Scoreless Tie


Sunday, August 03, 2014
More on the Phillies

It seems to me that Ruben Amaro, Jr.'s greatest failing in his non-waiver trade negotiations was not that he failed to make a trade, bu the way he explained his failure. Michael Bauman explains in Let Them Eat Money: MLB Salary Dumping, the Precursor to the Proletarian Revolution that MLB teams, and the Phillies in particular, can get by just fine without "shedding salary." With their new Comcast broadcast income, the Phils can afford to play Ryan Howard in a platoon or pay Marlon Byrd and A.J. Burnett. So when Amaro goes to trade these guys, he really is in a position of no trade is better than a bad trade. Instead of countering the rumors that he asked for 3 top prospects for Cole Hamels, he should have come back and quoted statistics rather than vague comments on the counter-offers. I also wonder what people would be saying if Amaro had traded away Byrd and gotten nothing back.

I was going to say more, but what's the point?




Saturday, August 02, 2014

It can be extremely amusing to read diametrically opposed articles on the same web site. Rantsports.com had an article on Thursday with David Goodman saying Ruben Amaro might lose his job for not making big non-waiver trades while Mike Gibson wrote on Friday that there was no way David Montgomery was going to dump Amaro. Hmmmm...

In Sadly, There’s No Way Philadelphia Phillies Owner/CEO David Montgomery Will Fire Ruben Amaro Jr. Gibson sites the close relationship between Montgomery and Amaro, the convoluted multiple owner situation with the Phils and Amaro and Montgomery's joint Penn Charter roots. Gibson rightly points out the futility of anguishing over what the Phillies SHOULD do, rather than analyzing what is probable or even possible.

In Philadelphia Phillies: Inactivity At Trade Deadline May Cost Ruben Amaro Jr. His Job Goodman looks to other sports writers to support his circular logic that Amaro will go. He completely ignores the fact that Amaro works for Montgomery and the Phillies, and no matter how much the fans and sportswriters complain about Amaro, David Montgomery's is the opinion that matters. I guess the internet has turned us all into delusional chuckleheads who figure if we write it down and it gets posted, it must be true. It's on the internet, right?