The One That Got Away

The one player I had really hoped the Phillies would make a play for this past off-season was Japanese heartthrob/third baseman Akinori Iwamura. For whatever reason, they did not put in a bid for him to purchase his rights, which ended up going to the Tampa Bay Devil Rays for $4.1 million and they signed him to a three year contract for $7.7 million. Instead, they signed Wes Helms to play third base, who was coming off a career year with the Marlins (albeit not actually playing third base), to a two year deal for $5.5 million.

To put it lightly, Wes Helms has not been very good so far. He has put up an OPS of .703 an been a butcher in the field, like most people expected him to be.

On the other hand, Iwamura has an OBP of .559 and an OPS of 1.151. Not too shabby. But hey, at least Wes Helms has round eyes.