Who Will Be Sellers at Trade Dealine in N.L.?

The Philadelphia Phillies are awaiting news on how long star pitcher Roy Halladay may be out. Most are expecting bad news after his loss on Sunday to the Marlins in which he gave up nine runs in three innings to one of baseball’s worst teams. He left the game complaining of pain in his shoulder.

The Phillies placed him on the 15 day DL on Monday, but he is being examined today by a doctor in Los Angeles. If the news is bad, and Halladay is done for the year, what does this do to the Phillies going forward? The Phils are 15-18 now, five games out of first. The Phils are also starting to get a bit older. Jimmy Rollins and Chase Utley are 34. Ryan Howard is 33. Cliff Lee is 34. Jonathan Papelbon is 32. Michael Young is 36. Carlos Ruiz is 34. These guys need to win soon. Not having Halladay around makes it that much more difficult.

If the Phils look to be in bad shape at the trade deadline, some of these guys could be attractive to a team still in the race with some good young prospects, such as the Pittsburgh Pirates or Kansas City Royals. We  might see a big sell off as they tryto get younger going forward.

Year two of Theo Epstein and the Chicago Cubs don’t look any better than they have in the last 100+ years. Epstein presided over the end of the Boston Red Sox 86 year World Series winning drought. But that was small potatoes compared to the Cubs now 105 year dry spell. The Sox at least won some AL Pennants every once in a while. They won the pennant in 1946, 1967, 1975 and 1986. The Cubs have not even been to a World Series since 1945. Now that’s a drought.

Epstein was brought in to do for the Cubs what he did for the Sox. That is make them winners. So far, it’s not working. The Cubs had their typical terrible year last season and this year so far they are 12-20 in last place in the N.L. Central.

The Cubs play in a ballpark that is outdated. In fact, it was outdated when other ballparks that age were being replace nearly 50 years ago and those parks have been replaced. The Cubs and Sox both play in parks that have been around since the Titanic. This makes them an attractive team for baseball tourists to go catch a game in a venerable old park, but it probably doesn’t make them attractive to free agent millionaires who want to play in luxurious stadiums with all the amenities.

Epstein was able to work around this in Boston. If he can do it in Chicago, he will be a baseball legend before his 40th birthday. The question is, will Cubs fans patience run out before he gets there? Look for the Cubs to be sellers at the trade deadline as well.