Phillies Christmas List

Its getting close to that time of year again. There is holiday buzz all around every department store and toy store in the country. It is still a week away from Thanksgiving, and we already hear Christmas music and see ads with Christmas trees and Santa Claus and reindeer and everything else that makes us feel all warm and fuzzy inside. With this in mind, we decided to do a week long series of guys that would be on the Philadelphia Phillies’ Christmas wish list this year. Now remember, we have been good boys and girls this year so we are hoping that Santa Claus can bring us the presents we have behaved so well for (By this we mean sell out the stadium every game, buy ridiculous amounts of Phillies gear, all the stuff that a GM and its board look for in a fan base). So each night this week look for some of the players that we would put down on our Christmas list this year, and if Santa Claus thinks we were good enough maybe he will bring us a present when he does almost every year… December 14^th.

Now before we get started, these aren’t deals that are necessarily GOING to happen, but they could make some sense for the Phillies as low cost - high production types of free agents. Here is a couple free agents that could potentially be on our Christmas list this year.

1.     Michael Cuddyer

IM SO HAPPY TO BE IN THE BIG LEAGUES! I COULDN'T STAND THE MINNESOTA ACCENTS ANYMORE!

This is a guy right now who would make the most sense for the Phillies. Michael is not a free agent that is going to haul in a big contract, which is something the Phillies really can’t afford anyway, and yet he would be a great fit. One of the biggest reasons he is a great fit is that he is another right handed bat. As you may have noticed, we have a lot of left handers in our lineup and adding another solid righty would always help our matchups especially in late game situations. He hit lefties at a .311 clip last year with 10 homeruns. That kind of production is something that our offense could use, and do not forget that he did that mostly hitting in Target field versus AL pitching. If you put him in CBP with some good ole fashioned NL pitching, we could see .330 with 15 HRs versus lefties. Also, he did hit for a good average last year at .284 overall and even though he is a career .272 hitter, if you can put him in a lineup with some serious power like the Phillies CAN provide (we realize they don’t always provide it), we can see the same kind of production from him going forward. Finally, our last argument for Cuddyer is that he is a swiss army knife in the field. He can play first with Thome while Howard recovers, he can play some third with Polly to give Polanco the much needed rest that he needs, and we can play him at a corner outfield position if need be. Considering center field and right field are locked in, we can always use him out in left just in case something goes awfully wrong with Johnny Mayberry to start off the season. He has even played some second, so in case something happens to Chase, WE GOT IT COVERED. Cuddyer could be invaluable to an aging lineup that throughout the course of a year may have a lot of holes to fill due to injury.