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Golson set
By egrissom | November 21, 2008
The Phillies traded Greg Golson to the Texas Rangers for John Mayberry, a right-handed corner outfielder who turns 25 next month. The Rangers took Mayberry with the 19th pick in the first round of the 2005 draft. Golson was taken by the Phillies in the first round of the 2004 draft, but is about two years younger than Mayberry. Golson turned 23 in September.
Both of these guys are going to need to figure out how to get on base to have a career. Mayberry has a career .330 on-base percentage in the minor leagues while Golson’s is .309. Golson plays center field, though, and has a couple more years to develop.
In 764 at-bats above A-ball, Mayberry has hit 257/314/471, with 34 home runs, 54 walks and 168 strikeouts. That’s not a huge strikeout rate. Mayberry is a monster physically, 6′ 6″ and 230 pounds — it’s nice to see he’s kept his strikeouts under control. The .314 on-base percentage as he turns 25 is a big problem, though. Strikeouts are an issue for Golson, who whiffed 130 times in 426 at-bats at Double-A for the Phils last year in what is his most promising pro season to date.
Mayberry put up a .474 slugging percentage in 437 at-bats in the PCL last season. Sounds nice, but a little less nice in the context of the rest of the PCL– his .474 was 40th in the league. Val Pascucci, another right-handed hitter who the Phillies released in April of 2008, for example, hit 290/410/553 with 27 homers in 396 at-bats in the PCL in ‘08.
My reaction to the trade is mostly surprise. I think Golson could still develop, but if he does it’s not going to be for several years. I worried the Phillies saw him as someone that could help them in the next year or so. Given his age and athletic ability it’s far too early to give up on him. Glad to see the Phillies add a potentially big right-handed bat to the organization in Mayberry, an area where they need a lot of help. I do find some comfort in the trade knowing that it ensures that Golson will not be seeing any time with the Phils in the immediate future.
I would guess there is close to zero chance Mayberry starts the season with the Phillies, but I think he is a lot closer to helping them than Golson was.
Elsewhere, Chase Utley will have hip surgery and probably miss the start of the season. Jason Donald appears to be a candidate to see time at second to start the season. You would have to think that the Phils would consider bringing back Iguchi as well. I’d rather see them bring back Iguchi (or another veteran free agent) than take a chance on Donald at this point.
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November 21st, 2008 at 2:04 pm
I hope they at least give Donald a shot to win the job in Spring Training. He’s hit at every level and has really impressed many who have seen him play. I think he’ll be an above-average player for a long time and could be a more long-term answer at third base after Utley returns.
On the trade, It’s nice to see Amaro make a bit of an unorthodox trade. You don’t see a bunch of prospect for prospect trades in baseball. It’d be nice if this lit a fire under both of their butts and they both became useful players. I think the more likely scenario is that nobody will know who either of these guys were in ten years.
November 21st, 2008 at 2:06 pm
One more thought…I think that Mayberry may be the cheap right-handed portion of the platoon if Pat doesn’t come back.
November 21st, 2008 at 3:26 pm
I was glad to see Amaro make the trade, too. Interesting that the Phils traded away Golson so soon after Arbuckle left and joined the Royals.
I’m looking forward to seeing Donald, too. I do think the Phils should and will look hard at other possibilities, though, just cause when you have a legit chance to win the World Series isn’t a good time to see if the 24-year-old who had a good year at Double-A last year can play at second every day.
I had the same thought about Mayberry and the left field platoon. I would guess we won’t see him for a while. The on-base percentage is feeble. The minor league numbers against lefties are very nice, but there’s a difference between a corner outfielder with great numbers against lefties in the minors and corner outfielders with great numbers against lefties in the majors. Especially given that a corner outfielder who can hit lefties come cheap, I hope the Phillies find someone else.
November 21st, 2008 at 4:44 pm
Hopefully the Phillies aren’t done looking for a RH batting corner OF (hopefully it’s Burrell) but assuming that Burrell is gone, I think that Mayberry will be in the mix for the job.
I don’t know how many other options you really have at 2B other than Bruntlett and Donald. If you bring in Iguchi, who can presumably only play 2B, what do you do with him after a month when Utley is back? Utley plays every day, so you have a dead spot on your bench. Presumably a RH hitting middle infielder wouldn’t be your first option off of the bench as a pinch hitter. If they can sign somebody else to a minor league contract and let them compete in spring training, I’m OK with it. But somebody like Iguchi is just going to cost too much money for the extra value you get over Donald and/or Bruntlett.
What I really want to see is the Phillies solve what they are going to do in LF and with the pitching staff before making any decisions on 2B. My feeling is that the in house solutions will be passable until Utley is back in the lineup.
November 21st, 2008 at 5:47 pm
I’ll be glad if we get to see Donald. The Phillies were certainly happy to play Bruntlett at short when Rollins went down, so maybe they’ll go that way too. Hopefully Utley is a quick healer.