The Bumbling Phils....

You know the guy who does all those Verizon commercials and says “Can you hear me now? Good.” Do you think he is the illegitimate son of Henry, the telephone repairman from the sitcom Alice? And, if so, do you think there was nepotism involved in his getting this gig? These are the things I try to think about to avoid baseball…..

By the way, before we get started, you will not see mention in this space about any events that are currently happening with the Phillies that are exciting and intriguing for the fans. Superstition. Kind of like a dugout that won’t go near a pitcher when he is throwing a no hitter. So we can discuss such items if and when they end. So for now, we will have to stick with dissecting what happened in the past week in the front office….

The baseball trading deadline has come and gone. The good news about that is that football season is pretty much here, with the preseason starting this weekend and the regular season less than 6 weeks away! The bad news is that the Phillies gave up David Bell, Sal Fasano, Bobby Abreu, Rheal Cormier, and Cory Lidle, and got back 7 minor leaguers that either have close to zero potential as major leaguers, are many years away from sniffing the bigs, or both. Let’s take a closer look.

Bobby Abreu and Cory Lidle for C.J. Henry, Matt Smith, Jesus Sanchez, and Carlos Montaserios. This was the big deal, the deal that the entire city had been talking about since last off-season. Would the Phillies be able to trade Bobby Abreu, and how much could they get for him? The more I think about this trade from the Phillies standpoint, the more I think this was a terrible deal for them. Yes, the were hamstrung by the former General Manager Ed Wade, whose horrible contract decisions (huge dollars, no trade clause) made Abreu less valuable than he would have been otherwise. And yes, the Phillies were wise to trade Abreu because a) he was not cut out to lead a team as he needed to do here, b) was only the third best left handed bat on the team at this point behind Utley and Howard and c) was making too much money that needed to be cleared out to sign/obtain other pieces. But this guy is a very good, consistent player. You know he will hit .300, get on base over 42% of the time, has good speed, and despite a power outage in past year, will hit for his share of power. He will walk as much as anyone, and will make pitchers work to get him out. Cory Lidle eats up innings, has pitched very well in the past month or so, and had several teams interested in him. And what do they get back by packaging these two guys who could make the difference not only getting the Yankees into the playoffs, but possibly winning the whole enchilada? JUST ABOUT NOTHING. The jewel of the trade is supposedly Henry, who hit below .240 this year for a low class-A team. In addition, he had 25 errors already, and yes, it is only August 1st. So basically, he cannot hit in the low minors, and cannot field, and he is the jewel of the trade. The other three guys may as well have been from a beer league softball team, as they will no sooner help the Phillies compete than T.O. will have a quiet, controversy-free tenure in Dallas. The funniest thing about this trade is that the Yankees actually convinced the Phillies to pay the $1.5 million that Abreu demanded to waive his no trade clause. Absolutely brilliant trade by the Yankees. Absolutely horrible trade by the Phillies (this is why I was hoping Cashman would tire of George and take the Philbert’s GM job last season).

Sal Fasano for Hector Made. This deal was fine. There was no room for Fasano on the major league roster, as Lieberthal is still a better all around player, and they had to make room for Chris Coste to get some at bats. The only issue I have with this deal is that if the Yankees placed value on Fasano, why not hold him back for a day or two and include him in the Abreu talks to try to pry better prospects from the Yankees in that deal.

Rheal Cormier and David Bell for Justion Germano and Wilfredo Laureano. I know these were two separate trades, but they are not important enough to warrant separate analysis. Bottom line here is that the Phils dumped two guys with expiring contracts. Cormier was pitching as well as he ever had this season, and Bell over the past few weeks had put together his best numbers in his four brutal years with the Phils. In return they got a triple A guy who has shown enough that we can predict with some confidence he can compete in Triple A but will never be an effective pitcher in the bigs. In Laureano they get a kid who is taller and skinnier than my brother in law, which is not easy to do.

And as long as they were dumping contracts, couldn't they get anyone (Sox, Sox, Angels) to take Pat Burrell, who will hit for power and could help. And Jon Lieber. Nobody? Ugh.....

Overall, the Phils gave up five major leaguers, got back seven minor leaguers and saved some cash. Now if they were able to effectively parlay this cash into good value free agent signings, I could live with the lack of talent that they got in return. There are two problems with that expectation. First, attendance will plummet for this season and next (Pat Gillick was already nice enough to say the Phils will SUCK next year, and that Jolly Chollie very well may be his manager), meaning that the owners will put some of that savings into their pockets instead of reinvesting it into putting a winner on the field. Second, even if there intent was to spend, who in their right mind would possibly want to come here, where they have no commitment to winning, a bunch of players with bad attitudes (see Cory Lidle’s rant after he got traded, or Billy Wagner’s from earlier this year), lack of talent, and an idiotic manager. The only way to get any players is to OVERPAY and offer no traded clauses, kind of like they did with Bobby Abreu and Pat Burrell that got them into this mess in the first place. Circle of life. Circle of failure.

The only thing I have determined from this analysis is that my dislike of Scott Rolen is unfair. I am taking the Dils hex off of Rolen (I will leave it on J.D. Drew cause he is still an ass), because he was right to want to leave! How long until Mr. Utley and Mr. Howard and Mr. Hamels make similar demands. This team is a joke, and the botched yet another key time in their history. This is why a team wins one championship in 123, going on 124, seasons. As Jim More would say, “they suck, they can’t do diddly poo.”

The good news is……….E-A-G-L-E-S, EAGLES!!!!!! LET’S GO BIRDS!!!!