Report: Phillies 'very much still in running' for Burnett

The Phillies are "very much still in the running" for A.J. Burnett, MLB.com's Todd Zolecki reported Monday night. This comes three days after GM Ruben Amaro Jr. told CSNPhilly.com's Jim Salisbury that he didn't suspect the Phils had any more major moves in store.

Amaro said last Friday that it appeared the Phils would head into spring training with the rotation they had, but Burnett is an obvious upgrade to an extremely thin unit. He led the NL in K/9 in 2013 and has the second-best groundball rate in the majors since 2012.

Adding Burnett would give the Phillies a rotation that could contend. Off the top of my head, only the Nationals (Zimmermann-Strasburg-Gonzalez-Fister) and Dodgers (Kershaw-Greinke-Ryu-Haren) would have better rotations. You can add in the Cardinals (Wainwright-Wacha-Miller-Garcia-Lynn) or Giants (Cain-Bumgarner-Lincecum-Hudson) at your discretion, but the point is that the addition of Burnett would make the Phillies formidable in at least one area heading into 2014.

The Orioles, Pirates and Blue Jays seem to be the Phillies' clear competition for Burnett, who could likely be had on a one-year deal worth upwards of the $16.5 million he made in 2013.

But Roch Kubatko of MASNSports.com reported over the weekend that the O's are likely out on Burnett. "Feeling is he wants to pitch in NL," Kubatko tweeted.

The Blue Jays may be nearing a deal with Ervin Santana, which would take them out of the Burnett sweepstakes. 

A chance remains. Signing Burnett hasn't been the Phillies' main goal this offseason, but a lot of their moves -- re-signing Chase Utley and Carlos Ruiz, doing little to improve the bullpen, opting for all low-cost commitments -- make much more sense if they result in the ability to land Burnett.

Comments

[Dickie Thong]

Cyclic - That's off topic, too. Please post your own header about not posting off topic comments.

[movitch]

"Obsequiousness of T-Mac". This is why I love bap. And no, he's not being sarcastic.

[Kashmir]

Johnny Damon says he wants an invite to someone's camp. Why not the Phils? It would be a break from the utility infielder of the day signing plus create competition for Abreau - they're both the same age and both coming off a year out of baseball. The fact that he has no history with the Phillies may be a good thing.

[NEPP]

Wolfie and Zach Minor both go to Seattle on minor league deals with ST invites.

[Cyclic]

Whoops. I'm sorry, everybody. I should have used the sarcasm font.

[bay_area_phan]

My all-time favorite obsequious T-Mac moment was in an otherwise unmemorable game during the spectacular June Swoon of 2012. I believe Chase and Howard had been on the DL all year (or pretty close to it), & some of our other guys may have been banged up too. We were like 10 games under .500, 11 or 12 games out of 1st place, and running out daily lineups with guys like Ty Wigginton, Hector Luna, Mike Fontenot, Brian Schneider, Laynce Nix, and Mini-Mart. Anyway, T-Mac manages to get Scott Proefock into the booth, and rather than asking him about what the FO is looking to do to improve the situation, he proceeds to ask nothing but leading questions about what an incredible job all of our backups are doing. I truly wanted to vomit.

[bay_area_phan]

5 sports-related confrontations that must happen within the next calendar year:

Mayweather-Pacquiao

49ers-Seahawks NFC Championship rematch

Nadal-Djokovic in Wimbledon final

Woods-Mickelson down the stretch at Augusta

GTown_Dave in the TGP forum

[The Perils of Thinking]

bap: I just spit out my Gatorade at that. The fact that you and NEPP got hounded for relatively minor crimes against decorum indicates that Dave's presence would probably cause the internet to melt.

[dave]

Woods-Mickelson? Stop living in the past.

[Phrannie]

I'm a bit of a lurker both here and at the good phight and all I can say is honestly you guys are both in the wrong together recently.

But I will say that you guys really have the good phight pegged wrong. They're just as negative as anyone but they tend not to get wrapped up in it. Mainly because they usually have a lot more humor based stuff. and poke more fun than recently.

maybe thats just because theres not a whole lot to feel fun about this team.

give it some time I think.

[MG]

"Moyer and Stairs will be in the booth for 100 games, and will both join Tom McCarthy for 30 of those games throughout the season."

TMac will be flying solo for 60 games this year?

Lots of radio for me I guess.

[Jackamac]

Over/Under of 2008-NLCS-Stairs-home-run references made by TMac this season is at 60. Place your bets, lads!

[Phillibuster]

I would bet 32 of the games (we had a pair of 100 gamers, plus a 30-game trio, yes?) will be carried by national broadcasts (ESPN or Fox), meaning they aren't needed.

Expect to hear the heavy breathing of an extremely crowded radio booth when TMac, LA, Stairs and Moyer all try to wedge themselves in during an away game.

