PHILLIES NEWS

There is good news and bad news for the Phils tonight. The good news is that the Phils pulled off a huge deal for a top starting pitcher early this afternoon. No not Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee the reigning AL cy young award winner and outfielder Ben Francisco from the Indians in exchange for 2B Jason Donald, Catcher Lou Marson, pitcher Carlos Carrasco, all from AAA, and pitcher Jason Knapp from A. So in other words the Phils got the starting pitcher they wanted, plus the righthanded bat they needed off the bench in Francisco(the rookie John Mayberry Jr just isn't ready yet), without losing any of their top prospects(Dom Brown, Kyle Drabek, and Micheal Taylor). Plus they of course were able to hold onto J.A Happ as well. In short the Phils couldn't have a made better deal than this one and are now in position to win now and in the future. Now Happ is where the bad news comes in. He started the Phils last game of their series with the Diamondbacks tonight and despite allowing just 2 runs on 3 hits over 6 innings he took the loss. The emotional strain of all the trade rumors swirling around all week and the fatigue of having played non stop for nearly 2 weeks finally caught up to the Phils tonight, as they could muster just 7 hits and no runs. The Dbacks meanwhile hit a couple homers and just barely held off a couple late charges by the Phils for a 4-0 win. You can't win every game and they had already won the series, so it winning tonight wasn't all that important for the Phils. The trade for Lee really overshadowed the whole game anyway. I can't wait to see Lee in a Phils uniform. Although he is only 7-9 this season, that is more the fault of his team, close to last in the AL central and not very good at giving him run support. He also has a sparkling 3.14 ERA, leads the AL in innings, has been lights out so far in the 2nd half the season. Although only time will tell, he should ultimately fit well in the Phils rotation and they should be infinitely better with him than they were without him. Anyway so the Phils are now 58-41 overall and down to 6 games up in the NL East.