Phillies Announce Retro Signing Promotion

The Phillies are wearing throwback alternate uniforms on afternoon home games, so what better way to do it than make retro acquisitions?

Yesterday, they did just that. Todd Zolecki of the Inky tells us the Phillies have reached a contract agreement with David Bell. Having him just one time wasn't enough. He deserved a second go around, despite the HGH allegations.

Okay, I'm being a bit unfair to Pedro Feliz, but I'm torn on this signing. Let's talk about the positives first. He's a great defensive player. Great might even be shortchanging him. He's one of the best in the league at the hot corner. Ever since Rolen got traded, defense at third base has been a problem. David Bell was okay for a little bit, but he got banged up and became a liability in the field. Helms has no range and a bad arm, and Dobbs doesn't have much experience at the position.

Abraham Nunez played a nice role last season. He did a good job coming in late in games and saving some runs in close games. The problem with Nunez is he couldn't hit at all. He has a career .627 OPS, and a number that was much lower than that with the Phillies. That's about .100 points below the league average. It's nice to have a bench player that plays good defense all around the infield, but his offense was so bad that he just doesn't have a spot in the majors.

Platoons could work out, and at the plate, Dobbs/Helms probably could've. However, with those two, the Phillies needed a guy to come out in the 7th, 8th innings to play defense for them because they're so bad. Eric Bruntlett might be able to do that, but at some point, it becomes ideal to have a guy that can hit and field.

Is Feliz that guy? He can definitely field, but there's a lot of questions about whether or not he can hit. Feliz has been a full-time starter for the past four seasons, and he has 84 home runs in that span. Keep in mind, this is in San Francisco, which has one of the most favorable parks for pitchers in the league. He might hit 25 or more in the friendly confines of Citizen's Bank Park, but hitting is more than home runs.

In 2004, his first full year as a starter, he slugged .485. That's good, but after that, he slugged .422, .428 and .418. That's okay. Last season, Phillies 7 hole hitters slugged .469. The bottom of the lineup was a strength last year, which is one of the reasons they led the NL in runs.

Feliz' offensive game has two problems; he doesn't make strong contact very often (career .252 hitter) and he doesn't walk (career OBP .288). That's awful. He makes an out over 71% of the time he steps to the plate. His OPS+ has been 100 or better only twice, and he was a part time player in one of those years. One other alarming things about Feliz? He only hit .257/.298/.368 against lefties last year. It's not good when a righty with the power he's supposed to have only slugs .368 against lefties.

Some of those Feliz numbers look bad, but consider this: Phillies 3B hit .255/.321/.368. Those are awful numbers that don't stack up against the rest of the NL. He should be able to do better than that, and his defense is definitely an upgrade over what the Phillies already have.

What does this mean for the rest of the team? It means Dobbs or Helms, most likely Helms, will be traded at some point. The entire bench can't be composed of guys who play 3B. Fortunately for all of them, they can all play other positions. Dobbs can play 1st and a little 2nd and corner OF. Helms can play 1B. Feliz has played just about everything in his career. Dobbs could still be a good supersub type to have on the bench, so he'll probably stay. Eric Bruntlett probably will too because he can play a lot of different positions.

The contract is kind of iffy. 4 million per isn't bad for an average player, but 2 years isn't good. Last year, Feliz was a free agent and he could only re-up with the Giants for one year. He didn't have a great 2007, so how did he parlay that into a two year contract? Hopefully over those next two years, someone like Cardenas, Donald or Mattair can develop their games and take over that spot so the hot corner can be secure like it should've been when we had Rolen.