J-Roll Says Potential Trade Deadline Blow Up Is a Reality While Ruben Downplays It

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Things have been quiet on the South Philadelphia front. The Phillies had a rare two off-day week and have mostly been kissing babies (and puppies) the past few days. But while the chatter on the wires has been minimal there was an interesting story from Todd Zolecki over at MLB.com where he caught up with and got some candid thoughts from the longest tenured Phillie.

It is a State of the Team conversation of sorts with Jimmy Rollins. The reality that the last remnants of the 2008 WFC team could be dismantled come July is discussed, the similarities to 2007 are noted, among other things. But at the end of the day, Jimmy basically says they've got to step up and deliver.

Rollins said the offense will need to step up and take over like '07, but is that even possible? Philadelphia's offense has been in decline the past few seasons.

"We're healthy enough to be that good," Rollins said. "We're starting to have more good days than bad days. And that's where it starts. Everybody likes to talk about little things, but what's small and what's little is actually big. Scoring runs, getting two-out hits, etc. -- those are things we're starting to do better, more efficiently. And over the course of the season, as the season gets even deeper, that's going to be even that much bigger. So just because the record is where it sits now, those things get overlooked. But when you look at baseball, those are things that start turning and going your way."

Rollins has never been one to sugar coat how things are going for the Fightins, so it's definitely worth checking out all of his quotes.

There is a very real possibility this team could be blown up come the end of July. But that's not something J-Roll is going to worry about now. And the Phillies GM is already downplaying it.

Ruben Amaro reacted to Jimmy's comments last night and said that blowing it up is not a likely solution.

"I don't think that blowing it up is going to be a solution for us because we expect to be contending pretty much every year," Amaro told Michael Barkann. "That's my job to make sure we're contending every year. There may be some difficult decisions we'll have to make but I don't think those are decisions we have to make in the next ten days."

"Hopefully we're adding at the deadline rather than subtracting. We're still in the mode that we're going to have to add some pieces. Maybe they're pieces that are internal from our minor league systems, maybe they're pieces from outside the organization. Right now I feel like we're in it and we're going to fight to be in it."

>>Rollins aware this could be last ride for Phillies [MLB]

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