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Blue Jays release C Phillips
Saturday, July 21, 2007 12:26 AM

TORONTO (Ticker) -- The Toronto Blue Jays on Friday released veteran catcher Jason Phillips.

The transaction occurred after Toronto suffered a 4-2 loss to the Seattle Mariners.

In his second season with the Blue Jays, Phillips had an average of .208 with one home run and 12 RBI in 55 games. The seven-year veteran, who also has played for the New York Mets and the Los Angeles Dodgers, is a .249 hitter with 30 homers and 168 RBI in 465 career games.

In a related move, the club recalled catcher-first baseman Curtis Thigpen from Class AAA Syracuse of the International League.

http://www.sportstwo.com/Story/View/AL/TORONTO/4058

Thigpen would be #2 now.

I'm kinda happy with this, Phillips sucked, he wasn't really good at anything, I'm happy with thigpen and i think he could be the main man next year

toronto_raptors50 wrote:I'm kinda happy with this, Phillips sucked, he wasn't really good at anything, I'm happy with thigpen and i think he could be the main man next year

I agree, I was pissed to see that they we're playing Thigpen at 1B earlier this season even though he's a catcher.

The retooling begins.....thank goodness....I couldn't take much more of Phillips. He couldn't hit, throw out runners, call a good game and play good defence....everything was an adventure.

Glad to see Thigpen up....although I'd rather see Zaun released as well and bring in Sal to tutor Thigpen. Zaun is almost as bad as Phillips IMO.

goodbye goggles

It's a shame we gave up on Phelps so quickly. I mean, we traded him for Eric Crozier, whom we waived. At least Phelps is still in the league. He's playing for Pittsburgh right now and is hitting reasonably well so far.

Our team average is about .260 and Phelp's career average is .270 (he's hitting nearly .290 with Pittsburgh in 14 at bats).

Zaun is hitting .230, Phillips was hitting .208... We're talking between 30 and 52 points of improvement in batting average over our current catchers.

That was a bad move, managerially speaking, especially since we got bunk in return for him.

Phelps is not a catcher. He's not even a 1B. He's a DH. That's why he hasn't been given a chance in the league. Though I agree they traded him at the wrong time (low value).

Phillips is garbage. The only reason he was on the team was because Gibbons likes him. Fasano was much more deserving of the back-up role once Zaun came back. Hopefully they give Thigpen some legitimate playing time behind the plate.

Michael Bradley wrote:Phelps is not a catcher. He's not even a 1B. He's a DH. That's why he hasn't been given a chance in the league. Though I agree they traded him at the wrong time (low value).

Phillips is garbage. The only reason he was on the team was because Gibbons likes him. Fasano was much more deserving of the back-up role once Zaun came back. Hopefully they give Thigpen some legitimate playing time behind the plate.

Actually, Phelps has been a catcher.

In the minors, most of his accolades came as a catcher.

In '01, he was a Baseball America All-Star C (the year he was the MVP in the Southern league) and he was also an AA All-Star catcher. He was a Baseball America All-Star catcher again the year after and then a AAA All-Star as a DH.

He blows as a first baseman and is primarily a DH but he can catch and my point is that he couldn't be any worse than Phillips as a catcher and WOULD have been superior as a batter.

tsherkin wrote:-= original quote snipped =-Actually, Phelps has been a catcher.

In the minors, most of his accolades came as a catcher.

In '01, he was a Baseball America All-Star C (the year he was the MVP in the Southern league) and he was also an AA All-Star catcher. He was a Baseball America All-Star catcher again the year after and then a AAA All-Star as a DH.

He blows as a first baseman and is primarily a DH but he can catch and my point is that he couldn't be any worse than Phillips as a catcher and WOULD have been superior as a batter.

He was moved out of the catching position because his defense and size prevented him from being a particularly good one. He's like Matt LeCroy. Jayson Werth was also a catcher coming up in the O's/Jays system, but moved to the OF because of his size. Phelps is not a catching option unless it's an emergency.

I agree that Phillips sucks, but Phelps is probably worse defensively. I'd rather have a guy like Fasano as a back-up. At least he seems competent behind the plate.

Michael Bradley wrote:-= original quote snipped =-



He was moved out of the catching position because his defense and size prevented him from being a particularly good one. He's like Matt LeCroy. Jayson Werth was also a catcher coming up in the O's/Jays system, but moved to the OF because of his size. Phelps is not a catching option unless it's an emergency.

