aww… he misses u

I think he may just plug Dougie Glanville in right one of these days.

Am I loser for pointing out and knowing that the name of the Astros’ 2nd man in their 1-2 punch at starting pitcher is Wandy Rodriguez, not Wandy Gonzalez?

aw, victorino’s jacket.

He offered me 8.5 Million to close, I rejected the offer. Phillie or bust. Fuck Lehigh Valley(sorry) I’m a MLB LOOGY not a AAA LOOGster

Ed’s still trying to find Jose Mesa’s nursing home.

You know, in an odd way…I almost miss Ed Wade, considering that he runs Baseball teams like a tragic comedy. The only good thing I can say about Wade was the amount of INCREDIBLE players that we drafted during his tenure, but that probably had more to do with our scouts and Arbuckle.

@JFein – meech must have been confused since the Phils signed Denys Baez Gonzalez

Haha. I’ve been reading for awhile and I know meech’s awesome track record.

I think i’m calling ole buddy boy wade up and coming back to join the stros!

[Also another notable is their AAA manager, Marc Bombard. Bombard was the Phils 1st base coach in 2005, fired along with Wade and replaced by Lopes.

We have a manager.]

And one of the winningest, if not the winningest, managers in AAA history.

Go Red Barons.

With all the grief the Astros gave us last year, and because Karma tends to bite philly in the rear, I worry about the Astros being there at the end next year…and beating us.

Um the Lee deal wasn’t about money, it was about prospects. If they could have gotten a handful of decent prospects back for Blanton it would have been him gone instead of Lee.

I don’t really by that, though. If the trade was about prospects it was just an awfully engineered trade by Amaro. Zduriencik said that Amaro actually approached him and said “Look, if I’m able to do Halladay, would you be able to do Cliff Lee?” That immediately reduces the return you will get. If Amaro had just floated that Lee was on the block, teams would’ve been knocking down his door with better offers than Seattle for an ace under contract for $8 mil. In a vacuum, Aumont, Gillies, and Ramirez is a weak return for Lee. And they do not “restock the farm,” at least in the sense that none of them are as highly ranked as Drabek, Taylor, and D’Arnaud were.

It had to be a salary dump. And if it had to be done to make room for 4 or 5 years of Halladay, that’s fantastic, I’m fine with it. I just don’t buy that it was about prospects.

Yeah Phylan, it was most certainly a salary dump. This deal(s) went down rather swiftly with just the 3 teams (probably little secret whisper sessions at the winter meetings). If too many other teams caught wind there would be all sorts of offers put on the table that would convolute it and probably cause all of this to fall through. Ruben wasn’t out there shopping Lee to get the best prospects he could – he was looking for a taker for Lee so he could land his White Whale.

I still don’t believe that clearing 9 mil is a salary dump. Logistically, that just doesn’t make sense. You have to convince me that we can’t afford even 9 mil more. Further, that EXACT number? It isn’t 6 mil? It isn’t 3 mil? Ok, fine, keep pushing the notion that it is exactly 9 mil. You’re telling me there aren’t 20 ways to find 9 mil other than trading Lee? I would honestly 100% trade Howard before fucking Cliff Lee to save that money. If you tell me we go into this season with Halladay – Lee- Hamels – Blanton – Happ and no Howard, I tell you we are even money to win the WS, and Amaro knows it and so do all of you.

If it’s 9 mil this WHOLE thing hinges on, I dare you to not come up with some cost saving moves that don’t make this work. You trade Blanton, and offer to eat some salary. You don’t sign Polanco and you put a trashcan down there at 3B. You trade Rollins. You trade Werth. You do ANYTHING except trade Lee if it’s REALLY about 9 mil.

Eric: but Lee only had 1 year left on his contract, while Howard has multiple. Management may have looked at it as letting go somebody that they were likely to lose within a year anyway, but I dunno either to be honest.

When am I gonna get the call?

Thanks Heathcliff. That really puts things into perspective. I feel much better now.

And honestly, we were the fifth highest payroll in the league last year, and will probably be pushing third come opening day this year. $140ish million is nothing to sneeze at, so it’s not inconceivable that the owners game Amaro a hard threshold.

