[quote] Biggest Surprise: Rise of the Rockies, Phillies and Blue Jays

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Rise of the Phillies? Even assuming they bite the bullet and dump Rolen for whatever scraps they can get, and hopefully get rid of some other dead weight and bring up some of their highly touted guys from AAA Scranton/Wilkes-Barre, they're not going to rise that far with THAT bullpen.

Hey, Joe: isn't it kind of doubtful the Phillies would dump Rolen this late in the season--I thought he was going to be a free-agent at season's end, so why would some other team take him on for a couple of months??

~Adam

That's what some teams do when they're in a pennant race--they take a chance and trade for someone they think might put them over the top. The missing piece of the puzzle, so to speak. A team may know that they're not going to be able to sign him once he's a free agent. They may not even want to. But they decide to take a risk to improve their chances for this year, provided they can get him cheaply. That's why they're sometimes referred to as "rent-a-players."

Between that and the fact that there may very well NOT be a pennant race due to a strike, if the Phillies DO trade him now they won't get much.