JFLNYC wrote:It does make a difference, though. Once you've actually witnessed the Phils winning a WS, your perspective changes.

In any event, Amaro will be tested right away. It's not so easy to take over a champion because the only direction is down. He's got to deal with LF, find another reliever or two and possibly another starter. He's got to deal with the Howard and Hamels contracts, plus the fact that Myers is in the last year of his contract, too. It will be telling to see the extent to which (if at all) he challenges ownership to make the necessary investment to maintain excellence or if he just sucks up to them, tells them what they want to hear and settles for patchwork solutions.

Whatever your opinion of Gillick, he's left the next GM in a pretty decent position. He's got a couple of decent ML prospects and they just had a great draft. The Eaton and Jenkins deals suck for 2009, but he hasn't left any bad contracts beyond that. Amaro will have to be creative to deal with the payroll for 2009. But beyond that he's really got no excuses.

Biggest up-front challenge for Amaro and the owners is to keep Arby and the scouts happy and in place. I'd love to see something like a commitment to increased player development spending.

Howard/Hamels can wait. They will almost certainly both be arb cases. LF needs to be dealt with. Biggest contract issue is Myers -- do we want him after next season, and at what price. We also should get Moyer back. I don't see adding guys to the pen as a big need. We have Lidge, Madson, Romero which makes a darn good start to any pen. Durbin ok. Eyre fine for what he is. You have a a surplus of guys for long reliever, starting with Eaton, whom we need to find something to do with for another season and including Kendrick and Happ. Also, don't think we need another starter. We have Happ and Kendrick battling for the #5 spot, if we bring back Moyer, and Carrasco ready to move up by end of season. Hamels-Myers-Moyer-Blanton-Happ/Kendrick/perhaps even Eaton turns it around.

This is not to say we shouldn't be looking for some hidden gems during the off-season and Rule 5 to start or relieve next season, but we don't need a big name pitcher as FA or in trade.

This is awesome it's like a girl telling you she has herpes right when you're about to make cumsies.

I know Giles and Monty love Pat and I'm sure Ruben does to an extent, but now that we've pretty much confirmed the hiring of Amaro, there's no way Pat's coming back.

CFP wrote:I know Giles and Monty love Pat and I'm sure Ruben does to an extent, but now that we've pretty much confirmed the hiring of Amaro, there's no way Pat's coming back.

I have a feeling it's not going to be pretty. I suspect they'll either make him an insulting offer or not offer at all. Really unfortunate way to end PTB's tenure with the Phils.

CFP wrote:I know Giles and Monty love Pat and I'm sure Ruben does to an extent, but now that we've pretty much confirmed the hiring of Amaro, there's no way Pat's coming back.

What's the logic there? Why would Amaro be less likely than another GM to re-sign Burrell?

Houshphandzadeh wrote:

CFP wrote:I know Giles and Monty love Pat and I'm sure Ruben does to an extent, but now that we've pretty much confirmed the hiring of Amaro, there's no way Pat's coming back.

What's the logic there? Why would Amaro be less likely than another GM to re-sign Burrell?

Because, even though I didn't really see it, a few posters confirmed they saw on DNL about a month ago that they asked him and he basically wrote Burrell's ticket out of town with his response.

Winning a World Series will change things. I don't mean it means Burrell is guaranteed to stay or anything, I'm saying a lot of past harsh words or sentiments one way or the other will probably lose relevance when the parties are wearing rings they earned together.

they shouldn't tender burrell an offer.

they should be frank with him. tell him 'you owe it to yourself to explore your market in free agency, and when you find an offer you like, come back to us, and we'll discuss things further.'

VoxOrion wrote:Am I the only one who really doesn't care what the Phillies do next year as long as the win the World Series this year?

No, I'm at least somewhat in that boat.

Here's my thinking. This ownership group still basically stinks; I'm not calling the success of this year's team flukishly lucky, but it was the product of a very specific set of circumstances and not a little good fortune (luck in the Branch Rickey sense). They had a lot of high draft picks in the late '90s and early '00s, and a management team led by Wade and Arbuckle that made some high-risk, high-reward gambles that paid off--Hamels in particular, and arguably Ryan Howard, a 5th-round draft pick.

Then they made a bunch of mistakes around free agents... but the opening of the new stadium in the middle of the near-miss period insulated them from the full consequences of those failures. (Granted, they knew that revenue stream was coming online, which might have helped facilitate the stupidity of, say, the David Bell deal.)

They hired a manager for three probably dumb reasons: he was Jim Thome's mentor, he had a "player-friendly reputation" which was key after Bowa, and he was less ornery than Jim Leyland. And then he turned out to be, inexplicably, a terrific manager on balance.

Then they got a GM to replace Wade for, again, one somewhat dumb reason (among other better reasons): they trusted Gillick and were comfortable with him in a way they never could have been with a DePodesta type. And he turned out to be strong in all the areas Wade was weak: in-season moves, bullpen building, finding free talent.

Certainly it can be argued that I'm selling them short here--maybe they did know that Manuel had Cox/Torre style leadership talents, or that Gillick was exactly what they needed to finish the job of building a champion-quality team. And maybe Amaro had something to do with all the good that was done in this. We don't know, because his role in the public eye has been Baghdad Bob.

But my guess, slightly informed by off-the-record exchanges, is that he's going to prove to be a tool as we all think he is. And so long as they give me a champion this week, and he doesn't gut the improving farm system in a misguided effort to become the 2002-2007 Yankees, I don't feel entitled to object all that much.

Buzzkill!

to be expected, but i thought the recent presence of chuck lamar was a bit of foreshadowing

Can I has Gillick one moor seezon plz?

bump lol

i'm serious as a heart attack when i say i'd chop you all up into little pieces

The Curse of Rube begins

ReadingPhilly wrote:to be expected, but i thought the recent presence of chuck lamar was a bit of foreshadowing

I thought this too, especially with the recent national media attention he's been getting as the former architect of the Rays core and current major league scout of the Phils.

I blame it all on this thread

tagged for deletion plz