FanHouse Ronny Paulino

FanHouse continues its 2009 MLB Preview with a look at the Philadelphia Phillies.

The City of Brotherly Love's long championship drought came to an end when Brad Lidge struck out Eric Hinske in Game 5 of the World Series last October. The city exploded in appreciation of a team that's a blueprint for success in the modern game, with homegrown stars studding the lineup and top of the rotation, and a handful of savvy acquisitions, like Lidge, sprinkled around to fill holes.

Fantasy baseball draft season is coming, so you best be prepared by delving through every major player on each team. Fantasy FanHouse is here to help with a quick once-over.

Meet the ...
Defending World Series champions. I know, right? Repeating it doesn't make it any less bizarre. But that's what the Phillies are, at least for this year. For fantasy folks, though, they might be a little less than "championship" material. That's meant with all due respect, of course, because the Phillies play in a fantastic hitters' park and they do have a number of elite fantasy options.

All of the focus during these winter meetings is on the big moves: signings of K-Rod and CC Sabathia, a JJ Putz trade, Jake Peavy rumors, etc. Just because the focus is elsewhere, that doesn't mean that the smaller market teams aren't active. It's just harder to notice.

Take, for example, the Pittsburgh Pirates (shocking that picked them, I know). Their rumored Jack Wilson to Detroit trade fell apart this week, but that doesn't mean that GM Neal Huntington go nothing done in Vegas. To the contrary, he shipped off former "catcher of the future" and current malcontent Ronny Paulino (known to Pirate fans as "Joggin' Ronny" for the way he runs the bases) to the Phillies for AAA catcher Jason Jaramillo.

Not excited yet? After scaring the crap out of fans like me with some rumors of a David Eckstein signing, the Bucs also appear close to signing utility man Ramon Vazquez, formerly of Texas. He's not bad for a utility guy and may even start, should the Pirates find a new home for Freddy Sanchez or Jack Wilson this winter. And if that's not titillating enough, they drafted Donald Veal in the Rule 5 draft. A big lefty who throws hard but can't throw strikes!

Yeah, maybe it's best that the big moves get all the attention.

Generally, being a Pirate fan is a pretty grim existence. When they go on a run like they have in the past week (seven wins in eight games to pull within a game of .500), it's generally unexpected, pleasant, and inevitably followed by bad news. Last night, the other shoe dropped on the Pirates in their otherwise solid 8-4 win over the Cardinals: catcher Ryan Doumit broke his thumb and is going on the disabled list for a while. He's not happy, either:

"Obviously, it hurts," Doumit said. "I don't even know what to say. It couldn't have come at a worse time. I'm tired of the cliches, about how things happen or things are going to get better. I'm tired of it all. It's frustrating."

The good news is that initial X-rays point to it being a small fracture in the tip of his thumb and he might only miss two or three weeks. That won't be known for sure until his full examination is done by a hand specialist, the results of which are expected some time today. Doumit's always battled injuries, but this one comes at a particularly bad time with him mashing along at a .350/.382/.573 pace. Ronny Paulino will replace him full-time until he returns from injury and right now his OPS (.596) is only slightly higher than Doumit's slugging percentage. The Pirates' surprising start was already unlikely to last long, without Doumit, it's even less likely.

Yesterday Matt Watson reported that all that talk of Jason Bay going to Cleveland in exchange for Kelly Shoppach and Cliff Lee was dead. The trade wasn't going to happen.

Things changed over night, because now it appears that a deal is seriously being looked at by both sides, and it could be completed by the end of the day.

That Jason Bay deal, all of a sudden, is alive.

In a surprising twist, the Pirates and Cleveland Indians revived talks at the Opryland Hotel late last night and developed a framework for a five-player trade, Bay and catcher Ronny Paulino going to Cleveland for outfielder Franklin Gutierrez, catcher Kelly Shoppach and either starter Cliff Lee or a minor-league pitching prospect.

So let's see. As of yesterday afternoon, the Indians didn't feel that this deal was necessary. While they were offering Kelly Shoppach and Cliff Lee, they didn't feel giving up anything else for Bay was needed to make their team better.

Then there was that minor trade between the Tigers and Marlins, and for some reason the Indians were willing to add more to their offer, in the form of Franklin Gutierrez.

Still, in my opinion there has to be a better deal for the Pirates out there somewhere. Franklin Gutierrez and Kelly Shoppach are nice, but Cliff Lee had a 6.29 ERA last season before being sent to the minors, and is guaranteed $10.5 million over the next two years.

Especially now that the Indians feel pressured to make a move after the Tigers big catch, the Pirates could probably try and pry a little more value out of them.

If you would've asked a Cub fan about their bad start, which took place right in the middle of some great performances by players on the team, they would've told you that the reason the Cubs started so poorly was because they were failing to do the smallest things that end up having the biggest effect on the end of the game. They were probably talking about Aramis Ramirez, whose brain fart probably cost the Cubs a 15-inning marathon against the Pirates last night.

After Ronny Paulino reached first base in the fiftteenth, this one took on a Twilight Zone feel. Jose Bautista layed down a bunt, but Derrick Lee's throw to get the lead-footed Paulino at second hit Paulino. With pinch-bunter Zach Duke at the plate, the Cubs charged the corners with shortstop Cesar Izturis covering third, hoping to nail Paulino at third. They didn't even need that, though because when Duke failed on his bunt attempt, Michael Barrett had Paulino nailed by something like 85 feet. Except that Aramis Ramirez, standing 40 feet in front of the bag, screened the throw and even seemed to try to catch the throw like he was still on third base (though everyone seems to be putting the blame on Barrett right now it didn't look like it was his fault at all). He deflected the throw away from Izturis and Paulino scored from third on a sac fly a play later.

I expected Lou Piniella to explode at this sloppy play, but for once, Lou was understated:

''It wasn't the best major-league game,'' Piniella said after a botched throw from catcher Michael Barrett on a steal of third set up Jack Wilson's sacrifice fly in the 15th. ''We had our chances. We just didn't take advantage of them.''

If the Cubs are going to get things together and make a serious run at the playoffs later this year, they can't let games like last night happen. It's that simple.

This early part of the season has been about as roller-coaster like as possible for the Houston Astros. They started out 1-5, rallied to 9-6, and now have dropped four in a row to fall back to 9-10. Tonight's loss had to be especially distressing for the 'Stros because after three straight losses to Milwaukee and Philadelphia, they had to be hoping that seeing the Pirates (0-4 at home) in Pittsburgh with Paul Maholm (came into tonight's game with a 6.14 ERA in three starts) on the mound would be a cure all for them tonight. I mean, it would have to be, right?

Wrong. Just over two hours after Craig Biggio lead off the game with a single and Pirate fans went "Aww, crap, not again," Paul Maholm got Chris Burke to fly out center field to complete his complete game, three-hit shutout. Yeah, you just saw Paul Maholm and "complete game, three-hit shutout" in the same sentence. Not to knock on Maholm, he's just another in a long line of "This guy is going to be awesome" young Pirate pitchers that have, to this far in their careers, been less than awesome. He actually only needed 29 batters to complete his gem tonight as Biggio was erased on a double play in the first and then later got caught stealing. I suppose Biggio's two hits are at least a minor consolation for Astros fans. A very minor one.

Besides Maholm's first career complete game shutout, the Pirates offense consisted mostly of Jack Wilson's two doubles, Jason Bay's two hits to drive him in, and Ronny Paulino's first home run of the year. It's not much, but it was more than enough for Maholm tonight.