Gillick did the best he could

By Michael Rushton
The Phanatic Magazine

So the Phillies didn't land a big player at this year's non-waiver trade deadline, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Outside of Mark Teixeira and Eric Gagne, both of whom the Phillies had no shot of landing, who was traded on Tuesday that would have looked good in red pinstripes.

Matt Morris?

Morris has a 7-7 mark and 4.35 earned run average, and hasn't won since June 11. Kyle Lohse, meanwhile, may be just 6-12 with a 4.58 ERA, but was only getting 3.69 runs per game in Cincinnati.

Octavio Dotel?

Dotel would have been nice, but the Phillies couldn't really afford to give up a Kyle Davies-type player to get him.

Scott Proctor?

The Phillies don't need another head case on their club.

Do you see where I am going here. Sure, the Braves heavily upgraded with Teixeira, Ron Mahay, and Dotel, but in the process lost one of their best prospects in catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia. Philadelphia doesn't have a prospect of that caliber to move, and lets not forget, Saltalamacchia was expendable because the Braves have an All-Star catcher in Brian McCann.

Saltalamacchia can also play first, but that is where Teixeira will now anchor.

Instead, Phillies General Manager Pat Gillick did the best he could with what he had to work with. In short, he brought in role players without losing any big pieces. They added a fifth starter in Lohse, a bullpen arm in Julio Mateo (1-0, 3.75 ERA) and didn't lose Michael Bourn, Aaron Rowand or any of their short supplied big-time minor league players.

Lohse should effectively shore up the back end of the rotation, while Mateo, if he pitches to the same numbers he did in the beginning of the season before his legal problems, looks a lot better in the bullpen than Mike Zagurski, Clay Condrey or Brian Sanches.

Besides, no big-time starters were moved at the deadline, meaning the price was too high for everyone.

The Phillies didn't take any major steps to securing a playoff berth this year, but didn't do any harm to themselves either. Instead of taking one step forward and two steps back, the club just stood still.

Michael Rushton can be reached at mrushton@phanaticmag.com