The Phillies went out and signed Raul Ibanez, who will essentially replace Pat Burrell. Pat “The Bat” will be missed and I hate to see him go, especially after some big moments for the Phillies on their way to the World Series, but we have a tremendous player in Raul Ibanez. The guy had 110 RBIs for the Mariners last season hitting .293 and joins only four other players to have three consecutive 100 RBI seasons (Beltran, Abreu, Ordonez, and Carlos Lee). The following is from ESPN:
The Phillies have agreed to a three-year contract with free-agent outfielder Raul Ibanez, pending a physical. The deal is believed to be worth $30 million over three years.
The 36-year-old Ibanez will become the Phillies’ new everyday left fielder, and his signing means the Phillies no longer will pursue their longtime left fielder, Pat Burrell, who is also a free agent.
Chase Utley tried fiercely to conceal the severity of his right-hip injury throughout the Phillies’ championship season. It was not an issue, he maintained. Just normal bumps and bruises. But the hip bothered him much more than he let on.
Utley, the Phillies’ all-star second baseman, will undergo surgery next week in New York that will keep him from baseball activities for three months. A full recovery is expected to take four to six months.
It’s something that we’ve been waiting for since 1983. After 25 years, a championship is back in Philadelphia. Good bye Curse of William Penn. Thank you Philadelphia Phillies.
It’s unmistakable that every man on the Phillies roster, every man, has stepped up huge at some point this post-season. It’s impossible to give the MVP to any one player. Congratulations to Cole Hamels though: you deserve it. Without a doubt, this World Series was a complete team effort.
The Phillies fan in body paint certainly delivered some karma to the Phillies (and the Eagles to boot). Let’s re-cap:
– Phillies win Game 3 after Jamie Moyer pitched a gem, 3 HRs get the job done, and Phillies get the final run to seal the deal in the bottom of the 9th thanks to a player hit by a pitch, an arrant throw allowed him to get from 1st to 3rd, and Ruiz was able to get him in off an infield hit. Even though I had to get up at 8:00 a.m. Sunday Morning, every inning of that game was worth staying up until 2:00 a.m. for.
– Eagles get a huge win at home over Atlanta. We’ll get to the good and bad from that later.
– Phillies win Game 4 after JOE BLANTON pitches a gem AND homers for good measure. There was a flurry of home runs by the Phils. It seemed as if just about everyone in their lineup had a homer (or RBI). HR: Ryan Howard had 2, Joe Blanton added his in the 5th, Jimmy Rollins was 6 inches away from his, but that didn’t matter because he got a double out of it and Jason Werth homered at the next at bat to take the game to 8-2. RBI: We got one from Pat Burrell and Pedro Feliz. Surprisingly no RBIs from Ultey, but he got one base twice on walks and scored 2 runs.
“Lights Out” Lidge is locked up for another 3 years. The Phillies signed him to a 3-year $37.5 million extension. 19 saves and a 1.00 ERA in half a season will get you a nice pay day. Good work by the Phillies front office.
In other Phillies news, Chase Utley announced that he will be competing in the home run derby. Utley has hit 25 HRs on the year and currently leads the MLB in HRs.
Quick Standings Update: After the Phillies cooled off towards the end of June, the rest of the NL East failed to capitalize off the opportunity and the Phillies remain on top of the standings. They lead the Marlins by 1.5 games and the Mets by 2.5.
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