Phillies Acquire Iguchi

Iguchi has been everything we could hope for with Philly. Did he ever play third base in Japan? He could get some playing time there when Utley returns.

Philly fans keep talking about this on their official message board. He used to be a shortstop, then he blew out his shoulder and converted to second. There is no way he could play any position other than second. There are times when he can barely throw it over as a second baseman on diving plays.

Iguchi will just be a rental and will become a free agent at the end of the year. Some team will pick him up to be their regular second baseman. He gets on base and advances runners way too much to not get any interest.

Yomiuri could use him back in Japan, but I doubt he'll want to go back to Japan after the season he had.

Utley played a lot of third in AAA and when he first came up with the Phils (they had Placido Polanco at 2B at the time). Utley's a team-first guy and probably would not protest if he was asked to go to 3B in order for Iguchi to keep getting at bats, would he? Third base certainly has been an albatross for the Phils.

- Utley played a lot of third in AAA and when he first came up with the Phils (they had Placido Polanco at 2B at the time).

Yes, Utley [Baseball Reference] in AAA, but didn't all too well at the hot corner, with a .919 fielding percentage. He played a little bit of first base when coming up to the majors.

- Utley's a team-first guy and probably would not protest if he was asked to go to 3B in order for Iguchi to keep getting at bats, would he?

Though I'm not too sure, the Phillies will move Utley over to the hot corner because of the wear and tear it would put on their star player.

As for Iguchi, the Phillies seem to be stuck for some reason playing Abraham Nunez and Wes Helms at third. If given the chance, Iguchi could defiantly out-hit them.

Though I think BigManZam got it correctly, Iguchi will be a rental. The Phillies only acquired him as insurance while Utley was down with his hand injury. Also one thing to remember is he will be a free agent this off-season, and they could offer him arbitration with the intent of hoping he declines it and goes elsewhere, giving the Phils a supplemental draft pick in return. Though, arbitration is also a double-edged sword in that Iguchi could accept it, too.

Well, even though Iguchi was limited to pinch-hitting after Utley returned, he still made a positive contribution to the Phillies' successful run to the NL East title. Now he'll be in the playoffs with Kaz Matsui and the Rocks in the other dugout. Nice double by Kaz to start the winning rally in the wild-card playoff game. Hope the Mets fans were watching.