[cut_fastball]

Classic Jack- not understanding what other people are saying.
At least he isn't just calling people racists because he has nothing else to offer.

Posted by: cut_fastball | Tuesday, February 11, 2014 at 01:14 PM

Jack - Apologies on behalf of the child flashing his html wizardry. This ain't me.

[PLM]

That's a company man for you BAP.

[MG]

Really looking to Stairs/Moyers personally and overjoyed that Sarge is gone.

There isn't a Phils' commentator I despised more than Sarge. Bet too that TMac was thrilled to see him go and still assert TMac despised working with Sarge.

[Steve]

"I would bet 32 of the games (we had a pair of 100 gamers, plus a 30-game trio, yes?) will be carried by national broadcasts (ESPN or Fox), meaning they aren't needed."

As it stands now, they are scheduled to be on ESPN just once (Sept 1st). There are 12 games scheduled for NBC10, which I always thought were still covered by the CSN team.

[PLM]

Speaking of Fontenot i bet if he didnt have so many goof ups so quickly he would of still been with the Phils. At least in some capacity.

[Phillibuster]

I have to say, looking at the comments at that Philly.com article, I am once again astounded at how reviled Wheeler was there - and how ridiculously popular Matthews apparently was. It's like they're viewing it as having to lose Sarge to get rid of Wheels.

Not saying that Wheeler was the best or anything, but at least he bothered to do some research on the teams and players. I get the feeling that the broadcast statisticians pissed off Sarge at one point, and he made it a personal policy to never read anything originating from him/her again.

[ColonelTom]

Burnett, who could likely be had on a one-year deal worth upwards of the $16.5 million he made in 2013.

I would be absolutely stunned if the Phils gave him a deal like that.

[Meyer]

30 as a trio and 70 games paired alone with T-Mac = 100 games for each?

[Phillibuster]

Steve: That's only the ESPN broadcasts, it doesn't include the Fox/FS1/FS2 games. Apparently they get 12 on Fox and 40 overflow on FS1/2, so I'd think that at least 2 or 3 Phillies games would go there.

Also, those 100 games from Stairs/Moyer don't have to overlap. I would bet there'll be at least 10 games where you get all one or all the other. Plus one or two where LA creeps into the TV booth.

[Phillibuster]

Hm. Marlins just DFA'd Chris Hatcher to make room for Marmol. Based on MiLB numbers, I wouldn't hate taking a chance on him.

[Cyclic]

That's how I read it, Meyer.

[norbertods]

BAP: I asked him the other day if he was going to venture over to TGP. He laughed it off and said he gets enough grief from the superfan contingent on BL to last a year.

[cut_fastball]

Cyclic - Much appreciated. I should have been able to figure that out.

[bay_area_phan]

norb: Not surprising, but too bad. It would make for great theater.

[bay_area_phan]

Philli: Presumably you mean as a pitcher. In which case, I agree with you.

[Willard Preacher]

TBag is probably the last PBP guy on earth who needs two color guys accompanying him. I'd love to see a "diarrhea of the mouth" stat that indicates what announcers average words per broadcast are. I bet TBag even beats out a solo Vin Scully. Moyer/Stairs will basically just be showing up to collect their paychecks on those games. Not that I'll be listening to the video broadcast to even know one way or another.

[Meyer]

I'm holding on to the thought that T-Mac will show a different side of himself with Stairs in the booth. Both guys will benefit from each other.

I'll be listening to Franzke & LA. If the game sucks I hope there's a critique of the booth performance.

[Phillibuster]

BAP: Yeah, I meant as a reliever. 45-65 innings in three MiLB seasons where he did pretty well. Although that 2013 WHIP stands out pretty garishly.

Figure his MLB numbers are too small a sample size even for a single year, let alone three, to make any pronouncements.

[Phillibuster]

Added bonus if we get him: emergency catcher on-roster!

[Meyer]

Moyer will be pushing to the front of that trio. By nature, I'm quite sure he needs to be the centerpiece.

[Dickie Thong]

YAY! Marlins scraps!

[clout]

Hatcher isn't a prospect, but he could help LV.

[Phillibuster]

I wouldn't say he's a prospect either, but he's been above average as a AAA reliever in the hitter-friendly PCL who sits 93 on a fastball and 2-seamer, and it looks like his slider isn't poor.

If he plays in Lehigh, I wouldn't be against him getting called up if we needed a reliever. So long as we didn't go out of our way to avoid DFAing him if he did poorly.

[Cyclic]

anyone want a good head job from me?

[NEPP]

What's a head job?

[Cyclic]

Does Stutes still play for the Phillies?

Aumont?

[Willard Preacher]

I did sign up for a TGP account yesterday, but now I'm reluctant to really take it for a spin after BAP's recent run-ins surrounding use of sarcasm???? Though, then I look back up to the header here and see that it's still the same "bench JRoll" thread, despite a fairly significant announcement surrounding the broadcast hirings, and reconsider....