You may convince me that I’m wrong! Trust me it happens. I just think that if you’re right, and it was for prospects, that we didn’t adequately replace the prospects that went to TOR considering what we gave SEA.

I don’t mean to be too down on them though. I’m quite excited about Aumont and Gillies, particularly the former. Especially now that it’s come out that they’ll develop Aumont as a starter instead of a reliever. And Gillies could be a cheap Victorino replacement, a productive everyday CF with better defense and great plate discipline, if he hits his peak projection. They just aren’t Drabek/Taylor/D’Arnaud is all.

Btw….side tangent regarding prospects involved in trade’s for high profile players:

Maybe this was mentioned before but did anyone know that C.J. Henry, that worthless waste of shortstop talent we got from the Yanks in the Abreu deal, is playing on Kansas’ basketball team right now. His younger brother Xavier is an absolute stud and was recruited by Bill Self so he decided to go there too.

Is it infuriating to anyone else that the supposed best prospect in that deal is now coming off the bench for a college basketball team? Dammitall.

I believe the Lee deal HAD to be about money. Arent Werth and Victorino’s arbitration deals coming up at the end of this month? I’m sure they will be making more than $9 mil combined. Therefore they had to shed some money because, as someone said earlier, their $140Mil payroll is nothing to sneeze at, and they must have a limit of $140-$150 Mil. Boy, that’s a long ass sentence. I hope my structure was correct.

@Gonzo, Werth is already signed, he isn’t eligible for arbitration (I don’t see how they keep him past this year, though.) Victorino, Blanton & Durbin are the ones eligible for arbitration. Hopefully they’ll be able to get a deal with Shane before having to deal with a hearing.

” just think that if you’re right, and it was for prospects, that we didn’t adequately replace the prospects that went to TOR considering what we gave SEA. ”

@Phylan IMO, that’s how people are getting confused over this whole thing. It never was about replacing the guys they gave up for Halladay. It was about replacing they guys they gave up to get Lee. It was about restocking the farm system in some capacity.

There are a million reasons I hope the Phils win the WS this year, but one is because if they don’t, the whole Lee trade is going to be beaten to death for the rest of our lives, and I’m already sick of it just a month later.

Myers vows to “stick it” to the Phillies every time we meet. What a jackass.

Whatever happened to Brett’s “you have truly won my heart” act he pulled at the CBP ceremony on parade day? Now he wants to “stick it to us”? One word: Dick

I think that sticking it to the Phillies probably indicates issues with the organization and not the fans.

I saw people on the philly.com boards trashing Myers, and I have to admit, I’m sort of perplexed. I would have been disappointed in Myers if he had said anything else. “Well, you know, if we face the Phils, I’m going to go easy on them…”

Beyond that, he has every right to be a little peeved that the Phils didn’t show any interest in bringing him back. He was the best pitcher in the rotation for several years before Hamels’ emergence. In ’07, he learned how to close midseason and helped the Phils win their first NL East title since 1993. In ’08, he went back to the rotation, and when he struggled, he went down to minors, fixed his mechanics, and helped carry the team down the stretch. In ’09, he came into spring training in the best shape of his life and was a serviceable pitcher early in the year, when Hamels was hurt, and Blanton, Moyer, and Park were struggling. He did his best to come back from his injury quickly to help the team down the stretch from the ‘pen.

Despite his personal problems, Myers earned the right to get at least some consideration from his former club. Instead, Amaro came out right after the season ended and said that they were cutting ties with Myers. He didn’t even say, “Well, we don’t think that we have the ability to sign Myers at his asking price,” or, “We’ll see if we can get something done.”

At any rate, I think Myers is going to have a really good year for the ‘Stros. At that price tag, it might have been worth considering resigning him. The upside was that he could have been a solid #3 in the Phils’ rotation, or he could have helped in the ‘pen. The downside was that he could have been a #5 pitcher in the rotation. Either way, I think the Phils made a mistake in letting him get away.

Pedro Feliz was a Gillick signing. He never played in Philly while Ed Wade was GM.

Brian: Doesn’t really count, since it was loooooooooooooooooooooooooong before Ed Wade was the GM for Houston, although it was right around the time that Ed Wade became GM for the Phillies.

Hmm…I wonder?