at the winter meetings in Las Vegas. Phillies executives and Ibanez's agents stayed an extra day to complete the contract.

The Mets, Cubs, Nationals and Angels also were interested in Ibanez, who batted .293 with 23 homers and 110 RBIs last season for the Mariners while playing his home games at pitcher-friendly Safeco Field.

Great pickup for the Phillies!! Ibanez is a much better hitter than Burrell and Ibanez is slightly better than Burrell on defense. I cannot believe more teams were not fighting for Ibanez with his salary being so low. He might be 36 but this guy works harder than most anyone and is in great shape. The Phillies just made a great addition to their championship lineup.

[ljshorty89]

ESPN - Keith Law Blog

Keith Law makes some decent points in his argument that this was a messed up decision as a whole by the Phillies. First off, I'd have to agree that while Ibanez has been more consistent than Burrell, Burrell is obviously younger, and may be a better fielder. Additionally, I agree that the Phillies were stupid not to at least offer Burrell arbitration, because it would not have cost them any more, and they lost a chance at gaining draft picks. On top of that, they not only lost their chance to GAIN draft picks, they actually LOSE draft picks for signing Burrell that they would have had had they found someone else. I mean, I like Ibanez, and he'll probably help the Phillies....but in the long run, they may have made a mistake.

[love_that_reefer]

I don't see he how this is a mistake. First off, Ibanez makes less annually than Burrell would have gotten through arbitration. Burrell made $14 million last year. Secondly, Ibanez is not as bad defensively as Law makes him out to be. Burrell was not good in LF and I find Ibanez to be a slight upgrade because of speed. Lastly, Ibanez is a much better all around hitter than Burrell. Ibanez has more RBI over the past three years than anyone not named Ryan Howard, his new teammate. Losing the draft picks hurt but the bigger drawback of the deal is having three lefties in the heart of the order. Ibanez's age doesn;t bother me because he is in better shape than almost anyone in MLB. Besides having three lefties in the heart of the order, Ibanez is an upgrade over Burrell.

[ljshorty89]

But you don't want 3 lefties consecutively in the heart of the order, because a good lefty reliever can more easily get out of an inning...

[love_that_reefer]

That's why I said it was a drawback.

[Slyder]

But you don't want 3 lefties consecutively in the heart of the order, because a good lefty reliever can more easily get out of an inning...

Thats the thought process of Duhhsty Baker and gets you hurting Brandon Phillips by him trying to be a cleanup hitter when he's at his best when he's making contact and putting the ball into the gaps. Youre setting yourself up for less production by worrying about a scenario that might happen once in the game. You Put your 3 best hitters in the heart I dont care if theyre right handed, left handed, 1 handed, no handed. Period.

[Shadow29]

Thats true, and if they REALLY wanted to avoid that vs. LHP they have Werth they can toss in at #5 occasionally, since he can only really hit LHP well.

Still anythings better than starting Dobbs or Jenkins out there.

[ljshorty89]

Also, Ibanez has never dealt with a decent sized market, harsh fans, or true pressure. Burrell, you know what you're getting. Ibanez is another year older and in a new, higher pressure situation....

[love_that_reefer]

Inanez is a career .287 hitter with RISP and 2 outs. He can handle pressure just fine.

[ljshorty89]

In SEA and KC. Not quite the same as Philly. He's never had batteries thrown at him.

[love_that_reefer]

Pressure is pressure.

[Shadow29]

Hes not JD Drew either. Thats what we save our batteries for :p

Players on our own teams we just boo, however if your on the opposing team and we have agrudge, it may be different.

[HollywoodLeo]

Batteries are tame.

Padres fans throw syringes.

[love_that_reefer]

People said Bay wouldn't be able to face the pressure going from Pittsburgh to Boston. I am proud to say I was not one of those people.

[HollywoodLeo]

People shouldn't be so definitive when they make statements like that because they don't know that it will happen anymore than they know that it won't.

The possibility always exists that someone won't be able to handle the added pressure when going from a small market to a larger market with more demanding fans/media, but that doesn't mean it will happen.