Man, whatever happened to the good old days of blogs?

[MG]

Wheels at least prepared and it was evident during the broadcast with some of the stats and other points on the other team. Sarge just showed, rambled for 3 innings each night, and occasionally actually provided some hitting insights when he actually focused on instead of well-worn cliches or stuff completely not related to the game.

Given his age and performance in the booth, Id be stunned if Sarge gets another broadcasting job. Oddly enough I would want a cooking show with Sargd or a food-oriented one. Talk with more enthusiasm about food more often than he did baseball.

Kind if like TMac on college basketball where he isn't bad and his broadcasting style/traits are much better suited than baseball on TV.

[Iceman]

I agree with MG. Wheels had his annoying quirks ("You don't have to give in to this guy," "No-doubles defense," "Middle-in"), but by the end those quirks were more amusing than annoying. Like an old family member going on a rant at Thanksgiving. His knowledge of the game was immense and he brought it to every broadcast.

Sarge was a clown in a stupid hat.

[cut_fastball]

From being at both places there are two types of people that went over to Good Phight. There were people who went over trying to have legitimate discussion and then there were people like BAP who went over trying to pick fights because he has one posting style and it was met with some pushback there. He immeidately threw a hissy fit and got all indignant making himself look like an insufferable butthole in the process. He didn't want to participate so he should just stay here where he can have his way and stop throwing temper tantrums.

And coming over here and trying to say "Man GTown should head over there." is basically doing what the posters over there thought- picking fights of BL vs TGP.

Knock it off loser. Just stay here and let us that went over there in peace be there in peace.

[cut_fastball]

...Knock it off loser. Just stay here and let us that went over there in peace be there in peace.

Posted by: cut_fastball | Tuesday, February 11, 2014 at 07:04 PM

Whoever this is, it ain't me. Also, it appears disturbing whomever has hijacked my name is familiar with Beerleaguer.

Moving forward, I will tag all offensive posts using my handle with 2 words: "t'aint me".

[Iceman]

One of my good friends has two pugs- known to be the dumbest breed of dog by far. Every now and then, one of them will do something to p*ss the other one off, and they'll paw at each other, mashing their faces together in the canine version of a slap-fight. Each fight sets a new low for their species.

Anyway, that's kind of what I picture happening if GTown went to TGP and picked a fight with one of the dimmer bulbs over there.

[cut_fastball]

The fact that GTOwn has garnered any following here says a lot about some of the people here. GTown is about as dim a bulb as one could ever meet.

[NEPP]

I can't stand pugs.

[Cyclic]

"cut" what was your handle before you starting doing this?

I assume you're also Captain Hindsight?

Can I ask, what pleasure do you get out of it?

[awh]

Pugs aee stupid and should be used as Asian barbecue.

[Beer-a-Thon]

Who would you rather have in 2014?

A) Roberto Gonzalez 1 YR/$4.5
B) Paul Maholm 1 YR/$1.5
C) Tommy Hanson minor league deal, $2M if he makes the roster

[cut_fastball]

The fact that GTOwn has garnered any following here says a lot about some of the people here. GTown is about as dim a bulb as one could ever meet.

Posted by: cut_fastball | Tuesday, February 11, 2014 at 07:39 PM

t'aint me.

[cut_fastball]

Iceman - no hard feelings, OK? I have the worst case of snow and cold related cabin-fever, and an insane workload.

Post at will. It's a free country. You're part of the fabric of this site. In fact, a vital cog in the discourse that keeps this place rocking.

If we only had a championship team to root for. Go Marlon Byrd! Just don't get one of them there "age-related" injuries. Like a torn muscle or tendon.

[Jackamac]

Wait...Tommy Hanson, who only 3 years ago was one of the top young pitchers in the game, and will be 28 this year...was passed over in favor of Fausberto Carmandez, who will be 34, and whose peak occurred before the Phillies had won their second World Series. Not only that, but we gave the latter 2.5 million more than Hanson will make (if he cracks Texas' roster)?

Truly, Amaro amazes me.

[Jackamac]

I forget myself. It could be worse. We could be Anaheim. We could have Blanton.

[bay_area_phan]

With all of his injuries, Hanson is more of a lottery ticket than a plan. But he's a lottery ticket with a pretty big jackpot, considering his age & upside. Fausto Carmona, on the other hand, is a plan, albeit a bad one. So the Phillies chose a bad plan over a good lottery ticket.

[awh]

The problem with Tommy Hanson is his shoulder may be shot - for good. That's why he only got MiL deal.

[awh]

bap, Rich Harden has been a lottery ticket the last two seasons.

How much has he pitched?

Also, because of his injuries, which many have linked to bad mechanics, there may be no upside.

[The Perils of Thinking]

Yo, new thread.

[Cyclic]

I love sucking cock