I agree that Phillips sucks, but Phelps is probably worse defensively. I'd rather have a guy like Fasano as a back-up. At least he seems competent behind the plate.

I wouldn't mind Fasano at all, except that he's 36 and Phelps is still only 29. I mean, it can't hurt to have Sal around. He calls a good game, interacts well with his pitchers...

But he's a crappy hitter. He's a career .220 hitter and Phelps is still considerably better than that.

But let's say for a moment that we don't use him as a catcher and we use Fasano and Thigpen instead...

We can plug him into our lineup as a DH now and again, or even at 1B in an emergency, after a theoretical trade of Troy Glaus so that our power doesn't drop off precipitously. Phelps had a 20 HR season for us, sandwiched by 15- and 17-HR seasons. He can hit the ball and that's useful to us if we're to trade a 30/100 guy like Glaus.

The bat's the thing.

I take this as a sign the Jays have FINALLY realized this year is done.

I'm hoping for some 'SELLING" at the deadline.

AJ, Glaus, Clayton, Stairs, Towers, etc. J.P. should try and get rid of them all

Phelps cant play catcher anymore, or else you would have seen a team give him a shot there by now. I agree, he is only a DH, that is why the Yanks got rid of him to keep playing Andy Phillips.

whosthebosh? wrote:Phelps cant play catcher anymore, or else you would have seen a team give him a shot there by now. I agree, he is only a DH, that is why the Yanks got rid of him to keep playing Andy Phillips.

I dunno, Phillips is actually hitting .306 this year with a good OBP and SLG%, so it's hard to say. Phillips, moreover, hasn't really been playing C for the Yankees this year, he's played 25 of his 27 games at first base and the other 2 at third.

Realistically though, what were the Yanks gonna do with Phelps at catcher? They've got Posada and IIRC they've also just acquired Jose Molina for Jeff Kennard.

Moreover, he's a defensive specialist who hits pretty well against lefties. He's known for his ability to gun down runners. And he's a better first baseman than is Phelps because he's a significantly better fielder.

Phelps isn't a potential All-Star or anything, I'm just saying TORONTO could use him because we're fairly weak at the end of our lineup (despite Greg Zaun doing his level best to prove me wrong by homering yesterday...). And again, Phelps would've been a nice stop-gap should we trade Glaus and not get power back in return (say for example we chase a starting pitcher with Glaus, or a middle infielder, etc).

What I was saying was that if he was at all semi-adequate even as a backup catcher, dont you think one of the 30 some teams in the league would have given him at least a try there in the past few seasons?

whosthebosh? wrote:What I was saying was that if he was at all semi-adequate even as a backup catcher, dont you think one of the 30 some teams in the league would have given him at least a try there in the past few seasons?

Not necessarily, no.

A lot of teams have good catchers and/or some decent prospects and Phelps is known more for his bat... and he's also been a DH since he hit AAA ball, so it's not unreasonable for most teams to think of him mainly as a DH and not as a catcher.

tsherkin wrote:-= original quote snipped =-



Not necessarily, no.

A lot of teams have good catchers and/or some decent prospects and Phelps is known more for his bat... and he's also been a DH since he hit AAA ball, so it's not unreasonable for most teams to think of him mainly as a DH and not as a catcher.

A lot of teams also have not very good catchers, like the Jays. But you're right, it's not at all unreasonable. And why it is not unreasonable is because he's a DH and not a catcher.

Modern_epic wrote:-= original quote snipped =-



A lot of teams also have not very good catchers, like the Jays. But you're right, it's not at all unreasonable. And why it is not unreasonable is because he's a DH and not a catcher.

No, that's not actually true.

What is true is that he's definitely more commonly a DH than a catcher and that people generally think of him as such. He can, and in fact has, played that position before.

tsherkin brings up a good point. Phelps would be the perfect kind of experiment for us right now if he was still in the organization; a team who's essentially out of contention can afford to gamble on things like that.
I guess it's a moot point since he's not around here anymore, though.

Raptorsrock wrote:I take this as a sign the Jays have FINALLY realized this year is done.

I'm hoping for some 'SELLING" at the deadline.

AJ, Glaus, Clayton, Stairs, Towers, etc. J.P. should try and get rid of them all

Agreed. Thomas too.

I don't like this whole idea of being a "seller" because the Jays aren't at a point where they need to rebuild or retool. They have all the pieces they need, and there is no salary cap to worry about so they should keep what they have.

JP did come out and say today that he would like to keep the team as it is, and see them play a full season while healthy.