Before I begin, a lot of you may know that I'm from Philadelphia, and before I showed interest in any other teams, the Phillies were the first team I loved and supported, and I have a right to express opinion on how they make me want to punt things that breathe.
Yesterday presented a "blockbuster trade" to many baseball fans as the Phillies saw sophomore starter J.A. Happ and two prospects go to the Houston Astros for their "ace," Roy Oswalt. Question: Don't we already have enough Roys on one team? Just asking, you know. From the start, this left a really bitter taste in my mouth, because in all fairness, we had a young pitcher who was second in NL Rookie of the Year voting last year and showed a lot of potential despite a previous injury. But now, I'm going to go in-depth as to how much I currently hate the Phillies organization for poorly handling a lot of trade situations since the Cliff Lee trade.
Ever since we traded away Cliff Lee and huge pitching prospect Kyle Drabek to Seattle and Toronto respectively for Roy Halladay and some guy named Phillippe Aumont, whom I'll talk about later, things have just not been going the Phillies' way in the case of trades and sacrifices. Sure, it's never really supposed to be an ultimate win-win for a team that is at the top of the NL food chain, but certain circumstances can be avoided, right? Even though we had one year left with Mr. Lee as well as tight budget issues, other position players could have been put in his place in combination:
-- Ben Francisco & Jayson Werth <-- Phillies got Ben along with Cliff in the huge trade from last year, and Werth is still trying to get a contract extension that will guarantee him to wear a Phillies uniform for a longer time. -- Either one of the two mentioned above & Matt Stairs <-- Now we all know what Matt Stairs did to Jonathan Broxton in '08 and '09, and he would come in mighty handy as a DH on an AL team.
-- Jayson Werth & Kyle Kendrick <-- What I mentioned previously with Werth, along with an up-and-coming pitcher that's currently having a par season as a starter. (Note how I didn't mention prospect Domonic Brown in any of this. The front office would probably be stupid enough to throw him in one of these mixes) What did they end up doing? Cliffie and Drabek. WTF Ruben Amaro, Jr. You have a guy throwing a no-hitter in the minors, and another guy in the running for his second AL Cy Young award. Oh that's right, they were ours, and you gave them up. You know how the Yankees got their powerhouse teams over the years? They strategically traded guys that either did or didn't have the stuff to keep the team going, and although it required a lot of luck, it ended up working out somehow. With a rotation of Halladay, Lee, Hamels, Moyer, and Blanton, that could have been a stellar lineup. No, that got thrown out the window because you thought trading an ace for an ace would do absolutely no harm. Do you REMEMBER what this man did for you???
Let's fast forward to yesterd--no, how about this whole month. This is what you call tradin' season, and aside from what happened yesterday, Mr. Jayson "Edge" Werth hasn't been moved, and apparently you've been putting him on the market for guys. Did we forget about him or something? Yeah, I know Shane Victorino is on the DL, but isn't that why we called up Domonic Brown and have guys like Ben Francisco and Ross Gload on the bench? Ugh. Okay, fine, be that way. Not only that, I guarantee you that there are plenty of other pitchers that had a load of potential aside from Roy Oswalt. Cool, he's on the market and he's a big name. Does that mean he's going to suddenly turn into Superman and make us forget about what happened to Cliff Lee and Kyle Drabek? C'MON!! We Phillies fans aren't stupid, nor do we have short-term memory. A lot of us are still rather angry that Cliff has been with more teams that he should have been within the past year and we lost a pitching prospect that won't have fluctuating seasons like our last top pitching prospect that was Cole Hamels.
I also think you should be looking at long-term stats too.
Lifetime stats against the NL East for Roy Oswalt: (From Todd Zolecki's Twitter account)
"Roy Oswalt vs. Mets (5-5, 3.68 ERA), Marlins (5-4, 3.72 ERA), Nationals (3-2, 3.52 ERA) ... and Braves (0-3, 7.58 ERA in 7 starts)."
Other things that should be taken into account are the second half totals, age, and injury. Oswalt's like Brett Favre...he has three cortisone shots in his back, he's 32, and he's actually starting to decline a bit considering his later stats and what I posted above.
J.A. Happ on the other hand, is a younger guy (27), has a great looking record and ERA, and hasn't suffered a lot of injuries during his time in the majors. Look at the stats, and look at the potential. Did the Phillies win? Or did we lose...again?
Oh wait. I forgot that I was going to talk about Phillippe Aumont. I don't think I should right now. I'm too angry. In response, look at his stats and realize how much more I dislike the December trade.
Take a gander at it. Look at it hard.
In conclusion, the Phillies farm system and organization is imploding. I suppose that dynasty a la Atlanta Braves from the 1990's won't be happening in these parts, and we're going to have to put up with more disappointment. This organization makes me angry. They take a good thing, and they throw up on it. THIS IS WHY WE CAN'T HAVE NICE THINGS.
This man fails at deals.
--AZ
No comments:
Post a Comment