As the losing commences, let the fire sale begin.
The Phillies are in a logjam this season, to say the least. They own baseball’s third-highest payroll at $180 million, behind the Dodgers’ $235 million and the Yankees’ $203, and yet they’re on pace at the halfway mark for just 72 victories. The only reason they were even close to being a contender in the NL East in June was due to the pitiful nature of the division this year. Prior to sweeping Philadelphia in a four-game series from June 27th-29th, division-leading Atlanta had a win-loss record of only 40-38. Now Atlanta’s pulled away from the last-place Phillies, who are 38-51 and 11 games back of first-place Atlanta (49-40). The Phillies have now lost nine out of their last 11 games, dating back to June 27th.
Phillies’ GM Ruben Amaro, Jr. has run the team down the sewage pipe. Pat Gillick constructed a championship-caliber team a half-decade ago as Amaro’s predecessor, and yet Gillick’s successor — who took over for him in 2009 — tore the team’s inner talent apart. Amaro did this by keeping around over the hill players, players past their peak/prime, overpaying for talent, and much more; mainly the first part. Amaro’s line of thinking= I’ll keep around the lovable, talented five-years ago type of players, even if they’re 30+ and/or with serious physical ailments.
E.g. Ryan Howard, first off, by paying him $125 million over five years. Howard in his prime perhaps was worth that amount of cash, but not when he was on the downside of his career and over 30-years old, at 32, to boot. Yes, you can make the point that, for the most part, it all evens out, as Howard was only making $355k in ’06 when he hit 58 home runs and won league MVP, but he’s way overpaid now. Since that MVP season, Howard’s broken (later broken again by multiple players) the single-season record for strikeouts too at 199 in 2007.
In his career, per 162 games, he’s averaged 193 strikeouts. He’s also averaged 42 home runs and 131 RBIs/year as well. But regardless of Howard’s past accomplishments, facts are facts. The Phillies’ management, in order to have a lower payroll and acquire free-agency talent, should have taken advantage of Howard; sports are a business, for both sides.
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Tags: aj burnett, Baseball, Carlos Ruiz, Chase Utley, Cliff Lee, Cole Hamels, Domonic Brown, general manager, gm, grady sizemore, Jimmy Rollins, Jonathan Papelbon, ken giles, Kyle Lutz, MLB, Philadelphia Phillies, Phillies, Phillies decisions, phillies gm, ruben amaro jr, Ryan Howard, South Philly Sports, Talk Sports Philly, TalkSportsPhilly, TSP
Boonie was the Phillies full-time starting catcher from 1973-1981. He caught 1000+ games in 7 seasons.
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