December 12, 200817 yr http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=3764268 The Phillies have agreed to a three-year contract with free-agent outfielder Raul Ibanez, pending a physical. The deal is believed to be worth $30 million over three years. The 36-year-old Ibanez will become the Phillies' new every-day leftfielder, and his signing means the Phillies no longer will pursue their long-time leftfielder, Pat Burrell, who is also a free agent. Ibanez had drawn significant interest from a number of teams, including the Cubs, Mets, Angels and Braves. But he had been sending signals through friends that the Phillies were his first choice. And the Phillies stepped up their efforts to sign him Thursday after it became known that the Angels were also negotiating the parameters of a deal with Ibanez as their No. 1 alternative if they lost out in efforts to sign Mark Teixeira. Ibanez, who turns 37 next June, has spent the past five seasons with the Mariners, where he was a long-time favorite of outgoing Phillies GM Pat Gillick. He hit .293 this season, with 23 homers, 110 RBIs, a .358 on-base percentage and a .472 slugging percentage. He is one of just five outfielders who have driven in at least 100 runs in each of the last three seasons. The others: Carlos Beltran, Magglio Ordonez, Carlos Lee and Bobby Abreu.
December 12, 200817 yr Adds yet another LHP bat to their lineup. Burrell is just as good as Ibanez against RHP, but Burrell crushes LHP and Ibanez sees his career OPS drop 100 points against them compared to RHP. And they're basically equal in being sh*tty LFers. It's obviously just one position but that's a downgrade so far. But Ibanez is also very much solid and it's not that much of a downgrade, could do a hell of a lot worse. But better him (for us) rather than Burrell or Dunn, especially since he also costs them a draft pick.
December 12, 200817 yr Raul Ibanez just saw his salary double. I mean, Ibanez is a pretty solid outfielder (offensively), but I don't know about $10 MM per year... Glad we didn't go for that.
December 12, 200817 yr Damn, all the other teams in our division keep on getting better. The Phillies did not just get better with this signing. As Nny said, Ibanez is a downgrade from Burrell. Not a huge downgrade, but still a downgrade.
December 12, 200817 yr Damn, all the other teams in our division keep on getting better. The Phillies did not just get better with this signing. As Nny said, Ibanez is a downgrade from Burrell. Not a huge downgrade, but still a downgrade. Barely. Still a great signing and a good player to have in left.
December 12, 200817 yr Guys...it doesnt matter who the Phillies, Muts, or Braves sign....we always manage to become a thorn in their back...next year, we'll be a contender for sure...notice that the phillies still have no pitching since they only have Blanton(i think), Moyer (gone) and Hamels...Muts have a couple of guys getting up their in age(Delgado, Beltran, P Martinez)...o and they still have no pitching since O Perez is leaving, also Pedro is not what he used to be, Pelfrey has been inconsistent, Maine has been injured a couple times and the braves...well we dont even know whats going on with them
December 12, 200817 yr And they're basically equal in being sh*tty LFers. Not exactly. Although Ibanez was terrible defensively in '07, he was very average in '08 and has been average for the better part of his career. He did have a bad UZR of -12.6, but he posted a defensive rate of 101, which is slightly above average, and a FRAA of 1, again being slightly above average. Burrell's UZR was also bad (-10.8), but his defensive rate was only 92 and he posted a FRAA of -11. I think Burrell is considerably worse.
December 12, 200817 yr UZR and FRAA suck expeically FRAA UZR is basically the old zone rating. have you seen how it's calculated? I don't know how FRAA is calculated but, it does funny things like say Cabrera is just barely below average 3B. Ibanez scored a -25 two years ago and a -18 last year. Burrell scored a -27 then a -20. However Burrell was also a lot better at stoping extra bases. Ibanez allowed that extra base 40.7% of the time, where as Burrell was only 36.7%.
December 12, 200817 yr I see an Ibanez/Burrell Platoon in LF Phucking Phillies have another good shot to make it back to the playoffs We better sign a good catcher and bench player to keep up iwth everyone else
December 12, 200817 yr I see an Ibanez/Burrell Platoon in LF Phucking Phillies have another good shot to make it back to the playoffs We better sign a good catcher and bench player to keep up iwth everyone else Burrell is gone, an FA.
December 13, 200817 yr i don't like this signing for the phillies. the the middle of their lineup is vulnerable to LHP. burrell used to balance the lineup hitting around howard and utley, but now their 3, 4, and 5 hitters will all hit from the left side.
December 13, 200817 yr Loading up on lefties makes sense in that ball park. Ibanez had some really nice numbers considering he played in Seattle where the careers of Adrian Beltre and Richie Sexson died immediately.
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