Phitin' Phils!

They can plan the parade now. Somewhere I know Smiff is smiling. No more Adam Eaton. Blanton can stop getting pounded in that bandbox Coliseum against that insanely strong hitting American League West - with its Seattles and Los Angeles Anaheim Californias and its Texasses and start carving up the competition in the NL East at the Philly Canyon. This guy's gonna last Smiff says. He's no Rich Harden.

No. No he's not.

A’s trade Blanton to Phillies
By JANIE McCAULEY, AP Sports Writer Jul 17, 8:03 pm EDT


OAKLAND, Calif. (AP)—The Oakland Athletics traded away their second starting pitcher this month, dealing burly right-hander Joe Blanton to the Philadelphia Phillies for three minor leaguers on Thursday.

A’s general manager Billy Beane swapped Blanton a week after sending Rich Harden to the Chicago Cubs—and that’s with his team very much in contention in the AL West, six games behind the first-place Los Angeles Angels.

“Philadelphia was aggressive,” Oakland assistant GM David Forst said. “They made it clear they needed a starting pitcher to help out and we were able to get the deal done.”

The minor leaguers involved are left-hander Josh Outman, who was in Double-A, and second baseman Adrian Cardenas and outfielder Matt Spencer, both players in Single-A.

The 27-year-old Blanton, a 14-game winner last season, was 5-12 with a 4.96 ERA in 20 starts for Oakland. He has underachieved in 2008 in his fifth big league season after being the opening day starter in March against the Boston Red Sox in Tokyo.

“We’ve been attempting to upgrade our rotation and we feel like we’ve done that,” Phillies assistant general manager Mike Arbuckle said. “We think Joe is a very strong, competitive pitcher that has the mental makeup to pitch productively in a pennant race. He pitches a lot of innings and takes some burden off the bullpen.”

Blanton—who is listed at 6-foot-3 and 225 pounds—had been scheduled to pitch Friday night against New York at Yankee Stadium in Oakland’s first game after the All-Star break. Forst said he had yet to discuss with manager Bob Geren who would fill Blanton’s spot in the rotation. Gio Gonzalez, a candidate to be promoted, has been pitching well for Triple-A Sacramento.

Both Blanton and Harden had been rumored to be on the trading block over the past year.