Phillies: Moyer, Park signed; Utley speaks

After an unexciting off season and some questionable moves, the Phillies seem to have gotten the ball rolling. I'm giving Ruben Amaro a C+ so far for the off season and the grade will improve if a certain Derrick Lowe is wearing a Phillies uniform in the near future.

Enough with the intro, Jamie Moyer signed a 2 year extension with the Phillies today. This was an exceptional move by Amaro. As we all know, Moyer was a hometown hero, winning his first WS in his illustrious career with the Phillies. He was huge last year, especially since June. He was also the winning pitcher of the Division clinching game versus Washington.

Amaro admitted to being a bit concerned of Moyer's age and not wanting to go more than 1 year with his contract:

There's no question it's a concern," Amaro said of Moyer's age. "For us to go
two years guaranteed, I think shows our commitment to him, but he's probably
one of our best conditioned athletes that we have. His dedication to his craft
is as high as anybody's on our club. Jamie is going to do what he can to play
out this contract and be an effective pitcher for us. We have every reason to
believe with the way he works and the way he pitches that he can do just that,
play out his contract."

Again I feel this was an amazing move and needed to be done. With Moyer back, the rotation will look like this:
Hamels
Myers
Blanton
Moyer
Kendrick/Carrasco/Happ

Chan Ho Park also reached an agreement with Philly today to a 1 year, $2.5 million contract pending he passes a physical. As was reported in my other post, he would be a nice addition to the team if he would be placed in the bull pen. He would not be a set up man since we have Ryan Madson but he can go the long innings.

Also Chase Utley had some words on his recovery (found at the bottom of the Moyer article):

“Rehab is going well,” Utley said. “Things are progressing very well. I don’t
expect any setbacks. I feel like I’ll be ready to go, but it’s something I have
to be careful of. I want to make sure that we rehab this right. I don’t want to
have this problem again. But as of now it’s looking good.”

And on his infamous quote during the Phillies Parade (Philly.com):

"I'll tell all the kids not to use that word," Utley said. "But if they are 29
and they win the World Series, they could say that."