Brandon Phillips, Now Really "The Franchise", Signs Long-Term deal

[LoganBuck]

My guess is 3 years at 21 million plus 11 million club option for fourth year.

[rotnoid]

My guess is 3 years at 21 million plus 11 million club option for fourth year.

I could live with that. In 3 years, 11 million might look like an absolute steal.

[edabbs44]

Very nice move. Financials will be interesting.

[redsmetz]

I think with Dunn Krivsky is waiting to see if his knee is fully healthy before giving him a LTC. I see no problem with that. I made this prediction yesterday on here - By the end of March the Reds will announce they have signed Dunn long-term.

That may well be, but the truth also is that Phillips and Belisle were the more pressing matters. Once we picked up Dunn's option, we bought some time to hammer out a long term deal. Such a deal can always be subject to a physical. I think the Reds were just taking things in the order they were happening. I agree though that it won't surprise me if we have a deal with AD prior to the start of the season.

[bucksfan2]

Love this. I like how Krivsky has locked up rising players to long term deals before they were to hit arbitratoin. In the past it was status quo to sign your better players to long term deals after they hit their peak.

[lollipopcurve]

Good move. I like Phillips as a core player.

[Chip R]

I haven't seen this reported anywhere else. Is this another one of Hal's "scoops"?

[dfs]

I hope you all are right.
I'm not sold on Phillips the person or Phillips the ballplayer.

When you look at raw OPS+ Felipe Lopez (and even D'Angelo) were almost exactly what Phillips is. Now, Phillips plays better D and folks do seem to like him better than either of those two, but middle infielders who get rewarded with large contracts are much more likely to fall off the earth than they are to turn into Larkin or Morgan.

Again, I hope you all are right.

[*BaseClogger*]

I'm not going to judge this deal until I see the terms...

[TOBTTReds]

I hope you all are right.
I'm not sold on Phillips the person or Phillips the ballplayer.

Wow, tough crowd. I see him as the most genuine, fun guy on the team. I think most of Cincy does too. He's essentially the face of the team because of his smile.

[WMR]

I think it's coming ... at least I'm hoping.

What seems very obvious is Krivsky is trying to give the Reds a 2-4 year window from now through 2011 to make some noise and do some damage. They can control Harang/Arroyo through 2011, and they do control Cordero through 2011. I also think Encarnacion is under arbit control through 2011 too. I'm sure Phillips contract is - at minimum - three years with an option for a fourth year, which would allow the Reds to control him through 2011 too (Phillips' contract may even be longer).

All the young prospects ... Bruce, Cueto, Volquez, Bailey, and Votto are also under control through at least 2011, some (all?) even longer.

This tells us where the base is and how long it's locked up. The window basically starts now and possibly closes in 2011, with the two money years being 2009 and 2010.

Of course, it still all eventually rolls back to Dunn like you say. They're going to need his bat to make that window reality so they're going to have to figure something out to lock up him through at least 2011. Hopefully negotiations are already underway and the Reds are conveying to Dunn that the next three to four years look pretty good. If so, then I think the chances of a LTC with the Big Donkey are pretty good ...

At least I'm hoping.

I'm right there with ya, buddy.

Everything you lay out here seems very logical to me... not to mention that, hopefully, 4 years from now, the Reds will be on a much higher 'revenue stream path' to justify cherrypicking the remaining talent to possibly keep around even if they have become costly.

But for this whole plan to work, I see Dunn as an absolute necessity.

[Cyclone792]

I haven't seen this reported anywhere else. Is this another one of Hal's "scoops"?

Fay's on a plane right now heading to Sarasota and likely won't have any updates until this afternoon. I wouldn't know why some of the other writers/media personnel haven't chimed in with anything though.

[Joseph]

If true, thats wonderful news. Cost certainty always is big for star caliber players.

[GAC]

Where's the LTC for Dunn.

I think that will come at some point this season. Jr's money comes off the books after '08, with a 4 mil buyout.

[Cedric]

I hope you all are right.
I'm not sold on Phillips the person or Phillips the ballplayer.

When you look at raw OPS+ Felipe Lopez (and even D'Angelo) were almost exactly what Phillips is. Now, Phillips plays better D and folks do seem to like him better than either of those two, but middle infielders who get rewarded with large contracts are much more likely to fall off the earth than they are to turn into Larkin or Morgan.

Again, I hope you all are right.

D'Angelo/Lopez couldn't cover 1/4th the ground of Phillips and both had some of the worst attitudes possibly in baseball. I'll take my chances on a young man that wants to be here and has by all accounts a great work ethic.