Peter Abraham thinks that this opens up a potential trade where the Yankees deal Farnsworth and bring Lieber back to NY. It seems to me like the Phillies aren't too worried about Myers being the closer.

There's only one person I know following the Yankees who's high on Jon Lieber in the Bronx right now. That would be a terrible trade.

re: gordon being hurt

(1) gordon gave philly a good 3/4 of a season last year. he was worth about 8-10 win shares last year and on his way to a 15 win share season when he first got hurt in august.

(2) brett myers while he's a good short term answer should be starting because every start he doesn't make goes to adam eaton, who rather than eaton does something else which also involves the mouth and suggests that he's less than good.

(3) kyle farnsworth would be a good closer, but let's ship them adam eaton, not jon lieber. after all eaton is closer to cory lidle overall.

(4) the cory lidle deal was still weird because the phils dealt lidle in part because they were worried about his flying so much. they actually anticipated a flying mishap. weird.

(5) myers is a lot like smoltz. he has a high strikeout rate and is a bear out on the mound. he can go two innings at a time. he will be a good closer.

(6) the main reason the phils can get away with this is cole hamels emergence as a dominant starter and jamie moyer's continued excellence as a starter. one would have preferred to have randy wolf instead of adam eaton in the rotation, however. lieber has also been good.

(7) alfonseca was a disaster last nite in SF allowing three runs all with two outs to let a 3-2 SF lead baloon into a 6-2 blowout. again key was walking bonds with two outs. i again don't like that strategy. why not pitch to him? what's the worst that happens, you go down a run? walking him primes the pump for a bigger inning.

--art kyriazis, phily

re: gordon being hurt

(1) gordon gave philly a good 3/4 of a season last year. he was worth about 8-10 win shares last year and on his way to a 15 win share season when he first got hurt in august.

(2) brett myers while he's a good short term answer should be starting because every start he doesn't make goes to adam eaton, who rather than eaton does something else which also involves the mouth and suggests that he's less than good.

(3) kyle farnsworth would be a good closer, but let's ship them adam eaton, not jon lieber. after all eaton is closer to cory lidle overall.

(4) the cory lidle deal was still weird because the phils dealt lidle in part because they were worried about his flying so much. they actually anticipated a flying mishap. weird.

(5) myers is a lot like smoltz. he has a high strikeout rate and is a bear out on the mound. he can go two innings at a time. he will be a good closer.

(6) the main reason the phils can get away with this is cole hamels emergence as a dominant starter and jamie moyer's continued excellence as a starter. one would have preferred to have randy wolf instead of adam eaton in the rotation, however. lieber has also been good.

(7) alfonseca was a disaster last nite in SF allowing three runs all with two outs to let a 3-2 SF lead baloon into a 6-2 blowout. again key was walking bonds with two outs. i again don't like that strategy. why not pitch to him? what's the worst that happens, you go down a run? walking him primes the pump for a bigger inning.

--art kyriazis, phily

re: gordon being hurt

(1) gordon gave philly a good 3/4 of a season last year. he was worth about 8-10 win shares last year and on his way to a 15 win share season when he first got hurt in august.

(2) brett myers while he's a good short term answer should be starting because every start he doesn't make goes to adam eaton, who rather than eaton does something else which also involves the mouth and suggests that he's less than good.

(3) kyle farnsworth would be a good closer, but let's ship them adam eaton, not jon lieber. after all eaton is closer to cory lidle overall.

(4) the cory lidle deal was still weird because the phils dealt lidle in part because they were worried about his flying so much. they actually anticipated a flying mishap. weird.

(5) myers is a lot like smoltz. he has a high strikeout rate and is a bear out on the mound. he can go two innings at a time. he will be a good closer.

(6) the main reason the phils can get away with this is cole hamels emergence as a dominant starter and jamie moyer's continued excellence as a starter. one would have preferred to have randy wolf instead of adam eaton in the rotation, however. lieber has also been good.

(7) alfonseca was a disaster last nite in SF allowing three runs all with two outs to let a 3-2 SF lead baloon into a 6-2 blowout. again key was walking bonds with two outs. i again don't like that strategy. why not pitch to him? what's the worst that happens, you go down a run? walking him primes the pump for a bigger inning.

--art kyriazis, phily